the unofficial Cape Epic thread

[JohanDiv]

8 minutes ago, ChrisF said:

 

Truly a sad day in the sport.

 

Today should start cooling down ... just hope it is not hot and humid as the rain moves in.

 

Hope your team mate recovers well enough to complete today.

 

BEST wishes bud !

It's already hot and humid. At least it looks like there might be some cloud cover this morning. Rain only moving in late afternoon. The dust bowl race village will be a mud fest by 8pm

[Mook]

4 minutes ago, JohanDiv said:

It's already hot and humid. At least it looks like there might be some cloud cover this morning. Rain only moving in late afternoon. The dust bowl race village will be a mud fest by 8pm

Clocked 28 deg C in Wellington at 05:45 this morning. Humidity is next level with typical thunder cloud cover. Rain expected within next 24 hours.

Conditions might just go further south than yesterday 😬

[ChrisF]

10 minutes ago, Mook said:

Clocked 28 deg C in Wellington at 05:45 this morning. Humidity is next level with typical thunder cloud cover. Rain expected within next 24 hours.

Conditions might just go further south than yesterday 😬

 

NOT good for those that barely made the cut yesterday.

 

Personally I can cope with the 40 degrees, (for a bit ... did my Rapha in those conditions, riding past Malmesbury and Paarl).  But once it gets hot and humid I suffer !

 

This is turning into a real tester of a race.

[PhilipV]

On a less somber note:

Annika Langvad is smashing it, all while being a new mom. My respect for her just reached epic proportions. 
 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DHWTMl8uiDw/?igsh=YWM3dW0zcWQ3ZWh1

[guidodg]

https://www.mtbr.com/threads/absa-cape-epic-2025.1234295/page-10

[Iwan Kemp]

7 hours ago, JohanDiv said:

...

Sure it was hot, I needed two water bottles for my 20km ride.. but you have to question the fitness/readiness from some of the riders. I've basically stopped riding my bike since 36One last year, overweight and in my worst shape in the last decade, and I was moving at double the speed up that climb than some of the riders. There is no way I'd even consider entering the Epic in my current shape! They will have to start looking at a screening process for entrants for their own safety. 

...

Let me get this right. You did this one 20km ride this week. That correct? You did not do the Prologue at full tilt, suffered through Stage 1, the stage 2 time trial that even the proest pros said was more XCC than XCM and then took on the heat of stage 3 from the start line? Also, I doubt you were pacing yourself to try and make it to the finish line, and then do another 4 stages.

If it is correct, how does that even remotely compare? 

[dev null]

8 hours ago, JohanDiv said:

I see now that the organizers told Netwerk24 that it is false that they ran out of water, and that there are no fatalities. 

Any decent investigative journalist will be able to fish out the truth. We know what our mates riding the Epic reported back, and we have no reason not to believe them.

Edited Thursday at 06:30 AM by dev null

[dev null]

8 hours ago, JohanDiv said:

I did some spectating today. Went straight up a 400m climb from town towards Krismis Camp. Ended up climbing 6km with Batch L on the route before turning up to the spectating point. The mood was dreadful apart from one lady and a few Ausies chatting. 

Sure it was hot, I needed two water bottles for my 20km ride.. but you have to question the fitness/readiness from some of the riders. I've basically stopped riding my bike since 36One last year, overweight and in my worst shape in the last decade, and I was moving at double the speed up that climb than some of the riders. There is no way I'd even consider entering the Epic in my current shape! They will have to start looking at a screening process for entrants for their own safety. 

Canceling was the right call. 2022 Stage 1 is still fresh in my mind where we got caught in the heat without water on The Neck climb going to Lourensford. That day someone died on that climb. I hope the rumors about 3 fatalities today is inaccurate and thay the organizers learned from that day and pulled the plug early enough today. I HOPE. 

Few years ago I was planning to do the Duzi. Before you can do the Duzi you have to complete the Fish (B grade race I think), and before you can do the Fish you have to complete a few C grade races, and before you can do that you have to pass a competency test, both theoretical and practical.

Surely for such high stakes events they can implement the same. It is time that the UCI step in and demand the same or else the Epic lose their UCI status.

[love2fly]

It would be of interest to know for sure and what that info is based on ie seeing an unconscious rider on the trail vs a more "definite" situation.

I'll leave it there and not  wanting to appear ghoulish, but more so making sure organisers aren't keeping facts to themselves.....

[mecheng89]

13 hours ago, Bro Derek said:

'School Ties' was a part of the 'My Only Story' series. 

Deon Wiggett went pretty deep across a number of destinations and situations 

Will give it a listen over the long weekend.

[mecheng89]

12 hours ago, ChrisF said:

 

Yea, @babse has his hair in twist because I dared to comment on the number of people that walked the Missing Link hill on the Prologue.

 

More to the point, I asked how did people CHOOSE THEIR GEARING if they have to walk the Missing link after the first 20km, as there will be much worse hills to come in the event.  But hey, let facts not stand in the way of good gat krap ....

No granny gear on earth is going to save you if you haven't put in the training. That's what I suspect the issue is. Either that, or the other extreme, overtraining. 

[mecheng89]

11 hours ago, Danger Dassie said:

Being on site throughout the day, some facts that are due are that the start was earlier, the route was shortened, and cutoffs were extended along with extra water. Unfortunately, it can also be compounded by someone dousing themselves with water. Yes they shouldn't and yes they should be stopped, but for anyone who has been involved with events, try stopping someone in that condition from doing so. 
There were also a host of other issues brought about. What I did see on site was vehicles with extra water going out. The decision to stop riders at Christmas Camp (66km) could well have compounded this. However, with the air ambulance operating, the call had to be made. The event also put out an emergency evac, which called for all staff, etc., to take vehicles up to the evacuation point and bring riders down. 
I'd say approx 220 od people were evacuated in the space of an hour or two. Trucks etc went up to collect bike. The staff and officials took pictures of each registration as well as rider numbers.
As far as fatality/ies go, there's no confirmation and if so it requires a severe amount of delicacy, family would be involved and any priority of notice is toward them. There is also the fact that in such a scenario for most, they'd prefer to keep such a thing private. It should be respected, no argument.

It's a difficult call to make, hindsight is always perfect, and no doubt there are questions to be asked. On the keyboard flipside there's those who are calling the decision soft, and fairweather riders. Personally, I feel that these are those kinds of moments people should step back a little until the dust settles. 

What is your role in the organization of the event?

[mecheng89]

10 minutes ago, dev null said:

Few years ago I was planning to do the Duzi. Before you can do the Duzi you have to complete the Fish (B grade race I think), and before you can do the Fish you have to complete a few C grade races, and before you can do that you have to pass a competency test, both theoretical and practical.

Surely for such high stakes events they can implement the same. It is time that the UCI step in and demand the same or else the Epic lose their UCI status.

One would think that if the UCI has put their own HC categorisation on this race, they'd have done some sort of homework. According to the Epic website, there are only 4 other races worldwide that are classified as such. 3 of those are the famous grand tours, and some random race in Cyprus no one has ever heard of.

[MongooseMan]

15 minutes ago, mecheng89 said:

What is your role in the organization of the event?

Edit: sorry, wrong person

Edited Thursday at 06:45 AM by MongooseMan

[mecheng89]

1 hour ago, PhilipV said:

On a less somber note:

Annika Langvad is smashing it, all while being a new mom. My respect for her just reached epic proportions. 
 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DHWTMl8uiDw/?igsh=YWM3dW0zcWQ3ZWh1

Go mom, go!

Edited Thursday at 06:55 AM by mecheng89
Removed contents of the post due to negative feedback

[Lynskey]

1 hour ago, mecheng89 said:

Edited

This is close on the worst post I have ever seen on this platform.