Epic Cymru 2015
With the absence of Trans Wales there has been a gap in the UK MTB scene, with so much to offer throughout the UK let alone just in Wales, we needed something to fill this void. Wales is fast growing as one of the hot places to ride your mountain bike and a return of a stage race is great news. The last link in this chain was who was going to grab the batten and take charge of this massive undertaking, Matt Page from A Cycling of course!
When I first heard Matt was going to organise this and he wanted me to be the official photographer, I was a tad excited to say the least. Not only because I love mountain biking but because it was going to be a bit of an honour to cover this awesome event. As the names rolled in from all over the world and the likes of Mark Weir and Jason Moeschler of WTB put their names down it was obvious there was going to be some class racing over the five days.
With five days of racing in Margam park, Afan, BikePark Wales, Mountain Ash and Dare Valley, it was going to give everyone a great taste of what South Wales has to offer. For the first four days the weather was amazingly kind and the rumours that Wales always rains was put aside as everyone put on their shorts and sipped on beers donated kindly by WTB in the evenings. The atmosphere kept growing all week as stories were told, tales from each day were passed on and friendships were made. Evening entertainment brought everyone together and laughs were had in the bucket load. Even though on the last day the heavens opened and water ran down the trails like an Olympic kayak course. All the riders were still smiling and the racing didn’t stop, with some top positions being battled out until the very end.
I am now sat in my house looking back at the photos watching the chat on Twitter and already looking forward to next year.
Epic Cymru, I salute you and lets hope that this new stage race grows from strength to strength bringing in more people from around the world to see what we have to offer.
Below are links to each days rider galleries. Photos are super low resolution and mostly unedited. I will edit the photos as they are sold and email out in high res’ without my watermark as soon as I can after purchase. For commercial use, please contact me via my contact page.
For an idea of what the edited image will be like please browse through the slideshow above.
