At the end of last season, I signed up for a race. The event took place at my local bike park and was an attempt to incorporate several cycling disciplines into one race. It started with a long descent down one of the park’s black diamond trails followed by a few wooden features. The features landed racers on a gravel road where we sprinted to get back to the singletrack, with a final climb of a few hundred feet to the finish.  

Now, for a select few, this was a competitive race. For the rest of us, we just wanted to have fun on our bikes and collect the “free beer” token when we turned our timer back in. It was my first race, and while I didn’t “train,” I figured my average five rides per week was good enough. While I knew I was in the “rest of us” category, I didn’t anticipate how absolutely gassed I’d be after the race. I canceled my usual Sunday morning ride the next day due to my body feeling like jello.

Matthew Fairbrother

The memory of my first race popped into my head when I heard about Matthew Fairbrother, an 18-year-old New Zealander, who is bikepacking between stops on the UCI Enduro World Cup. And this isn’t the first time he’s done it. Last season Fairbrother qualified for the event, then called the Enduro World Series, and bikepacked between stops. 

What drives this young man to ride his bike hundreds, sometimes over a thousand kilometers, in between perhaps the most physically demanding races we could imagine? I sat down with Fairbrother, with only screens and a few continents between us, and asked him about his journey.

How it started

Like many of us, Fairbrother fell into mountain biking when he followed after his brother, who had started racing XC in high school. Mountain biking turned into a family sport of sorts, and Fairbrother found himself branching out and getting into more gravity-oriented riding. Within a few years, he entered his first downhill race, while still racing XC. 

Enduro seemed like a natural discipline for Fairbrother, considering his racing background.

“Over the years, I was racing XC and downhill at the same time. I wasn’t the best at either, but somewhere in the middle,” Fairbrother told me. This transition to enduro had Fairbrother finding the podium at UCI Enduro qualifying races in U21, the under-21 category. These results qualified him to race for the Enduro World Cup. 

With last year, at age 17, being his first qualifying year, he felt like having the opportunity to race around the world on what was then called the Enduro World Series was something he couldn’t pass up. With it being the logical next step in his career, Fairbrother boarded a plane for the first leg.

“It was my first time out of New Zealand, I knew no one overseas, and was too young to have a license,” he said. “I was hoping to find someone to take me to the next leg…well, to all of them. I had no plan, but was naive and confident.” Fairbrother found himself in Scotland with no connections and no vehicle. About 2000km were between him and the next leg of the race. Heading home wasn’t an option, so Fairbrother got his bikepacking bags, loaded his gear, and set off.

“It wasn’t the plan, but I’m quite a stubborn person, so I was just going to make it happen, no matter what.” It is that same mentality that Fairbrother brings into this year’s UCI EDR World Cup. He has recognized that this is an opportunity he may not get again, and his passion for racing drives him from race to race, even if it means pedaling there.

Training

With riding his bike drastic distances in between some of the most physically demanding races in the world, it probably isn’t a stretch to say that Fairbrother has incredible endurance. I initially thought Fairbrother took advantage of pedaling between races, considering the journey “training.” I couldn’t be further from the truth.

“I think it only hinders performance,” he said. “It’s a good way of building fatigue in the system.” Fairbrother explained that he often begins his journey to the next leg the night the race is over. While bikepacking in between races, Fairbrother can put in anywhere from 8 to 20 hour days. 

Fairbrother saw the effects of this in last year’s results. “The first event was good but then I’d go downhill after that. In the last one, I’d do quite poorly.” The fatigue seemed to affect him most mentally, with quick in-race decisions being more difficult. Sometimes this led to him crashing.

For Fairbrother, training and race preparation are completely dependent on how long he has between races. Obviously, he wants to arrive at the next race as soon as possible to give his body time to recover. 

“There are two things I focus on. Number one is making sure I match the amount of carbs I am burning. Just making sure I’m not under-fueling, because that hinders me the most,” he said. “Number two is making sure nothing is on my nerves, annoying me.” With the incredible distance he has already traveled, Fairbrother expressed the need to ensure his head was in the right space and ready to compete.

Getting Results

Despite riding in between race days being an absolute way to end up gassed, Fairbrother is putting up good numbers.

“Last year, overall I finished 13th. Within that, I think I had one 11th place and two 10th places.” 

Check the results for yourself. Fairbrother finished 13th out of 84 riders in the U21 category. That’s pretty incredible. Fairbrother raced against the top racers in the world under the age of 21 and placed 13th. He did this while logging thousands of kilometers as he pedaled in between races. 

Fairbrother has had a few hiccups at the beginning of his 2023 World Cup race Season. In Maydena, major mechanicals during the race had him bikebacking to the next leg sitting in 29th. The issues seemed to follow him when he got to Derby. Another major mechanical during practice left him racing on stages he hadn’t yet seen. Despite riding blind, Fairbrother left Derby in 16th.

The rig

Deviate, World Wide Cylcery, Fox, and many others are backing Fairbrother this race season. Fairbrother has found himself on a Deviate Claymore, an enduro race bike the World Wide guys, and Fairbrother rave about.

“It’s a high-pivot bike with an idler, which isn’t the conventional bikepacking bike, I guess you could say. But I’ve got a solid system.” Fairbrother says the pedaling disadvantages are made up for on the descent.

He runs the coil Fox DHX2 in the rear and a Fox 38 fork, Shimano XT brakes and 12-speed drivetrain. Race Face wheels, and Maxxis tires complete the build. Aside from attaching proper frame storage bags, not much changes from Fairbrother’s race Claymore to his bikepacking Claymore.

And, as far as planning goes, I imagined Fairbrother mapped his route between races out weeks ahead of time. Once again, I found out my assumptions to be wrong. “There’s actually almost no planning that goes into it,” he said. “I’m living simple, man.”

He uses Komoot to plan his riding, always opting to ride on dirt rather than pavement. “I took the total distance and divided it by the days I had. In terms of camping, I worked that out as I go. Sometimes I just sleep in the bush.”

Follow Along

Fairbrother is not only creating race content, he has a YouTube channel that also documents his journey from one leg of the UCI Enduro World Cup to the next. The first two videos for this season, Maydena and Derby, are up on his channel. Help him out by subscribing and following along.
You can also check out Fairbrother’s Instagram, where you can get a better look at his Deviate Claymore, how he sets it up for races, bikepacking, and more.