Epic Afan’s Matt Jones - Interview

Epic Afan was an idea bred out of frustration with cold, dark weather and a lack of challenges to keep the legs spinning through the winter. Matt Jones, Scott Cornish and Ant White asked themselves "Can we ride every trail at Afan, back to back, in 10 hours?" and the answer was, it turns out, yes they could.

Matt Jones tells us all about it.

So Matt, how did you come up with the idea for Epic Afan?
After a hard racing season I was struggling to find the motivation to drop the end-of-season pints and pies diet and crack on with winter training. I wanted to set up something that would be a big challenge and that I would be forced to curb the off-season blowout a bit sooner than normal!

Afan is a brilliant venue with loads of singletrack and a real physical challenge. I just thought why not stick them all together to make a really epic but weatherproof all day event?

Can you tell us about the route and how you planned it?

The route pretty much planned itself! It made sense to get the most exposed section out of the way first, so Skyline Trail came early on. Blade would obviously then be done at the same time. Using W2 as the link between the two trail hubs made sense and doing the easy miles at the end of the day was used as a warm down after the battering the trails would give us. We even took in all the family trails which were a welcome break from the rough stuff.

Who were the other riders?

I tend to do quite a lot of riding alone in winter so I was keen to recruit a couple of buddies for this one. Scott Cornish is a seasoned stage racer and I knew he would have the endurance for the challenge. Ant White is someone who I've met through racing and is a great 24hour racer and a bloody nice bloke! He was someone I thought could help keep the pace high so we could get round in a respectable time.

So how was it starting off? How did you guys feel setting off and then chipping off the first trail?

I think you always feel a little nervous at the start of any challenge but I had done a recce in previous weeks so this gave me confidence. We started a bit later than planned with the expected faffathon and the first climb was really tough which we did twice so it was important we didn't go to hard early on. The weather was fantastic which really helped but at the start at end of the day it got pretty cold. At that time of year you don't want to get too sweaty as this can really make you cold later in the day.

When did it start to get really tough? Was there a point when you weren't sure it was going to happen?

After about 15minutes of the first climb Ant had a mechanical and Scott managed to have a crash! Scott thought he had broken a rib and at that point I thought we'd have to change our plans. But, he's a physio and seems to know best so we cracked on! Funnily enough I actually found some of the easier routes the hardest as they were mid route. When we went up the Blue Scar trail climb the second time Ant and Scott were pulling away up the fireroad so I was getting a bit more tired at that point trying to keep up.

How do you pace yourself on a ride like that? Do you get a chance to enjoy the trails and just ride?

We wanted to get round in a respectable time so that others could have a hard time to try and beat us. With the early mechanicals and crashes we ended up spending a fair bit of time stopped so we weren't going at race pace by any means. As the day unfolded the weather was fantastic so we stopped a fair bit to take in the views and generally have a natter. This made the day go really quick but meant our average speed was lower than expected. Fortunately the route that I had plotted came out a few miles shorter for some reason so we ended up finishing (riding time wise) ahead of schedule.

In any race or event not matter what the trails I always try and see the positive side so it didn't really matter than we were going round a bit slower than planned. If you don't enjoy it, what's the point? I knew quite a few of the trails already so was looking forward to going back and clearing doubles and drops that I had skirted round as a newbie on previous rides. That kept things interesting!

How did you feel as you hit sundown and the light went? Did that make a difference?

We're all experienced endurance racers so riding in the dark wasn't too much of a concern. The navigation is the thing that can go wrong when you lose the light and you get tired. Afan is really well signed though so it was pretty easy despite a couple of minor errors and a slightly re-order to do the rookie trails sooner.

To be honest, I really enjoyed the riding when the light when down. We were on White's Level as we lost light which is a super fun trail. We got support from Exposure Lights we could run the lights on 'high' as we didn't have too long to ride in the darkness. It was fun, even though we were getting pretty tired.

And how did you feel when you finished? Must have been good, right?

We finished on one of the family trails which was a nice warm down to finish on. Although we've all done harder and longer challenges this one was nice as it was very different to anything we'd done before. We were already chatting about how we could try the same thing elsewhere as we rode the final trail!

So ... there's a plan to make this a challenge for other riders, right?

Yeah - hopefully others will have a crack at Epic Afan and see if they can beat our time and enjoy the trails. We Strava'd the loop and set up a segment called 'Epic Afan' so other people can have a go and show off their times.

Last but not least, any thanks?

I'd like to thank all those that have supported the event. Mulebar for yummy treats throughout the day, Exposure Lights for lighting the way and Weldtite for keeping things smooth in the winter.

Photos by Wayne Carter @ www.wayne-dc.com