the unofficial Cape Epic thread

[babse]

42 minutes ago, SSCC said:

You mean the multiple times USA XC national champion? That guy? 

That exact guy! 

He hardly had a sniff on the front of yesterday prologue (XC type) and again off the pace today.

Hope he comes good and gives Beers a shot at another win!

[NotSoBigBen]

52 minutes ago, Mamil said:

I have never once managed to ride all the way up that rhino climb - and when I choose to take it on it's the worst part of the ride - as you say, they still had massive hills ahead.

I really don't know if I have an epic in me .... not that there's sponsors lining up of course.

You'd be surprised, I bet you do .... many that hear I've done it seem to find it hard to believe. Just saying

Only 1 though so can't really comment on anything here 😜

Edited March 17, 2025 by NotSoBigBen

[Danger Dassie]

Some prologue gallery vibes - https://off.road.cc/content/feature/2025-absa-cape-epic-prologue-gallery-16749

Edited March 17, 2025 by Danger Dassie

[Mamil]

Where's @DieselnDustride report? 

[ChrisF]

3 hours ago, MongooseMan said:

Hey, that’s me! 😂

Long story, but essentially a friend with a long backstory who needed a partner since he got dropped last minute.

i won’t pretend to be prepared (today was hell), but I’m giving it a go

 

Ride report please 

 

BEST wishes for your ride.

[DieselnDust]

30 minutes ago, Mamil said:

Where's @DieselnDustride report? 

Patience Paduwan 

[peetwindhoek]

49 minutes ago, Mamil said:

Where's @DieselnDustride report? 

Probably still riding, it looked brutal!

[babse]

10 minutes ago, peetwindhoek said:

Probably still riding, it looked brutal!

My thoughts exactly... I was gona say just jumped out the shower.

 

Looked einah 

[babse]

[MongooseMan]

1 hour ago, ChrisF said:

 

Ride report please 

 

BEST wishes for your ride.

Legs were largely fine today (I may not be an amabubesi, but I did start in & at CT August world champs 😉), and it actually wasn’t as hot as feared.

Did Rhino climb alongside a guy with one leg (amputated just below the hip, so not even a prosthetic). No excuses when this guy is single-leg drilling it past you, and then when everyone is pushing he’s either hopping next to his bike, or literally crawling if his partner is pushing both bikes. Hard as…

mountain bike conditioning isn’t there for me (obviously), and my lower back locked up at halfway. Limped to bloemendal and spent a while in the medic tent getting some magic spray.

last 2 climbs were absolutely brutal (think 16% in 5cm soft sand with direct midday sun).

Glad to have a later start tomorrow, though it’s gonna cook as we reach Paarl.

Edited March 17, 2025 by MongooseMan

[DieselnDust]

Stage1 Meerendal to Meerendal

vok what a day.

Firstly thanks to our intentionally slow prologue we ended up In “N” start group. No I wasn’t late….

loads of foreigners in the group, all super eager to prove their Mtb prowess. We started out riding with Johan and Chris. Johan has a thing for Carika. Keuzenkamp songs which he doesn’t sing except for a few short lines. So for the second day running we played a bit of Noot vir noot. Then Pooh got real when one of the mixed teams had a super nasty accident. I don’t like to rubberneck if I can’t help but it looked bad. Some riders stopped to help and we decided it best to carry on. Rider was out cold , broken helmet. No news of course from the race office. 
klipheuwel trails were next but the head wind made it quite a challenge. Me focussing on keeping my partner in one piece asking for his heart rate every time we hit a rise. Malanshoogte was next. Strangely we had formed echelons or even a peloton yet. Riders seemed apprehensive to get any closer together than necessary.

the water points are nice and efficient. Volunteers all wearing gloves and handing out food to the  riders. If you try to stick your hand in a cookie jar you get it donnered old school style. Many still try. Some of the foreign riders I foi d to be oddly aggressive trying to defend their lines by forcing you wide if you pass on the outside of them. The saffas seemed quite chilled except for Corrie and Pieter. Pieter was annoyed his electronic gears weren’t working very well. So they wanted to over take as many as possible so the annoyance could go away. An hour later they were still with us 

At Welvergenoegd  things started to get desperate. Riders trying to over take off line and getting punctures. 
 

Hogekraal was a lot of fun. Steep and loose at the end followed by a long rocky rutted descent leading to the pump track. Here I witnessed a really bad accident. Guy took off , went straight up and came straight down head first. Another one knocked out cold. His mates sprang into action super quick though and had control of the situation. I suspected a concussion and a broken clavicle.

next up was Conties and the dreaded Rhino climb. But first there was some uphill single track climbing and of course this means a queue! And so the queues continued all the way to the Rhino climb where the elastic eventually started to snap. Annanh Beulah had already taken the edge of nearly all in the N group and no M’s had caught us. I tackled the a rhino , wrestling that f@&)er till I reached the top. I waited 8 minutes for my teammate who was walking. The only other person that made it to the top on their bike was a dutchie named Wijnand.

then it was an 8 minute wait for my team mate as riders tripped and fell over each other walking up that climb. We then dropped down toward Ntida and another climb into the SEeaster.

lombards terra was a lot of fun but all the a-lines were shut down so it was super easy. 
thereafter they took us back up to the bloemendal tower via the back route up a climb that ended with the Boomslang trail. Fantastic route!!

I lost my partner many times today. When there is a huge disparity in the climbing ability on a climbing day the team dynamic gets tested to the max.

im dog tired now so ill sign off here. Stage 2 update to follow in the pm

 

[DieselnDust]

2 hours ago, babse said:

Even I rode evrything. No portage anywhere 

[OVERDRIVE]

I can feel the love for Beers' partner

[Robbie Stewart]

I just watched the stream of today (work makes day watching impossible) and man, what a day. It looked brutal from my couch. I can only imagine what it must've been like on the bike. I suspect that the starts batches will be much more sparsely populated tomorrow. Well done to everyone who's riding. 

[DieselnDust]

6 hours ago, Robbie Stewart said:

I just watched the stream of today (work makes day watching impossible) and man, what a day. It looked brutal from my couch. I can only imagine what it must've been like on the bike. I suspect that the starts batches will be much more sparsely populated tomorrow. Well done to everyone who's riding. 

It’s a time trial to Paarl today so teams set in 15 sec intervals (amateur field)

Edited March 18, 2025 by DieselnDust

[mecheng89]

Anyone know what's going on with 1-1, 1-2 (Beers, Swenson)?

Edited March 18, 2025 by mecheng89