The Cape Epic in South Africa has grown into the premier mountain bike stage race in the World. Every March riders from around the World descend upon Cape Town to take part in what they call the “Untamed African race”. It’s full of tough riding and adventure as teams of 2 take on 8 days, 600 + km and 15000 VM of riding. Due to Covid this years edition was pushed back to October, and the field size was cut from 1200-1500 riders down to 600. Being in October was ideal for a Canadian as it would come at the end of our season, so the fitness should be good, and the weather would be cooler since it was spring in the Souther Hemisphere. Finding a seat sale in August for $1000 RT to Cape Town from Calgary I booked the ticket in speculation of finding both an entry and a partner for the race.
Racing BCBR Gravel and BCBR Mountain bike back to back, the last stage wrapped up on October 8th, the same day an entry became available to the Cape Epic. For a partner I was lined up to race with Christiaan, he had been killing it on the South African scene and we seemed to be a good match. We hit it off right away once I landed in Cape Town, but unfortunately he broke his collarbone on our first ride together, putting the trip in limbo. I was starting to look into wine tours when last minute Christiaans teammate Craig Boyes was able to step up to the plate and fill in, so off we went to the Epic!
Not sure how the legs would respond from 11 days of racing out of 12 at the BCBR doubleheader, and the sporadic packing and travel just to get over to South Africa, their were question marks. Craig was coming off an impressive 3rd place at the Worlds largest timed cycling event, the Cape Town Cycle Tour, but with no real prep for the Epic, he also had some questions marks. We ended up working well together, Craig could rip on the single track and sketchy fire road descents. I’m not sure if it was fortunate or unfortunate for him but my legs had their best power all year after the BCBR doubleheader and seemed to have no limit. Craig rode great for having focused his training around shorter road races. In the end we had a great week mixing it up around the top 15-25 in the 300 team field. This meant some time riding with Christoph Sauser and his teammate Alex, and some other top European and South African teams. The field at the Epic is certainly the deepest of any stage race in the World with the top World Cup racers usually leading the way as the days are just short enough at around 3.5-4 hours to still fall into their firing range. The next Epic is at the end of March 2022, after seeing the race this year, it will be a goal to come back and fight inside the top 10.
So what’s the Cape Epic like to race? It is one of the best all rounder races I’ve done with a good mix of climbing, trails, fired roads, scenery, tactics and endurance to get through 25-30 hours of racing in the week. The riding is one thing and the camp bubble is the other side of the equation. It’s basically one giant moving circus as the race now has three different camps, with 2-3 nights in each camp. This allows the race to hit up the best single tracks in the area, before traversing across to the next riding area. Long gone are the days of vast fire road riding, it does still exist but I’d guess 30% + of the riding is now on trail, with a bunch of farm/vineyard roads mixed in, then just a few big gravel and paved sections, generally at the start of stages to split everyone up.
The Pro’s start first at 7 am, it’s easy to get fired up for these starts with the race helicopters hovering above and the pace is 100% from the gun. The tactic is to hold onto the lead group with your partner as long as you can, then once one of you gets shelled, settle into your pace for the day. After flatting during Stage 1 of BCBR and losing 12 minutes, my plan in the upcoming stages was to attack from the gun as the stages were short at 15-25 km and it was the only real option to try and make up large chunks of time. It never worked, but it was great training for the Cape Epic, as the Epic starts are much harder and then you must still ride for another 3-4 hours after the dust settles!
Everyday we would find ourselves around 20th position. Lachlan Morton and his Kenyan teammate Kenneth, would also be right around us along with a bunch of fast South African teams and 1 or 2 of the top 10 teams who would be having a tough day. It was a good spot to see alot of carnage as the number of riders detonating themselves is like no other race I’ve experienced. This is probably due to the pace off the front, and the weaker riders not wanting to hold back their teammates so they ride over their limits until they destroy themselves. As the week went on this became pretty entertaining to watch, especially stages 5-7 as their were alot of ghostly riders cruising around out their. It reminded me a little bit of 24 hour racing in which all of us are pretty much riding corpses by the end of it.
The camps at Cape Epic are impressive as they are a moving village with chill zones, mechanics, eateries, huge mess tents, massage tents and even a mobile hospital. Craig and I were possibly the top team staying in camp as pretty much all the pro teams have RV’s or stay in hotels. It would be great if everyone stayed in camp, but it’s definitely a disadvantage as the sleep is questionable with alot of x factors. Surprisingly the camps were very quiet this year outside of the generators, but the lights were a bit of a challenge, especially at the last camp in Wellington in which they would leave the huge stadium lights on all night for security. One night I actually jumped out of bed at 3am thinking the sun was up and it was time to race. The next night a huge rainstorm came in, thankfully Christiaan knew a family living just 1 km away on a large vineyard who invited me in for a dry sleep! It was one of the highlights of the race week getting to spend a couple days with a true South African family on their farm.
In the end it was a great week on the bike, with close to 28 hours of racing, some of it sleep deprived, but with the adrenaline pumping it didn’t matter. The weather was a mix bag, most days were perfect in the mid twenties while it would cool off to a nice sleeping temperature at night. We did have one scorcher around 35 celsius and a couple wet days, one was a proper mud bath on Stage 6 in Wellington. In the end Craig and I would wind up 19th overall in GC, with our strongest finish being 16th on the last stage into Val de Vie. It was a great getting to ride with such a well respected local as Craig as everyone out on course seemed to know him. He seems to be connected everywhere in the SA cycling scene. For two guys that didn’t know each other before the race, we certainly got to know each other pretty well over the course of the week and were able to work great together, playing to each others strengths. Thanks for the great ride Craig!
The plan after the race was to spend a few touristy days around Cape Town as my friends Noel and Miroda had offered their luxurious oceanside apartment to stay in. It was awesome for a few days, hiking up Table mountain, checking out the beach side cafes and swimming in the ocean.
The other plan was to go in to the Dentist for what I thought would be a 2 hour root canal procedure to fix a problem I had for a while. The South African dentistry has a good name and it comes at 1/4 to 1/3 the price of back home. Unfortunately this appointment was a disaster and I was left with a toothache for the next week, eating yogurt, before the antibiotics cleared up and I could return to hopefully finish it off.
Appointment 2 didn’t go much better, neither did appointment 3, so now I’ll be waiting another week before I go see a root canal specialist to hopefully finally finish off the project on this hypersensitive tooth. This has meant extending the trip multiple times, but also some great times getting to tour around this part of South Africa. The first week was spent on a road trip out to the Garden Route visiting Knysna, Kleinmonds, Hermanus and the wine region of Franschoek. Thanks for the accomodation Catherine, Japie and Eldorette! The next week has been spent relaxing around Cape Town with my South African family, Christiaan, his wife Beulah and her mother Kriek.
Getting ready to head back to the dentist, I received the opportunity to race the Wine to Whales bike race, a 3 day “chill” version of the Epic. Adi Enthoven unfortunately had his teammate brake his collarbone a couple days before the race. With the race starting on Friday he was looking for a partner to fill in as they were planning to race for the Anna Foundation charity. Deja vu to a few week backs at the Epic.. Off we went for what was a great 3 days of riding bikes and drinking some South African Wine!
Adi was suppose to race in the 50+ category, but due to my age, we had to race in two age categories lower, the sub vet (30-40yrs). With no expectations we set out on the first day and surprisingly finished in 13th in the 300 team field, winning the sub vet category by a few seconds and going into the leaders jerseys. We extended our lead to 3.5 minutes on Stage 2, then on Stage 3 had a couple crashes, and struggled a bit, coming in 3rd, but we rallied hard on the last big climb to hold onto the Sub Vet leader jerseys by just over a minute. What a crazy weekend it turned out to be, racing some great trails, staying in a chilled out, and nicest race camp I’ve ever experienced, and of course coming home with a bunch of bottles of Wine.
I hope when I’m 50 I can ride like Adi. During the race week I also got to know he is one of the top businessmen in South Africa, something you would never guess with how humble and down to earth he is. Post race when he found out I was losing my bed at my current accomodation as Christiaans Mom was coming to visit, he offered up his Cape Town “residence.” Wow is all I have to say about the place he has me staying right now. I think it is a traditional Dutch settlers farmhouse from the late 1700’s which has been upkept immaculatley and surrounded by Victorian cottages. It has been a great basecamp to have a short break, get a bit more dental work done and go on some exploratory hikes and bike rides. After this break, and the final tooth is fixed, as it is being a real bugger, it will be back onto the next adventure once the green light is lit!
Over and out from Cape Town.