Well-known and highly respected double international rugby player, Tiaan Strauss, is back to join Team Absa in 2013. He first rode with the team in 2008. The former Springbok rugby player and Western Province rugby captain also played rugby for the Wallabies and was part of the World Cup-winning Australian squad in 1999.
He will be partnered with former rugby player, Corné Krige, who represented Western Province in the Absa Currie Cup, the Stormers franchise in Super Rugby and captained the South African national side, the Springboks, between 2002 and 2004. This will be his first attempt at the Absa Cape Epic, for which he says he is “very nervous yet excited!”
The rugby legends will be paired together for the race and will be riding to raise funds for the Big Tree Foundation, to which Absa will generously donate R 1,500.00 per stage that they each successfully complete – a potential total of R 21,000.00.
The Big Tree Foundation was founded by Victor Sables and Kevin Vermaak with the goal that the Absa Cape Epic should have a lasting positive social and economic impact on the communities that host the race each year. To this end, the foundation provides bicycles, desks, writing materials and uniforms to needy learners in these various communities.
Strauss is the Chairman of the Board of the non-profit organisation and says: “Our aim is to give uniforms to 1 000 disadvantaged children in the Western Cape in this year. Having a proper school uniform enables them to feel proud of themselves and in turn, they perform much better at school. I understand the importance and value of education, and this is why I support the Big Tree Foundation. I am proud to be riding the 2013 Absa Cape Epic on their behalf,” concludes Strauss.
For more info on the organisation, please visit www.bigtree.org.za.
For more info about the Absa Cape Epic, please visit www.cape-epic.com or follow @absacapeepic on Twitter.
