ABSA Cape Epic?

If you had told me 10 days ago that I would be sitting here writing a race report about the ABSA Cape Epic for myself, I probably wouldn’t have believed you. So here I sit laughing at myself and reflecting back on what has been one of the most testing weeks for me in a long time, both in body and spirit!

It all started on the Wednesday leading up to Epic while I was sitting at a sidewalk cafe in Stellenbosch having lunch with Erik and Ariane Kleinhans and Ollie Munnik after the Songo.info charity race, when my phone rings. On the other end was Rene Haselbacher, and asks me straight “would you like to ride the Cape Epic with me, answer me now, yes or no?”. Without giving it much thought, I blurted out and answer, yes!

3 Days later I find myself on the Cape Epic prologue start podium with my partner “Hasie”, about to tackle 8 days of racing, over 781km and over 16300m vertical ascent. For those of you who don’t know, Rene is a retired road professional who rode for team Gerolsteiner(1999-2006) Astana(2007-2008) and Vorarlberg -Corratec, and has no less than 5 grand tours under his belt, including 2 Tours de France! Quite a pedigree partner.

So instead of boring you with the details of each stage, i’m going to run you through some of the high and low points that we braved as a team over the next 8 days.

High point #1 – Prologue, Meerendal wine Estate

The prologue is not a real stage, but rather a short, hard and technical course designed to seed the riders and entertain spectators over 27km. Starting out with Rene we had no idea of what to expect. With me on top form , and Hasie having only trained for 3 weeks, we had to figure out what our best tempo would be, but once that was done we flew around the local wine farms finishing the course in a decent 31st place. It was spectacular to take part in such a big event in front of a home crowd and the spectators were so enthusiastic, especially up the hill top finish climb. Almost like the Alp d Huez of mountain biking!

High point #2 -Stage 3, Robertson to Caledon

With a stage 3 being the longest day mileage wise, and 143km to cover, we were going to be in for a loooong day! The stage started with a 18km stretch on tar and good condition gravel roads. Hasie didn’t let this opportunity slip, and soon after the 6km neutral zone, he put his road racing skills to good use and we launched our attack on the bunch. We worked well together, being sure not to go too deep, and over the next hour we were able to open up a 2-3min gap on the leading bunch before we hit the first big climb of the day.

Breakaway attempt

The aim of the attack was not to win the stage, but rather to get us to the foot of the first big climb without having to fight for position, as well as gain a little TV coverage, which never hurts! As soon as we hit the climb we settled into a steady rhythm and soon enough the front runners were with us, and then left us. I was a long day, with 2 more big climbs that saw us do a total of 2800m ascent. 6 hours 35mins later we crossed the line, quite happy with our little move, but also dog tired and ready to eat and put the feet up.

Low point – Stage 5, Caledon to Oak Valley

Having completed the previous day, stage 4, which saw us ride in a gusting North wind and spending much energy. The wind blew in some serious rain clouds. I awoke that morning to the sound of pouring rain on my tent, and as we stat there at breakfast in the marquee, you could see the rain blowing horizontally across entrance door. People did not look happy, including me! The cold I had been nursing the last few days had become worse, and this was not the weather to go riding with a cold in!

To my amazement the stage wasn’t cancelled, shortened or neutralised, and we set off in the pouring rain to cover a distance of 118km towards Oak Valley. I was not impressed. Surprisingly things went OK for a while, while a few teams all worked together to make things easier. It was obvious that our equipment was taking a beating with the amount of mud and sand lying about, and some of the roads that had turned into rivers. We got on fine for the first 3 hours, and went through a bad patch before picking it up again toward the end. The last hour of the race though was probably the coldest of my life. Once again the heavens opened up, and having ditched my rain coat earlier, every single part of me got drenched. I found myself riding as hard as I could just to keep warm, and was praying for no mechanicals as standing still would have meant hypothermia, especially with me not having much body mass. The last 5km everything had turned into a river and I was frantic to get to the finish. As I crossed the finish line I dropped my bike and went straight to the shower. I was so cold that I almost blacked out! Apparently that day there were about 20 cases of hypothermia, and a big number of drop outs. Not an experience I would like to repeat again.

High Point # 3 – Stage 7 Oak Valley to Lourensford

The last stage at the epic is traditionally a short one of around 65km. It was such a relief to be riding on terrain which I deem “mountain biking” , as opposed to some of the terrain the Dr Evil (Leon Evans, route designer) had made us endure over some of the days. The bad weather had cleared up and we had blue skies and beautiful trails to ride on towards Lourensford. The feeling and emotion of riding down that finishing straight is something that is hard to rival. Hasie and I crossed the line in 22nd position after 8 days of racing, 40 seconds ahead of RSA Web team mates Nic la Mond and Carl Pasio!

Reflecting back on this week I feel really blessed for the experiences that I have had, people I have met, lessons learnt, and also that I have come out of this race completely injury free, not even a scratch. Thanks to the big guy up stairs for having my back!

I was also impressed to note that we came out the the other end puncture free, and only having 2 minor chain mechanicals. Thanks to Geax for my awesome tyres!

Next up is the 2nd round of the SA XC series in Pretoria on the 14th April.

Until then,

Chat soon.