The Cape Epic Journey

As I mentioned before, Justin and I successfully completed the 7th Edition of the ABSA Cape Epic presented by Adidas which was held from 21 – 28 March 2010. The race covered 722km in 8 days with 14 635m of brutal climbing (that is almost twice the height of Mount Everest!). The ABSA Cape Epic attracts riders from all over the world and is widely regarded as the Tour de France of Mountain Biking and possibly the toughest stage race on the planet

Our results for the race this year were as follows:

Time: 51hrs 50mins 44,7secs

Category Position: 209 Men
Overall Position: 310

Not bad considering the 600 teams that take part (1200 riders).

Here is a brief summary of our rafe.

Stage 1:

Date: 21 March 2010
Start/Finish: Diemersfontein to Ceres
Distance: 117km
Climbing: 2190m

The team started well and breezed through the first half of the stage saving legs for the last part of the stage which was a 12km long railway line section over iron sleepers and sharp stones into Ceres. Unfortunately I had a stomach bug which caught up with me soon after the second water point. This is were the experience of riding last year came to fruition and helped me with the encouragement from Justin to make it to the end of a tough day.

Stage 2:

Date: 22 March 2010
Start/Finish: Ceres
Distance: 95km
Climbing: 1625m

This was a mix of single-track, and sand day (Every day in Ceres had lots of SOFT sand)! This was another tough day for me as I was still trying to get over the stomach bug that I had, but Justin was super strong and even the hill “Dead man walking” was no challenge for him. As was becoming the norm for the first 2 days, Justin waited for me and kept encouraging me.

Stage 3:

Date: 23 March 2010
Start/Finish: Ceres
Distance: 121km
Climbing: 1750m

The route had to be changed due to a dispute with one of the land owners….this meant the riders missed a huge climb that day. The good news for today was that I started feeling MUCH better (after a good chunder) and we managed to storm through the day making up the lost time for the previous 2 stages.  At the end of the day I went to the medic tent (as I had been doing every night) to check if I was dehydrated. The throwing up during the stage had me a bit worried, but the tests always showed that I was hydrated enough.

Stage 4:

Date: 24 March 2010
Start/Finish: Ceres to Worcester
Distance: 90km
Climbing: 1640m

Sadly I woke up feeling terrible again, and for this reason I went to the medic tent first thing. The doctors (who are brilliant) did some blood tests and it was discovered that my body wasn’t absorbing certain nutrients, and this was causing me to have the problems I was having. I was told to make sure I stop often and eat lots to make sure I get enough of the stuff my body needed. Justin had developed some ITB issues to this point, but he didn’t let this bother him in the slightest and we managed to get through this really HOT day in good time (even though we stopped to get my left Achilles strapped).  This was my worst day in terms of spirits and Justin once again did a magnificent job in keeping me focussed. We got to the new race village and with that came some better health. I actually had an appetite, and had plenty to eat.

Stage 5:

Date: 25 March 2010
Start/Finish: Worcester
Distance: 27km (Time Trial)
Climbing: 860m

This was Time Trial day, and the discussion the day before was to take it easy so that we could recover a bit after the first 4 tough days, and hopefully have an easier day on my stomach. However Justin in his normal style was out the gates like a bullet, but the REALLY great news was that I was feeling great and with that the afterburners were lit. The route had some good climbs, fast sweeping single-track and some HUGE rocky drop-offs.  We were slowed down a bit by a British rider who was terrible in the technical sections, but that is the way the Time Trial works.

Stage 6:

Date: 26 March 2010
Start/Finish: Worcester to Oak Valley
Distance: 120km
Climbing: 2240m

This was the monster! We left Worcester followed a route which took us around Brandvlei Dam and then onto some of the 2009 route. We had some laughs here remembering the pain from last year. The climbs were short, but some of the gradients reached 26% (which is bliksemse steep)! The last part of the stage took us up a monster climb over the Groenlandberg which isn’t easy after 5 hard days and 90kms of riding in your legs. This was supposed to be the “hardest day” of the 2010 ABSA Cape Epic, but this was our best day.

Stage 7:

Date: 27 March 2010
Start/Finish: Oak Valley to Oak Valley
Distance: 101km
Climbing: 2160m

Sadly no Epic can be “technical free”, and up to this point we had been very lucky to have no problems.  Unfortunately on Stage 7, we ran into a few. Justin broke his chain 5km’s into the stage and this put us almost right at the back as we took a bit longer to fix the chain. This was not made easier by the weather which was blowing Gale force winds, and raining along with some “wonderfully” cold weather. However, we did not let this bother us and we missioned on. Soon we were at the best part of Stage 7! THE LEBANON HIGHLANDS PLANTATION! This is some of the most spectacular single-track you can ride. With about 20km’s to go it was my turn to have a technical. We got my bike sorted and off we went to make the finish and have a well deserved HOT shower.

Stage 8:

Date: 28March 2010
Start/Finish: Oak Valley to Lourensford
Distance: 65km
Climbing: 1640

We had made it to the last day! We were off to a flying start and clearly not feeling the effects of the previous 7 days of riding. Sadly the flying start came to an abrubt end. I was following some riders and didn’t see a log in the trail. This unfortunately lifted up a bit as someone rode over it and it ended up breaking a vital part to my bike, which was beyond being repaired without power tools. Along with that it bent the big chain ring (and as I found out later the actual arm on the crank).  All this just 27km’s into the stage. With this we turned down the pace a few notches and cruised into the finish comfortably.

We would both like to thank Bosch again for their assistance with this years race, and for the power kit we got.

On a personal note I just want to thank Justin for all his encouragement, and for being an awesome partner. I can honestly say that if it wasn’t for him, I don’t think I would’ve made it past Stage 4, and thus not finished.

P.S. We will be uploading some pics from the race in the next week or so. Be sure to check out our gallery.

So this last weekend was a good weekends riding, although it was quite tough. Haven’t done the Pecanwood ride in ages so we decided that we would do that on Saturday. It was just Doug and I this weekend.  After about 20km’s or so I realized that I had a flatish front tire, which I quickly sorted out. Not sure how long I had been riding with it like that since I didn’t check my pressures before the ride. The terrain wasn’t as wet/muddy as we were expecting due to the HUGE storm the night before, so we were pleasantly surprised. That said the weather didn’t know what it wanted to do. At times the sun would start shining, and then it would go away and look like it was going to ride. After our usual (onthe Pecanwood ride) stop at the garage for a bite to eat, we headed off to tackle Breedts. While doing this we discussed which way we were going to go back to Pecanwood since Doug had mentioned going back a different  way. Going up Breedts there was lots and lots of fog and once you hit the top you couldn’t see what was 15m’s away from you. We decided not to go down the other side, but to go back and go back to Pecanwood the different way.

The different way was to go over Hekpoort hill and then takethe buffelspoort road. This is essentially the last part of the Telkom Classic ride, and was not what I was expecting. It has lots of rolling hills and the road seems to go on forever. Not exactly exciting riding, but it is good extra climbing and distance in the legs.

Unfortunately I don’t have all the stats for the ride as my polar battery is toast, and I need to take it in to get replaced.

Sunday we decided to do the Fast One MTB race. It was a mix of road and offroad, with very few technical sections. I didn’t eat dinner the night before and a little after the 1st lap of 2 (30km each) I started feeling a little weak. Stopped and had a bite to eat and soon started feeling better and pushed onto the end. I believe we got a top 50 finish.

I must say that the route was marked excellently, and the marshals were placed in the right places, and were always friendly. BIG UPS to the organizers.

My legs were quite tired after pushing hard this weekend, but felt much better after 2 action cricket games on Monday night. Won 1, and just lost the 2nd one.

Looking forward to punishing the legs a bit more this weekend.

So I’ve been pretty slack in updating the blog, but the good thing is I haven’t been slack in my training. The training is going good and I can feel the improvement all the time. My climbing is starting to get back to the level I want it to be at, and hopefully it will improve a bit more.

This past weekend I rode out at Breedts again. It’s becoming quite a regular ride now, but I’m glad that we change the ride almost every time we go out. It’s good because we won’t be building muscle memory. This weekend we did an 80km loop. It’s basically the normal 60km loop, but you go through a little game farm which adds on the extra 20kms. The details for the ride are as follows:

Time:  3hrs 51mins
Distance: 80kms
Climbing: 1035m
Average Speed: 21.3 kph

On Sunday I ended up going out to Bultfontein with Big Blade Doug to do the Babbas Lodge race. I haven’t done this race, so was quite looking forward to it. All I can say is it is a very fast race. Doug and I decided to take it pretty easy. We started near the back and just rode at a nice easy pace. It rained the night before so the soft sand wasn’t so soft, which made the riding a bit easier. Will definately be out there again to do the race though. It’s not very technical, but if the soft sand is in full force it will  be good training for the Epic, which has LOTS of soft sand. There are 1 or 2 technical climbs, but nothing much else to challenge the rider. In the end I think I came in 61st which was just in the top half of the field.  The details for the race are below:

Time:  2hrs 49mins
Distance: 67.2kms
Climbing: 510m
Average Speed: 23.8 kph

Will be out at Breedts tomorrow doing an 85km loop with roughly 1500m’s of climbing. Might do the loop through the game farm on the way back which will make the ride just over 100km’s.

Hope you all have a good weekend of riding.

So off we went to Sabie to do the Sabie Experience. We were amped for this race, and raring to go. We had a decent start time for the Time Trial, and made good use of it. We dominated the TT and ended the day in 77th position. What an awesome root! The floating bridge was really cool too, and not as hard as it was made out to be.  The weather for the TT was perfect, and we were hoping to have this weather for the remainder of the race.

Sadly the Sabie Experience was once again attacked by the rain. It was only for 1 day, but it was enough for us to make a call to pull out after the second stage to preserve the bikes. It rained the whole night before Stage 2, as well as for much of the stage, making the terrain terrible to ride. It was indeed a mud bath of note! We finished the stage in 123rd place. We spent much of the afternoon debating whether we would continue on with the race, or pull out and the decision was made to pull out at dinner when the rain started coming down AGAIN!. After spending thousands of rands fixing our bikes after last years race, and just before the race this year we thought it wasn’t worth riding if it was going to be another day filled with MUD!

A lot of people asked why they didn’t cancel Stage 2, and let us come back for Stage 3 and 4 since the weather was THAT bad for Stage 2. Max Temperature was 12 while the minimum was 8, and  an average of just 11. 1 person got hypothermia, and there were a few bad injuries. All this due to the mud, and continuous rain. At times you couldn’t even see where you were going, and this is going down hill, in heavy mud at around 50km/h! Not ideal riding.

In the end we heard mixed opinions of Stage 3. Some people said it was good riding, while other people complained it was quite bad. Respect to the guys that carried on with the race and finished. Well done to Craig, Andrew, Doug, John and all the other riders who completed the ride. Hope your bikes are not too badly damaged!

Now we go into a little bit of a slow down in terms of training. Time to rest up a bit, and then start again with the heavy training around the 28th. Most likely we’ll start in full force in the new year.

Horndog: MTB                                                                                Worm: MTB
Time:    2 hrs 44mins                                                                      Time: 2hrs 37mins
Distance: 50kms                                                                             Distance: 50kms
Climbing: 730m                                                                              Climbing: 730m
Average Speed: 18.2 kph                                                              Average Speed: 19 kph 

From the Horndog:

I started the race in the A4 group with Darryl’s boet (Barry) and another cycling mate (Paul). I was picked on by the 94.7 crew for having super-smooth legs and my reason for this was “because I am fast!” From what I heard after the race every guy the spotted on the start line after us with shaved legs was labelled “a fast oak” hahaha. I blasted out in front at the start and managed to maintain a steady pace even with the slow traffic on the route! I was feeling strong and was on track to get a time as good as the Worm! Unfortunately my luck ran out when I was stung by a bee with 12kms to go….I am allergic to these little buggers and this really took the wind out of my sails! I tried to keep my heart-rate down after this and just nursed myself to the finish. I’m not too upset with my time finishing 17^th in my group of 208 riders and 238 of 1228 overall. Well done to the Darryl and Doug who smashed the course!!!

From the Worm: 

After a nice warm-up ride from a parking place to the start of the MTB race I said cheers to my brother and the Horndog who were starting in A4, and Doug and I made our way to our start in A2. Hopefully next year we all start in A1.

The race was a lot tougher than what I expected it to be, but it was a most enjoyable ride. Doug and I started off slowly, and then started to push a bit harder the further we got into the race, and then took the last 10km’s or so a little easier as well to conserve some energy for the ride on Sunday. The route started off the way last years race ended and this was a lot better start to the route than last years. It had a mix of open road, single track, some nice decents and a lot more hills than I thought they could have.

In the end I finished in 2:37 coming in 15th out of 219 riders in my starting group, and 165th overall. I have no doubt that if the horndog didn’t get stung, and had started with us in A2 he would’ve had a much better result than the already good result he achieved.

Horndog: Road                                                                               Worm: Road
Time:  3hrs 32mins                                                                         Time: 3hrs 55mins
Distance: 96.5kms                                                                          Distance: 96.5kms
Climbing: 1180m                                                                            Climbing: 1180m
Average Speed: 27.2 kph                                                              Average Speed: 24.5 kph 

From the Horndog:

After taking much abuse before the race from Worm, his brother Barry and Doug about my “roadie” look before the race (I will admit I have kitted myself out for the road bike….carbon shoes and everything…very bling!), I was very nervous for my first outing on the road in a race. The start is not what I am used to at all! Very chilled!!! I managed to get reseeded by the race office to start with Worm for the race and we road together for most of the route! I really enjoyed it! No I am not becoming a roadie and I don’t have a soft-spot for road riding either! Roadies have no sense of humour and are far too serious! To ride on the highways was really something and watch people suffer was a laugh! I don’t see myself doing much racing on the road bike – This will be for training mostly! Riding on the road is like having sex with a condom on….still good fun but it just isn’t the same!�  (Just a comparison – doesn’t mean I am irresponsible!) 

From the Worm:

It was nice that the horndog managed to get reseeded to start in the same starting group as me. He did however look more the part of a road racer than I did, so made sure to give him a hard time about this before the race got underway. I must admit that his road bike is one sexy machine!

The gun went and we were off. Not quite the sprint start that is more common in a MTB race though. We took it nice and easy until we hit the first freeway. Here we put our heads down a little and were looking good for a very decent time. I was however pushing my hardest gears just to keep up. It’s scary the difference between a road bike, and a MTB with knobblies. I was having to pedal in the big blade on downhills to keep up, while the Horndog was free wheeling. No surprise that my HR was hitting the 170 mark for the first 60km’s or so.

Eventually we got to the Krugersdorp freeway, and this is where the Horndog was going to make a dash for the finish after keeping me company. He was a bit reluctant to go, but I told him that I was going to slow right down if he didn’t, so off he went. At this point I felt like one of those pace setters at the athletics. I was happy to get to the finish in 3:55 and hear that the Horndog and done a 3:30. I’m sure he would’ve been much closer to a 3 hour race had he left me a lot earlier in the race, but it was to ride most of the race together.

Date: 25 October 2009

Time: 3hrs 44mins

Distance: 57kms

Climbing: 1030m

Average Speed: +-16 km/h (I need to check the exact average)

As I mentioned in the week (and as was the case with the horndog), this was my first Telkom Satellite Challenge. Doug fetched me around 5:15 and we headed off to the race. We stopped briefly on the side of the road to wait for Doug’s uncle who decided that he was going to enter the race on the day. We got to the race with plenty of time to spend, so we took our time getting ready and checking that everything was in working order. Met up with horndog and made our way to the start line. Had a quality purp while the race briefing was being done.

The race started off with a neutral zone on tar, and the horndog got a good start. We hit the first dirt road and I still had the horndog in my site, and I said to Doug “Let’s catch up to him”. Unfortunately as I said this Doug’s uncle broke his chain. I had to stop as he was directly in front of me. As I stopped a lot of people made it around me and even if I wanted to just leave him and carry on, the horndog was long gone. So we helped him sort his chain out and then off we went RIGHT AT THE BACK OF THE FIELD. We were stone last. A little further on we hit the first real climb of the day, and Doug’s uncle had some issues with his chain, and we dropped him on the climb. He then told us to carry on. So off we went. Doug and I maintained a nice good pace until the wishbone on my bike broke. This is the 1 thing I don’t like about my bike, but that’s for another time. We quickly replaced this (I always carry a spare just in case), and were off again. Towards the end of the first lap we were almost run over by a Zebra that was obviously getting rid of some extra energy and running around at an incredible speed.

We finished the first lap in the reserve and continued with our good pace on the second lap. On the second lap my bike started to make a terrible noise, but I carried on. I suspect that the BB is totally shot, and will be dropping my baby off at the bike doctor tomorrow.

Just after turning out of the reserve to head home there was a hill, and then a water point. We stopped briefly at this water point and then started the last 10 or so kilometres. There was a hill right after the water point, and on this hill Doug told me that there was still a monster of a hill to go, so we should conserve some energy. He then promptly motored up the hill. At this point I decided that I could chase him down, or carry on at my own pace. I went for the latter considering my legs were a little tired, and because of the noise my bike was making.

With about 5km’s to go I got chatting to a lady, and we rode the last bit together. She’s doing the Burg to Bush soon, and I wish her all the best for that race. I checked the results, and she came 5th in her category, so I’m sure she’ll do great.

I would like to congratulate the organizers of the event as the water points were well stocked, and well controlled. The route was challenging, rewarding and most of all marked brilliantly. There was plenty of marshals, and medical presence on the route. Well Done.

In the end I finished just outside the top half of the race finishers. Not too shabby considering we were stone last at 1 point, and it was some good time in the saddle. A good training ride for The Cape Epic next year.

Congrats to the horndog for an awesome result, and also to his dad who finished the 37km ride.

Time:  3hrs 9mins

Distance: 57kms

Climbing: 1030m

Average Speed: 18.1 kph

This was my first time at the Satellite Challenge and I must admit…I was not feeling that good. I was nursing a heavily bruised thumb on my right hand so shifting was going to be painful! My folks had gone to Keith Ravenscroft’s 60^th on the Saturday night so I had to look after my little bro. Needless to say the folks had a good party and got home at Midnight!! So I only had 4 hours sleep the night before a 57km ride…..not ideal! My dad and I were on our way to the race to meet Worm and some other mates at the race. As per my normal – when I got to the start line I started to feel a little like a “racing-snake”. “Worm, stay on my wheel!” That was unfortunately the last time I would see Worm until the finish….technical issues held him up a lot!! The route itself was nice – some short steep climbs and some fast flowing down hills! There was one tight corner after a small drop-off that I took a bit quickly and probably tried to cut too much out of the corner and caught a tree/sapling thing in my handle-bar that caused me to have a little off – nothing too bad but it must have looked good! I quickly got going again and found my rhythm. In the end I finished the race in 67^th place out of 268 finishers and I was 39^th in my category of 142. Happy with that!!!!!

Next up…..94.7 and hopefully some SPONSORS!!!!!!!!

So I entered the Crater Cruise race this weekend. I decided that I’ll do the 101km ride. It’ll give me a good idea as to where I am with my training. I know I have a long way to go to get as fit as I’d like to be for the Epic next year. This will be a good training ride though. Quite looking forward to it even though I might struggle a little bit. I have just started riding more often after being a bit sick.