DieselnDust

send wife shopping before trying this at home PS got the t-shirt

would you mind terribly normalising those average speeds. Take the top 5 of each category to aid in determining whether or not the race was trully faster in the periods you indicate. The quality of the field, weather conditions and route play a major role here. even concepts like VAM should be considered

They seem to be migrating everything over to an Ironman site. i guess they really have no intent of selling back to Kevin

Gradients were definitely not kind in 2025. i can assure you of that. You can’t have 27m /km gain and say gradients were kind. Mathematically impossible. I rode 2025. The only low climb day was the stage 2 TT from Meerendal To Fairview

Insider info, is finding the right mix is difficult but that’s the objective. The desire is to attract both XCM and XCO specialists to grow the elites field, especially the ladies. The 2025 route was heavily XCO focused . The 2026 route I feel was a really good balance and it delivered a riveting mens race. overlay their intent with the very positive feedback on the 2026 route I would hazard a safe bet that they will try for more of the same next year but different locations. Montagu was a favourite although the amateurs complained bitterly about the rough terrain 🤣😂 can’t keep all the people happy as they say…

https://www.epic-series.com/races/capeepic/past-results better to use this to verify

that 2025 edition stand out as brutal in term s of meters very gain /km. and it would be more if the last day wasn’t shortened and stage 3 cancelled

Might last a month, maybe 6 weeks

Absorbs a LOT of sealant

I relied on line choice until an errant rock rolled over and Into the path of my rear wheel and bang pssssssst thud thud. For the front I’m comfortable running the thinnest tyres I can find but for the rear I’ll use a liner regardless because carbon rims are expensive

Yes https://orimglobal.co.za/

yes they do absorb more sealant. The Vittoria does compress quite a lot under pressure too which should squeeze the seaant out but when you puncture it can absorb some of that back into the foam. They need to be checked regularly for cuts and heavily abraded areas where sealant can be absorbed

https://ridepanzer.com/ 15months and still going strong. 1 Cape Epic, a season of XCO and XCM. Only 5gr of weight gain from new over a year. Quite light weight to start off at 90gr ea

you lie,.....I don't want to get them dirty so I keep pedalling

I concur, the organisation looked a LOT better than last year. The 2025 event felt like it was cobbled together on a shoestring. The campsites reflected this. The 2026 events was what is expected of the entry fee. Only disappointment is the Amaboepensie merch. Maybe we need to get Simon Stoffels Babble en bekkie to do a review video on the Amaboepensie merch....

Or just push past and brush off the comments section

Based on the number of power meters at the very back of the field , even those aren’t being used skilfully

can't spread out the start times when its a hot day predicted. They have to compress the start times to keep as many out of the heat as possible. Every year there is a discussion on the singletracking skills. This is not new to the clover leaf format either as it was very very much a problem in the Journey route days from 2004 to 2008. At every technical section there would be logjam. There always was, there always will be with 1500 cyclist on the route. Its fluid mechanics. You just need one molecule to slow down to back up the funnel. So either widen the funnel or reduce the molecules. Epic can't indiscriminately just widen mtb paths, even on private land. The trails themselves are the problem, and its the riders. In my view, irrespective of their prologue position, Newbies should start in the last two groups unless they have prior MTB racing history.

Ya let’s see what transpires 👍🏼

I’d love to see a stronger ladies field to but there are already rumours of the first UCI XCO round in South Korea being cancelled due to poor attendance thanks to sharp Increases in airfare and other reasons watch this space I guess

Ya no Oil leaks = a sticky fork. Even if it has grease inside there should still be oil on the travel oring. just remind me here, doesn’t the 2.0 for Large and XL have longer damper shafts to accommodate the extended distance between clamps to reach the hydraulic connection at the rebound dial?

If Izak does opt for this , Just please remember than the spacing between the clamps is bike size specific as the frame used different head tube lengths in different sizes.

RBCO.co.za 041 110 0555

would be a long holiday in peak season. Probably easier to break it up into two shorter trips

no