the unofficial Cape Epic 2024 thread

[peetwindhoek]

22 hours ago, DieselnDust said:

I'll post the race register as soon as they republish it. It appears to be down atm.

Best duo for African Jersey is likely Miller and Van Zyl. Strong pairing although Phil and Pieter will be fighting for GC, they may have too much pressure and have the tiger jersey snactched by the Toyota pair.

If Imbuko sends Joubert with Wessel Botha they will be tough to beat for red jersey! 

[peetwindhoek]

11 hours ago, DieselnDust said:

https://www.epic-series.com/capeepic-riders-register

its back up. What a schlep to to try and extract this as a workable file!!! FT

Sheesh, Pritzen and Nortje will also be in it for the red jersey fight! 

[babse]

19 minutes ago, peetwindhoek said:

If Imbuko sends Joubert with Wessel Botha they will be tough to beat for red jersey! 

Agreed, Joubert is in the form of his life.

9 minutes ago, peetwindhoek said:

Sheesh, Pritzen and Nortje will also be in it for the red jersey fight! 

Lets see how well pritzen can go for the full week. Nortjie has show he can produce the goods... 

 

I think battle for red will be a cracker 

[Shebeen]

1 hour ago, TeamBaja said:

Pro teams, the real pro teams don't go there for money. That cash pays for the lunch they eat. They go there for exposure, which in MTBis second to none. What to be pro guys use it for exposure to get into a real pro team. Look what speed company got after winning the epic.  On the Nino and ont Andy, well we all know the only reason he is there is because of dad. I doubt any real pro (olympics) will skip the epic, because of the olympics I think 5 months is plenty of time to recover. Partnerships at the epic are tricky, the only guy thats been with the same partner at most epics is Bart. 

Anyway enough rambling, going back in 2025.

SCR winning epic was pretty unique scenario, don't think we'll ever see that again

[DieselnDust]

7 hours ago, Shebeen said:

SCR winning epic was pretty unique scenario, don't think we'll ever see that again

Agreed , it was unique. Directionally team baja is right though because ACE still gives marathon riders more exposure in one week than they get the rest of the year. 

[Irvin85]

On 2/29/2024 at 4:36 PM, Shebeen said:

Actually a really good representation of the feeble prize money you get at  the TdF from ASO.

Did a bit of searching on Pro mtbers salary ranges, seems the majority of the field will earn anything between $150K -  $300k a year, with your stars like Nino earning in excess of $1mil sponsorships included.  I think if there was proper price money to be won at the Epic we might see a much larger elite field. 

Total price purse of $5mil with the winning teams walking away with $1mil. 

Surely that would be something the pro's would really consider. 

[ajnkzn]

Just don't see many corporates willing to put in $ 5 000 000 with the viewership of Epic versus XCC, XCO or any of the other sports out there like soccer, golf etc?

[DieselnDust]

4 hours ago, ajnkzn said:

Just don't see many corporates willing to put in $ 5 000 000 with the viewership of Epic versus XCC, XCO or any of the other sports out there like soccer, golf etc?

It’s a bit of a catch 22. The epic needs a Red Bull to sponsor the event but can’t get a Red Bull because there isn’t enough big name athletes and the woman’s field is just too small and it’s too small because there just isn’t enough money flowing through the event. When it gets there , rest assured no amateur earning under $1million a year is going to be able to afford it.

[Action_Man]

17 hours ago, Irvin85 said:

Did a bit of searching on Pro mtbers salary ranges, seems the majority of the field will earn anything between $150K -  $300k a year, with your stars like Nino earning in excess of $1mil sponsorships included.  I think if there was proper price money to be won at the Epic we might see a much larger elite field. 

Total price purse of $5mil with the winning teams walking away with $1mil. 

Surely that would be something the pro's would really consider. 

You're joking right? Where did you pull this badly skewed information from? Don't trust a quick "Google search", rather speak to people inside the sport who know what's really going on if you'd like to get an idea of real world figures. 

[Irvin85]

19 minutes ago, Action_Man said:

You're joking right? Where did you pull this badly skewed information from? Don't trust a quick "Google search", rather speak to people inside the sport who know what's really going on if you'd like to get an idea of real world figures. 

Please enlighten me then with your insider knowledge? Also I am not talking about south African riders, talking about UCI XCO and downhill riders. But what do they then earn if what I could find is badly skewed?  

[DieselnDust]

7 minutes ago, Irvin85 said:

Please enlighten me then with your insider knowledge? Also I am not talking about south African riders, talking about UCI XCO and downhill riders. But what do they then earn if what I could find is badly skewed?  

Your numbers align with what I know for top 40 international uci XCO men.

The ladies are significantly lower at the bottom end of top 40 with a smaller pay gap to the men in the top 10 range. Many women outside the top 10 home down a day job as well.

[babse]

37 minutes ago, Irvin85 said:

Please enlighten me then with your insider knowledge? Also I am not talking about south African riders, talking about UCI XCO and downhill riders. But what do they then earn if what I could find is badly skewed?  

lol 

[Shebeen]

14 hours ago, DieselnDust said:

It’s a bit of a catch 22. The epic needs a Red Bull to sponsor the event but can’t get a Red Bull because there isn’t enough big name athletes and the woman’s field is just too small and it’s too small because there just isn’t enough money flowing through the event. When it gets there , rest assured no amateur earning under $1million a year is going to be able to afford it.

the proverbial chicken or the egg?!

Epic fails to grow to a wider audience probably because the live coverage is not as good as other sports (and the TdF/road cycling). I do think they are world class in that regard, it is a difficult one to pull off.

 

BUT, Epic was sold in 2016 already....

surely the Wanda/ironman investment was supposed to bring more innovation and eyeballs.

surely advance buying it from Wanda was supposed to do the same.

anecdotally it seems to have gone backwards since then and maybe coincidentally because the  XCO guys left when the UCI cat/points changed. It is really just propped up by the amateurs (still mainly SA guys) to cover the costs. 

 

 

[DieselnDust]

The event actually owes a huge debt to Christoph Sauser. He was very instrumental in bringing more international racers out , got Investec asset management on board ( now Ninety one) and that In turn brought ABSA on board. All of this happened post the 2005 cape epic. 
not a lot had happened post that era. There was a format change in 2009 due in part to the need to make the event profitable and to keep riders engaged, especially the then emerging ex golfers. 
 

The coverage has improved incrementally as technology became available to improve the experience for spectators and sponsors alike. 
however the quality of the race field hasn’t improved much, with the ladies field being the most obvious example. There’s been plenty of opportunity to address this but its doesn’t appear to be a priority so I reckon the top pros are not as big a priority as it is sold, window dressing if you like to give the amateurs the opportunity of racing against the elites.

if it becomes a fully blown stage race series with appropriate prize money it could the become the real Tour de France of mountain biking

[mecheng89]

On 2/2/2024 at 10:46 AM, Jewbacca said:

I'd suggest 75% of cycling fans can't name the top 5 ranked XCM females without google.

I'd also say that getting unknowns onto teams is development, not having the top racers in the world competing, which is more in line with the marketing and coverage focus than a stepping stone TO the top tier.

So yes, it is entertaining, but it isn't the deep, competitive field of top female athletes that the coverage and hype says it is.

I can't give men's or women's names.

[Danger Dassie]

2 hours ago, Shebeen said:

the proverbial chicken or the egg?!

Epic fails to grow to a wider audience probably because the live coverage is not as good as other sports (and the TdF/road cycling). I do think they are world class in that regard, it is a difficult one to pull off.

 

BUT, Epic was sold in 2016 already....

surely the Wanda/ironman investment was supposed to bring more innovation and eyeballs.

surely advance buying it from Wanda was supposed to do the same.

anecdotally it seems to have gone backwards since then and maybe coincidentally because the  XCO guys left when the UCI cat/points changed. It is really just propped up by the amateurs (still mainly SA guys) to cover the costs. 

 

 

There's very much of an argument that WANDA/Ironman pulled more innovation than what they contributed and disrupted the organisational budget detrimentally.
Epic to a large extent has driven event media coverage and organisation standards in SA, that have been largely adopted internationally. Especially as international riders came away from events in SA. Crocodile Trophy for example. 
FYI Cape Epic is still very much and even split between international and local entries.