the unofficial Cape Epic thread

[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 Monday at 07:22 PM 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 22 hours ago by DieselnDust

[mecheng89]

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

Edited 18 hours ago by mecheng89

[dev null]

Welvergenoegd seemed aptly named for yesterday's ride. I am sure some of the riders had a private smile amongst the pain, sweat and dust on their mugs.

[Michael S]

Swenson struggling. 
Beers said in the interview he spent all day on the front and Keegan is having issues his back and it is becoming "a bit concerning"
Reckon he left it a bit late with coming out to SA, might still be acclimatising, hopefully he comes into it a bit as the race goes on. He was stil crit racing in the US on the 7th of March.

Edited 17 hours ago by Michael S

[babse]

51 minutes ago, mecheng89 said:

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

The multiple USA xco champ and "king of gravel" is suffering...

 

Shafted another minute plus today. Beers looks pretty dejected not being right up there.

[mecheng89]

1 minute ago, babse said:

The multiple USA xco champ and "king of gravel" is suffering...

 

Shafted another minute plus today. Beers looks pretty dejected not being right up there.

I just watched his interview. Claims Swenson is suffering. 

[mecheng89]

MB and KS came in 6th at 2m17 back, 5th on GC now, 9m17 back. 

[dev null]

So the "King of Gravel" had a reality check and is nowhere near "King of South African Gravel". We might find his bike on the bottom of the dam at the top of Paarlberg by the end of the day tomorrow.

Edited 17 hours ago by dev null

['Dale]

My office for the morning:

Conditions are typical summer heat in early autumn with a mild southerly breeze that only dries the throat and not cool the radiator. A perfect day for a hydration pack, although I didn’t see too many on the early starters. 
I suspect the heat has, ironically, made riders opt for water points and not carry excess weight and keep optimal ventilation on the core area and back.

Almost a 1000m mostly rolling terrain today, so pacing strategy and communication will be key.

[dev null]

Probably the best strategy for today will be to gooi mielies to finish early so as to get out of the sun before the serious heat for the day sets in. They will need as much moisture in their bodies as possible for tomorrow. You do not want to be out there on the road too long in the afternoon heat of today.

Edited 17 hours ago by dev null

[mecheng89]

33 minutes ago, dev null said:

So the "King of Gravel" had a reality check and is nowhere near "King of South African Gravel". We might find his bike on the bottom of the dam at the top of Paarlberg by the end of the day tomorrow.

I've been told he only arrived in the country 3 days ago. I don't think that's ideal prep.

Let's hope they can re-strategize, re-group and attack from tomorrow onwards.