Bikepacking the EWS? Why not! We talk to Matthew on his 2022 adventure!

If you were following any news on the EWS race series of 2022, it would have been impossible to not hear about a young Kiwi kid bikepacking to all the rounds. 

Now if you’ve ever raced an enduro race, you know that even if you try to take it easy and do it ‘just for fun’, that by the end of the weekend you’re pretty fried. Now multiply that by 5 as we’re talking about the EWS and add in limited sleep and 200km days in the saddle as a ‘recovery ride’ and you have the 2022 race season of Matthew Fairbrother in a nutshell.

We tracked him down with some questions and you can see the result of the interview below! 

Matt! As far as riders goes, I think you had the most eventful 2022 of all of them. How many km did you put on the clock eventually? 

Yeah 2022 was a blast! I did about 3500 km of riding between races. 

So, let’s wind the clock back a bit. When did you actually start riding bikes and how did you get into riding in the first place?

I started riding when I was 11, my brother had just joined the MTB club at his high school - My dad started joining him for rides and I followed them along. My competitive nature wouldn't let them be better than me so I was continuously trying to improve over those years.

At what point did you start competing and in which disciplines?

I think I did my first race when I was 12, It was a night XC race. For the following couple of years after that I was racing local XC races. After that I was racing XC, Enduro and DH. The past two years my focus has been on Enduro with the occasional DH race and suffer-fest ride thrown in every now and then for good measure. 

And I heard you didn’t even plan to ride from EWS to EWS at first, but you planned on bumming a ride with some other racers is that right? 

Correct, I'm just a young kid out of New Zealand. Living on the other side of the world, I knew no one at all. I'm not old enough to have a driver's licence in Europe/UK even if I did there would have been no way for me to afford a vehicle.

I was relying on finding a lift with someone from the UK to the European races, unfortunately after many messages the week prior to the first EWS in the Tweed Valley (Scotland) I accepted that I couldn’t get a ride from anyone and I'd have to work out my own way. In my head the thing that made the most sense was just to ride there, I've got a bike so why don't I just pedal it there?

Were your parents ok with you pedalling the whole way to the events?

It took some convincing but I think they somewhat understood my intentions and my reasoning behind it. I'm also as stubborn as anything so I think they knew best to offer me constructive feedback rather than shutting it down as I'd be riding either way.

It must have been tough to get the funds sorted. What did you do to get your budget together?

Straight after school finished in November I went into working as a bike mechanic at the local bike-park and a large chain store. Most weeks I was doing at least 60 hours. This ruined me, I was tired and had almost zero time for riding my bike, training or studying but it had to be done.

What about the school side of things? 

Immediately after the school year finished in 2021 I signed myself up to a New Zealand Government run online school so I could get a headstart on the following year's studies. I managed to get a third of the year's work finished before heading overseas but my lifestyle overseas unfortunately wasn't suited very well to studying so I abandoned that mid-way through the year.

Before heading out, did you plan anything at all? Did you look up the distances between races and book some accommodation for the round in Scotland?

I'd booked accommodation for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd rounds with some other racers I knew from New Zealand. I hadn't looked up any distances or anything, and riding to the events hadn't been a thought yet!

So you got your bags packed, hopped in the plane and off you went. First time out of NZ in your lifetime. I can imagine you were pretty stoked. Can you tell us about that moment?

A whole mix of emotions - excited but also very scared. Although it definitely doesn't seem like it, I like to be a very organised person with detailed plans. I like to know the exact layout of what I'll be doing. Heading over to a country I knew almost nothing about and with very close to no plans I didn't know what. I often get stressed in unknown or planned situations, especially in non-english speaking countries. I think this year was a great learning experience though. 

Then you are in Scotland, first race how did it go?

Bit of a mixed bag as most races go. I had a good first few stages and was sitting within the top 10 U21, on the second to last stage I crashed and got pushed back to 10th. Then on the last stage I was pushing hard and snapped my derailleur off near the top. I finished the run chainless and landed myself in 11th. I was bummed to have been pushed out of the top 10 but stoked to see I could actually be competitive internationally.

At what point you realised that getting a ride to Slovenia might be a challenge and when did you decide to just pedal it?

I realised the week prior to the race that I need to have a back up plan, just in case I couldn't catch a ride with anyone. I ordered bikepacking bags and everything I thought I'd need. I decided to pedal it on the Saturday of the race weekend, and then left Sunday immediately after the race.

The first ‘commute’ to Slovenia was a big one straight out of the box. How were those first days in the saddle, did you manage to enjoy it a bit?

The first few days were tough, coming straight out of a race the legs were empty. I pedalled 80km straight after the EWS and called it a day at 2am, without realising it I had stopped to sleep next to a lake. After a 4 hour sleep I woke up covered in midge bites and then rode another 80km to the NewCastle ferry. 

The following days my legs started to come alive more, I was clocking 200-300 km most days, the experience of it all unfortunately started to vanish as I was zoned out and suffering for most of it. I do have a selection of photos and videos though that were nice to look at once I was in a better state.

Did you do any huge days like these before heading out to Europe?

Once a year I like to do a challenge to see what I'm capable of. I've done 3 everestings and 1 10000 metre vertical ride - All on a mountain bike.

Once in Slovenia, I believe a fair amount of riders were surprised you actually made the effort. How was the reaction of the pro field?

I think they were all amazed I actually made it. The reality of it all soaked in when I won the Wyn Masters Privateer of the week award. Soon after I left the venue, on-route to the next race, I rode through the pits and all the pro riders were clapping and cheering for me on my way out.

Of course word got round and you started to get more support from people. What are some of the coolest things that you got sorted out with?

Deviate Cycles set me up a Go-Fund me page and paid for my flights for the North America rounds. The Go-Fund me raised me enough to be able to afford better food and accommodation and to participate in all the following rounds.

Something I'm also incredibly appreciative of is all the people that reached out to me and offered me food and a place to sleep. I only managed to take a couple people up on this offer due to logistical issues but the amount of people that genuinely wanted to help was mind blowing.

So at one point you get sorted out with the support for also doing the North American legs of the tour. Weren’t you looking forward to a bit of a break by that time?

Yea, for sure! But at the same time this trip was all about learning and the experience. There was no way I'd be able to turn this down and before I knew it I was at Whistler lapping the park all day!

The USA and Canada are quite different from Europe. More crime, less cycle paths and wild animals too. I’m sure you had some cool encounters you can share. 

Probably my favourite story was from the commute between Burke and Sugarloaf. I accidentally biked through freshly painted road markings and shortly after passed the road workers who had just painted those lines. My tires were laying fresh paint on the road every rotation and one of the road workers saw and wasn't happy. He started yelling at me and I boosted off trying to avoid confrontation, he jumped in his truck and followed me down the road, eventually pushing me off the road. I then decided to straight line it through a marsh and join up with the road later on to avoid the worker, I ran into a very unhappy Canadian goose which began attacking me.

On the logistics side, how did you manage to eat, drink, find your way and charge all your lights and devices?

I was very worried about my bike getting stolen, especially since I had all my belongings on it. I opted to only stop at small villages or isolated gas stations. My diet mainly consisted of lollies and the occasional pastry if I got lucky. For my lights and devices, I bought a few power banks before leaving the UK, I'd charge these up before leaving the venue and they'd last me up to a week.

So, let’s move to the racing side of things. You had some really solid results throughout the season, ending up with a lucky 13th overall in the Under21’s. How happy were you with your first season of racing abroad? 

Yea I'm super happy about that. I had no expectation of where I'd end up and finishing up that well is honestly a surprise! I think it's a great starting point to build upon over the next couple of years.

On what aspects besides being well rested before a race do you think you can still improve and up the ante in races and stages?

I think nutrition is a big one here although in my position I think I have very limited options. It's something I'll be putting more thought into this season. I think everything else comes down to general training and doing my best to limit fatigue.

What type of race track do you like best and which was your favourite event to race?

Something technical and fast - but not bikepark. I think last year I enjoyed Sugarloaf the most.

So for next year, are you planning to bikepack the whole EWS again? Are you setting up your own sub category of EWS? 

I'll be doing it all again! I believe there are a few other people planning on doing it too! Hopefully we can create a peloton riding between all of the races.

For our readers, do you have any tips for bikepacking for anyone that has never tried it?

Know your abilities and limits and keep it simple, there's no need to make it complex - just go with the flow., but whatever you do just go. 

So, to finish things up, what are the plans for next season so far?

I'll be taking on the full EWS calendar this season and bikepacking to all the races. I've also got a couple of side challenges lined up, the Hightrail 550 in Scotland being the first. You’ll hear more about that in the near future.

That sounds awesome, I’m sure there will be plenty of adventures on that trip. So who is supporting you for the ride?

This season Deviate Cycles, Trail One Components, Worldwide Cyclery, POC, Ergon, Granite Designs, Tailfin, Motorex, Fox, Shimano, RaceFace, Crankbrothers, Mons Royale are backing me!

And that finished up the chat with Mattew. If you want to follow his journey make sure to follow him on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/matthewfmtb/ The last thing we saw him post up there was his race at the NZ Nationals. After winning U21’s on day one, he ‘didn’t manage to keep the horse up straight’ on day two, leaving him with his first ever DNF

Don’t worry though, the next day he was already spotted pedalling 100 km from Hobart Airport to the Maydena Bike Park in Tasmania with his foot in a cast on his fully loaded bike. What a beast!

 

By IMB

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