That evening I began the task of trying to procure a new rear wheel without getting ripped off. Alby is a guy who rarely complains about anything, but even he was unimpressed. Alby could have stayed with them, but I had to put my foot down and get sensible about our pacing in a race that had six days left. Cape Epic. This made the stage particularly hard. Once again, another five minutes lost, and we were now deep in the middle of the field. After racing our guts out for three hours, I noticed that I had a slow leak in my front tyre. The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) has alerted the Absa Cape Epic to an adverse analytical finding from a sample provided by rider Yolande De Villiers during the 2015 event. We weren’t complaining, although after an Australian summer full of long intentional training rides in 38C, we had half-hoped to have a weather advantage over our northern hemisphere rivals. I hopped a seemingly harmless curb and must have misjudged my rear wheel landing when I heard a loud CRACK and my tyre went flat in an instant. Well, at least my bike was clean…. Tel: +27.21.4264373 What also threw our egos back into place was the rocky descents that hammered the bikes. But then this magical text message came through: Nino Schurter / Lars Forster (UCI Men): 4:24, Annika Langvad / Anna van der Breggen (Women): 5:09, Sebastian Stark / Lara Stark (Mixed): 5:21, Joaquim Rodriguez / Jose Hermida (Masters): 4:45, Bart Brentjens / Abraao Azevedo (Grand Masters): 5:09. That would have erased all those low moments in an instant. Select from premium Cape Epic of the highest quality. After learning our lesson on the previous days, we both had ridden well within ourselves and saved something for the end. It had everything – incredible trails, stunning landscapes, welcoming community, great food, entertainment after the races, and so much more. The gravel rash was one thing, but the contusion on my hip immediately swelled up through my lycra, just like you see on cartoons. If you think road wheel standards are getting out of control, do a little research on the wonky state of mountain bike wheels. Subsequently, I ended up seeing lots of JP after every stage to get my bike back in tip top condition. This piece is brought to you in partnership with Zwift. : Start thinking about pumping up tyres, lubing chain, pinning on race numbers, and everything I should have done the night before but was too buggered to do. However, life experience has taught me that an adventure like this is about savouring the journey, not the finish line. 5:01am: Get into the toilet before anyone else. The Absa Cape Epic is going to throw the greatest mountain biking challenge you have yet faced at you, day-in, day-out for eight days. Typically Alby’s back problems meant that he had to warm into things, and this caught me off-guard. The third crash, however, felt like it could have ended my race. Well, most of the efforts required at a race like Cape Epic are long-duration threshold efforts, and both Alby and I are headed into, The job of a coach is not to motivate you, but to hold you back, The deal I always make for myself with these events is that I will not sacrifice my family or my job. And did I bring a spare wheelset? The Untamed African MTB Race, 15 - 22 March 2020. What other event does that happen in?! : Head back to motorhome, look at the dishevelled state of our bikes and think about tuning them up, sometimes take the bikes to get fixed at the Tech Village (dozens of bike shops come as race support which is brilliant). It’s the mind’s evolutionary and biological tool to help you forget all those unbearable times during endurance endeavours — a coping mechanism to help get you though it. Next week we embark on our first major event to prepare us for the 2020 Absa Cape Epic – The Pioneer. This was going to be a long long week and fortunately it was this early on where riding our own race proved to be an effective strategy. We checked-out of the hospital a few hours later and went for our first proper ‘second breakfast’ in a week, which felt like heaven. Both Alby and I were chomping at the bit to get this thing started and the sooner we had our race numbers on, the more it felt like the journey was about to begin. Before long, we found ourselves at the front of B-group forcing a big split to happen in the bunch, leaving us with only two other teams off the front. Between them they won the race four times. 4:30pm: Eat more, chill out in the chill-out zone, inevitably have a nap in a public place. Once again I laid down the law with Alby and told him I was only going to ride at 50% today. This was the part of the day that I dreamt of and that got me through the stage. 6pm: Eat dinner like it was our last meal on this planet. 45-minute massage which I always topped up with another 45 minutes. Eat more, chill out in the chill-out zone, inevitably have a nap in a public place. When I thought ahead I would have felt empty and horrible finishing on my own when the whole point of this was to finish as a team. The doctors did some X-rays and found that, luckily, it was pneumonia, not a kidney infection. As we drove from Cape Town to Stellenbosch, it didn’t take long for us to understand that South Africa was a complicated country that we would not get a chance to properly experience. At least I now had something else to focus on other than the pain in my legs! It was one of those crashes that happens so quickly there’s no reaction time quick enough to save it and I lay on the ground curled up doing a full body inventory from wiggling my toes to my eyebrows. Google has many special features to help you find exactly what you're looking for. Next Race: 17 - 24 October 2021 Race Office: Email: registration@cape-epic.com. There is a service for mechanical repairs that you can pre-purchase, but we found it sufficient to just get your bike repaired when necessary. We didn’t finish the race unfortunately — my teammate Alby came down with pneumonia the day before the final stage. It wasn’t a month after we returned home when we began talking about doing it again. This was heaven for the first two days, but by stage 3 I didn’t want to eat a bite of it. Collapse across the finish line and try to replenish 5,000 calories throughout the afternoon. Cape Epic: The Tour de France of mountain biking The 8-day, 8-stage event in South Africa's Western Cape went from go to no-go in less than 48 hours, becoming one of … For the Pioneer we could have used more to get up those long steep climbs, but the 2019 Cape Epic route consisted of shorter, more punchy climbs. Lactate threshold: 324 watts (5 W/kg) Here’s what a typical training week looks like for me: Alby and I rarely get out on the mountain bike together in between events. The stunning SA locations of Ridley Scott’s epic sci-fi series ’Raised by Wolves’ I wrote about the, : Commute to and from work at recovery pace (45 minutes each way). As a result De Villiers was sanctioned with a period of ineligibility of 11 months from … At the time it was the only mountain bike race in Africa to appear on the UCI calendar. Absolute VO2max: 5.043 litres/min The first 15km or so of stage 2 was the same as stage 1, so we knew what was coming up and knew how fast we could go. But that’s racing. Words: Wade Wallace | Video: Phil Golston and Malcolm Bloedel | Photography supplied by Cape Epic. So many people we bumped into knew exactly what the Cape Epic was and were impressed by our participation in it. Watching all the riders cross the finish line was quite something. I would work my training in around my life in such a way that my family would barely notice it, and I’d have enough energy to get through my work day. Mark did a brilliant job at structuring my training around the limitations of my life, holding me back from myself, adding specificity around the demands of the event, and timing/periodising my fitness to perfection. We weren’t even thinking about stage 2. I’d been looking forward to this day since stage 1. “Maybe we could have been more prepared … maybe we should have moderated our efforts better … what if we had this experience to draw from?”. I personally didn’t find this necessary as the feedzones were more than adequate and I was happy to stop at them. L’Absa Cape Epic è conosciuta come la gare a tappe di mountain bike più dura al mondo. Our daily routine consisted of: 5:00am: Wake up to a bagpiper walking up and down the campsite. We soon found ourselves picking our way back through teams who’d passed us earlier and catching up to guys who were in the Tour de France bunch who were paying the price of being as enthusiastic as we once were. Swiss legend and five-time winner of the Absa Cape Epic, Christoph Sauser, shared key advice for riders taking on the Epic for their first time. The journey is just as important as the outcome, Next week we embark on our first major event to prepare us for the 2020 Absa Cape Epic –, You can follow along with our daily video stage recaps on our. tips before you go to the cape epic Gear It should go without saying that you’ll want a full suspension mountain bike for the Cape Epic, preferably one that’s as light as you can afford. It’s not cheap. Total: 2.5 hours. Start as a team, finish as a team. Founded by Simon Mottram in London in 2004, Rapha launched with a month-long exhibition in East London’s Old Truman Brewery. Six gruelling stages across the South Island of New Zealand will be a qualifier for the Cape Epic in March, and a test to see what we need to work on. Je serai pour la troisième fois au départ de la plus prestigieuse et la plus difficile au monde ! The deal was that I would not let myself get obsessed with this and it would not interfere with my family or work. Once we hit the feedzone and had a can of coke, we turned on the gas and rode flat out for the finish. We took a cue from our course profile sticker that there was a feedzone at 10km to go. Wear a banner as a cape to make your Minecraft player more unique, or use a banner as a flag! This was the part of the day that I dreamt of and that got me through the stage. For daily stage videos and shenanigans that we filmed during the race, you can head to. : Make our way to the start gates (this is the point we wished we were in the 7:45am, F-Group). Commute to and from work at recovery pace (45 minutes each way). Too bad that I don’t remember much of it — I was just wishing it all away and wanting to get home. : Get into the toilet before anyone else. We made the call to take him to the medical tent. This is gonna hurt again. Needless to say we learned a lot along the way. Each standard entry includes: Tented accommodation in the Absa Cape Epic Race Village (seven nights, starting on Sunday night after the first day of riding to Saturday night after Stage 6); Dinner, recovery meal and breakfast in the Absa Cape Epic Race Village (from Sunday dinner at first Race Village to Sunday breakfast before Stage 7) 7:00am: Make our way to the start gates (this is the point we wished we were in the 7:45am, F-Group). Our race was over, and the next adventure was about to start. It certainly worked a treat for the Pioneer. We’ve all heard the cliché interview response at the Tour de France: “I’m just going to take it day by day and not think ahead of that…” I’ve now had a glimpse into the truth of that mindset. I would often be frothing to get my Wednesday World Championships bunch ride in, but Fenner held me back and I’m glad he did, otherwise my other sessions would have suffered. 5:15am: Drink the first of three cups of coffee. The race would be broadcast live every day, reported on in mainstream news, and seemed to bring its own energy into the parts of Cape Town we visited. Much of the stage was held through vineyards and orchards on the sides of steep hills, which made most of the trails awkwardly off-camber. : A four-hour ride in the hills, with about 2,500m of climbing and a couple 20-minute threshold efforts. Epic Cape York 4WD trip. They may have been the only two in the entire race using hardtails and were clearly struggling with that decision. : Commute to and from work at recovery pace (45 minutes each way). Words: Wade Wallace | Video: Phil Golston | Photography supplied by Sportograf and Cape Epic (Dwayne Senior, Xavier Briel, Sam Clark, Justin Coomber, Greg Beadle, Shaun Roy, Nick Muzik). The Cape Epic, full name Absa Cape Epic, is an annual mountain bike stage race held in the Western Cape, South Africa.It has been accredited as hors categorie (beyond categorisation) by the Union Cycliste Internationale.First staged in 2004, the race typically covers more than 700 kilometres (435 miles), and lasts eight days - a prologue and seven stages. Damn…Start Group A. If your skills are not, just think, four percent is all you need to get to a state of flow, and then flow all the way through to … 2021 Absa Cape Epic: 21 - 28 March. From then until home, the single track was some of the best I’ve ever ridden. Coming up to its 17th edition, the Absa Cape Epic is the pinnacle of mountain bike stage racing. Alby insisted that I continue to race, but we were a team and I wasn’t about to leave him alone in an unfamiliar hospital, barely conscious, while I proved to the world how tough I was by finishing the race. Relative VO2max: 61.6 ml/kg/min After a quick descent I made a hard right turn on a sloped corner with kitty litter thrown all over it and came down like a bag of potatoes. Even though we were absolutely exhausted, falling into a proper sleep was getting harder to manage. Ho partecipato con l'amico e compagno di squadra alla lotteria scaduta il 30 maggio e per ns fortuna siamo stati entrambi estratti...pertanto potremmo formare due team da 2 persone. Pro tip – bring your own Aeropress and beans. Over the years I’ve realised that wins are hard to come by, and when you do win that amazing feeling quickly subsides. 3:00pm: 45-minute massage which I always topped up with another 45 minutes. Their job is to be objective, to understand your life situation, and, more than anything, to hold you back from yourself. Even if we had finished and slipped into a top 10 spot this year, we would have wanted to come back and get a podium. Training tips for the Cape Epic Gary Kirsten is a relative newcomer to the sport, having only begun mountain biking three years ago. The start times for this time trial went in descending order from best placed overall to last in each respective category. Note that this type of training program was right for me at my fitness level, life situation, strengths and weaknesses. We're sitting at dinner outside Cape Town, and the word just… 10 months ago 0 Mountain biking legend Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesja will be taking part in the 2015 Absa Cape Epic. Looking back it was the right thing to do. We at the Absa Cape Epic appreciate that this may not be the news that our riders were hoping to receive as we approach the Festive Season break – a time where riders usually spend countless hours in preparation of what’s to come in The Race That Measures All – but we w ant to ensure you have the maximum notice and opportunity to plan for the rescheduled event date. Find the perfect Cape Epic stock photos and editorial news pictures from Getty Images. Nothing about Cape Epic is easy. The time lost and the motivation to get into A-group only made us ride faster, which was anything but a good idea. The ABSA Cape Epic is the pinnacle of mountain bike stage racing. “Wade, I’m not enjoying this,” was said more than once that day. The Cape Epic medical tent already gets pretty full. So after all that effort and precious energy spent we probably lost over half an hour on the stage. We’re sitting at dinner outside Cape Town, and the word just came through. Fortunately there was lots of time to recover and enjoy what felt like a day off. I’d recommend brining lots of gels on each stage (I used 3-6 every day). The Cape Epic will test its limits. On our way to warm up, barely 50m away from our motorhome, disaster struck. Thankfully, Alby took mercy on me and eased off. I wrote about the two-and-a-quarter rule way back in 2010, and figure that I can fit my quarter of a point into less than 10 hours a week of training. People were limping around, there were collarbone slings, there were plenty of limbs wrapped in bandages. Christmas and New Years provided a good opportunity to build some longer, quality outdoor efforts with ‘warmer’ temperatures above -10C. Tel: +27.21.4264373 After we finished it felt like the stage was only a blip in time, but I swayed between loving and loathing every moment of that two hours. Please join them as they begin their adventure. Epic Cape York 4WD trip. Of course not – it didn’t even cross my mind! At the Pioneer, after an early-race mess-up that saw us lose valuable time, getting up to A-group was the bane of our existence and we were absolutely shattered as a result. Relative VO2max: 57.7 ml/kg/min We were now in new territory and had no idea where we fit in. I’ve come to appreciate the process of putting together that magic puzzle of training, building, testing, training more, and having the discipline to rest. This was the first we’d see of the race village and even though we’d later find that this would only be a tiny version of it, we began to understand the enormity of the event and what it means to many in South Africa. Mountain biking legend Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjå will be taking part in the 2015 Absa Cape Epic. Thank you to the Cape Epic organisers for inviting us to this magnificent race and giving us a reason to visit this magical country. Nino Schurter / Lars Forster (UCI Men): 4:19, Annika Langvad / Anna van der Breggen (Women): 5:20, Sebastian Stark / Lara Stark (Mixed): 5:27, Joaquim Rodriguez / Jose Hermida (Masters): 4:51, Bart Brentjens / Abraao Azevedo (Grand Masters): 4:54. : Zwift session before work (1 hour, moderate intensity with usually 2-3 longer threshold intervals). Total: 2.5 hours. Cape Epic is cancelled. At the medical tent they diagnosed it as a possible kidney infection, saying that he needed to go to the hospital. It took us all of 20 minutes to remember our place in the world and get spat out the back into the second group. Picture: Coco Van Oppens. the one that was actually at 10km to go) both of us nearly had a mental breakdown. Of course I needed to account for the fact that there’s a 30% difference in Alby’s 50% and my 50%, so I still ended up riding at 80%. Therefore I enlisted the help of Mark Fenner of FTP Training to coach me. But as complete newbies do, we decided it would be a good idea to ride in the front group with team Rodriguez / Hermida and Dekker / Tjallingii. Discipline, consistency and hard work do pay off here, while teaching a valuable lesson about other important things in life. It’s easy to overdo it as a cyclist. Coming up to its 17th edition, the Absa Cape Epic is the pinnacle of mountain bike stage racing. For the sake of comparison against us mere mortals, the winning times of each of the overall category winners were: Nino Schurter / Lars Forster (UCI Men): 43:41, Annika Langvad / Anna van der Breggen (Women): 51:44, Sebastian Stark / Lara Stark (Mixed): 54:01, Joaquim Rodriguez / Jose Hermida (Masters): 48:46, Bart Brentjens / Abraao Azevedo (Grand Masters): 53:06. Left to my own devices, I would have been lying on the ground like a starfish until a helicopter came to retrieve me. La Cape Epic 2018 è stata emozionante e piena di colpi di scena. Sometimes health and fitness can become two different things, and this is the most difficult balance to keep. After incorporating my work commute for recovery rides, it adds up to a sufficient training load for our goals. Stuff our faces with as much pasta, toast, pastries and muesli as we could stomach. We’re still able to have a good crack in our age group, but we know where we sit in the pecking order. This journey is what drew us to South Africa only three months later. The Epic is an incredibly gruelling race so train as much as you can and be prepared. Most importantly he wouldn’t need to stay in hospital for a few days. The pair will be documenting their journey along the way. Nino Schurter / Lars Forster (UCI Men): 1:38, Annika Langvad / Anna van der Breggen (Women): 2:02, Sebastian Stark / Lara Stark (Mixed): 2:06, Joaquim Rodriguez / Jose Hermida (Masters): 1:57, Bart Brentjens / Abraao Azevedo (Grand Masters): 1:53. Alby’s appetite wasn’t up to scratch yet, so that meant I ate two massive omelettes which didn’t even fill me up. “There is always a lot of activity and noise.” We were well suited for each other during the Pioneer, but at that time Alby was just getting acquainted with mountain biking and his skills and fitness had gone up exponentially since then. I didn’t need the finisher’s medal, the exhausted portrait shot, the finisher’s jersey. Coming up to its 17th edition, the Absa Cape Epic is the pinnacle of mountain bike stage racing. That damn wheel weighed about 4kg, but I wasn’t going to be picky at this point. 1. This was bad. Body fat: 20% Myself and my good mate Alby ‘The People’s Champ’ Iacuone competed in another Epic Series race in New Zealand called The Pioneer back in December and we were hooked on the team format of this type of event. Both Alby and I have competed in races with a higher level of competition before, but I’m not sure if I’ve ever competed in a race with such a unique profile before. Early afternoon: Collapse across the finish line and try to replenish 5,000 calories throughout the afternoon. Body fat: 19.9% Stage 3 was a long day and it took its toll on us. Here are my top 5 take-aways from this extremely beneficial camp, not only for the 2020 Cape Epic, but for future stage races that you may want to challenge you If it wasn’t him, it would have been me a day or two later. Nino Schurter / Lars Forster (UCI Men): 3:37, Annika Langvad / Anna van der Breggen (Women): 4:18, Sebastian Stark / Lara Stark (Mixed): 4:23, Joaquim Rodriguez / Jose Hermida (Masters): 4hrs, Bart Brentjens / Abraao Azevedo (Grand Masters): 4:11. I contemplated starting the final stage as a solo rider but I knew Alby would be disappointed and feeling like he let the team down. Seeing the elation and exhaustion on the faces of the finishers was something I didn’t think I’d miss, but I wanted that more than ever after seeing it. You can follow along with our daily video stage recaps on our Instagram and Facebook pages, and check back here for a full feature shortly after the race. Absolute VO2max: 3.989 litres/min Get the Epic Series APP; Follow The Race; Spectator Points; Fans FAQ; Hospitality; Epic Trippers; Route Tours; Epic Flights; Professional Riders; Prize Money; Jerseys and … T need to stay in hospital for a proper sleep was getting harder to.... I selfishly took both his massage booking and mine, and made our forearms scream and Petacchi in... Town is always buzzing Tumblr Pinterest WhatsApp Telegram Share via Email Print back tropical village atmosphere March! As we could have a nap in a road race, this approach would never work, but adductors... Incredibly gruelling race so train as much as you can and be prepared against cape epic tips! 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