the unofficial Cape Epic thread

[Spafsack]

Very sad, 51 years is not old at all, jeez like.

[@grootlem]

47 minutes ago, Shebeen said:

 

Hendrik, that's a bit unnecessary comment (after doing so well). To make such a statement you must know plenty to back it up. Someone died, and it looks like it could have been avoidable.

(edit: Ben = Ronny's riding partner for 2025.) He was not some noob, this was his third epic. (I think, Epic have in their wisdom killed the rider history function from 2025, so this is legacy info still up on their site - nice one again)

 

RIP Ronny. 

 

I went to Ben's Facebook after one of the route guys told me earlier today how a Belgian shouted at his partner when the doctor said it's not safe to continue and then I heard the bad news. 

 

Edited Monday at 03:36 PM by @grootlem

[DieselnDust]

29 minutes ago, @grootlem said:

What’s has Ben’s antics from another event got to do with 5 other riders aiding Ronny for 90 minutes before help arrived? Were you there? No Henrik you weren’t. I can vouch for that because I was there as they tried to cool him down, checked his pulse regularly. You weren’t there with a helpless feeling , understanding that Ronny and others were beyond the help of the people trying to help.

how they got into the situation they were in is understandable to me. I was there.
The time for blame will come and everyone is asking themselves “what could have been done differently?” My heart goes out to the two young ladies and Ben who sat with Ronny for that 90min trying to cool him down before help came running down the trail. Maybe lay off the blame for now huh…?

there was at least 6 other people in a similar condition that I passed and checked in on. 
 

we can chat about qualifying criteria a different time. I’m fully supportive of that for several reasons. It will mean bad things for the sponsors program though

Edited Monday at 03:26 PM by DieselnDust

[Shebeen]

23 minutes ago, @grootlem said:

so let me get this straight,

guy rides 500 miles on an velodrome track. passes out momentarily. 

Doc says: "that's probably enough"

He goes back out to see what it's like and rides another 5 laps (so 1,25km) and then calls it quits.

 

but you're going to give him anonymous advice on how to move on from this tragedy on the day his race partner passes away? And defend it with your desktop research?

Welcome back to the hub, I guess. Don't lose those login details.

 

Ben Elst, if you're reading this - not all of us share this opinion. Sorry for the loss and the tragedy this adventure has become for you and your friends.

 

 

 

 

[@grootlem]

I will edit my post. I was angry after I was told what he shouted at his partner when a medic advised him not to continue at a water point. 

Edited Monday at 03:36 PM by @grootlem

[W Smith]

On 3/13/2025 at 8:50 AM, SamTaylor said:

There’s two days back to back there that are seriously tough. You’re gonna need all your technical skills, and your best climbing legs just to have a shot at staying with the race there. Add to that some extreme heat which Paarl rock can dish up in spades, and you are in for some fun.

plus, racing hard on those trails will require a lot of good luck as well, that there are no mechanicals or crashes to ruin your day. 
 

so that all added up, I reckon will make those two days the decider in terms of the elite field, and I think a lot amateurs will be caught out and end their epic there, especially if it’s hot. 

Always listen to the locals .

[DieselnDust]

Just now, @grootlem said:

I will take down my post. I was angry after I was told what he shouted at his partner when a medic advised him not to continue at a water point. 

remember, when dehydration sets in, people don't see the wood from the fire. The medics will advise but people still make the choice for them. My team mate wanted to continue despite having elevated  blood pressure. I literally told the medic to remove his number before they pulled him. Amateurs think getting through the adversity is going to earn kudos on stage later that night.

I get where you're coming from but now is not the time. Many teams at Wp2 faced the same situation. Some got lucky and some didn't, Rhebokskloof bit. 

I firmly believe that there comes a time when the race organization has to take a firm human health stance and impose a conservative limit and pull the plug on the stage, or route the event such that medical assistance is quickly available and where riders can cool down. When outsiders have to jump in and assist it is unacceptable and the event has lost control; A farmer set up a hose under a gazebo to cool riders down, I was given water and ice from a spectator after the emergency WP at the Rhebokskloof exit could only give me 250ml because they didn't have enough.  This is simply not acceptable.

 

The selling position #untamed strokes ego, and this kills....from both sides.

I've been sending out sponsorship proposals for one of our MTBer's. A couple of responses I received back was "isn't that an extreme sport? We don't want our brand displayed on sports were people could die on social media coverage." Deaths at the Epic make this situation more dire. It is not desirable at all. The result is we are fed half truths, sematics overlaid by feelgood stories so that sponsors feel all is under control. Damage limitation.

[RobynE]

Heat stroke is a clear and present danger in any species and how each individual descends into it, differs. I might be ***ting myself on the trail, projectile vomiting, someone else might ride themselves off the cliffside in delirium, someone else might have a vicious headache but nothing else, someone else might get violently ill way later after everything is said and done. 

Fact is, it took 90 minutes for qualified help to arrive. If the patient had fallen off the side of the mountain and was hard to access, fine. But by all accounts he succumbed to it on the track, and was accessible. So where was the help? Helping elsewhere?

Why wasn’t there enough help on a day like that? Rather you pay for 20 medics who don’t unzip their bags than have 20 patients and no medics. 

Imagine Ronny was your child, your brother, your spouse. Would 90 minutes be acceptable then? 

 

[WaynejG]

12 hours ago, DieselnDust said:

Stage 7: so glad it’s over

 

firstly, I’m going to thank Lake Cycling SA, Williams Bike Shop, The Bike Uitsig and Lance the_skills_coach and dietician Kate Standley for all the help they gave me in preparation for the Cape Epic. None of them knew what they were prepping me for but that’s besides the point. These are great people, support them please. Also Special mention to Robbie's Bicycle Concept who loan me a brand new RS SiDLuxe Ultimate after the damper shaft in Float DPS let go for the 2nd time in 2years on stage 6. Without this help I would not have been able to complete the event.

Back to the stage, As you are well aware, the Neck became a muddy slipfest , so badly that two course recon vehicles got stuck up there last night. Basis this it became inevitable that the course would be altered. Prayers were answered!!

we ended up with a 42km 900 m short route gravel bike race . I’m not complaining, I’m celebrating. The last 10km were once again a mud fest that had the bike wash backed up for hours. But the traffic out of Lourensford was backed up even longer so the wait for a clean bike was at least tolerable. Gave me time to write this up.

So this is my fourth ACE. Being an  Amaboepensie I can say what i like without any “what-do-you-know” statements.

It’s a great feeling to cross the line for your first epic. The second becomes a little routine and the third is a celebration because you join the Special Persons Club known as Amabubesi. The fourth is a journey into the what next with questions like, “ do I want to do more, why do I want to do more etc. you reach a moment where you realise something has changed and the obsession is shifting or changing.

change can be good and it can be bad. It depends on your point of view.

the cape epic has always been tough from day 1 in 2004. Kevin was always focussed on rider experience. Between 2016 to 2018 there was a shift. By 2025 that shift has resulted in loss of a good experience to full on survival. Now for some that may be a good thing, it’s a matter of perspective. Going back through training logs and old warthog posts I realise it has become the animal I wanted 20years ago; more and enjoyable single track with slightly shorter stages. Over the years as I’ve spectated from computer screen I craved to be able to ride it more and I got the opportunity this year when a friend living and working abroad invited me to ride it with him. From day 1 he didn’t enjoy the experience.

registration was cold and almost too efficient. That again is a matter of perspective. We felt it was stake your things and go experience but we had to walk a long way to collect bags. A long way back to the cars, along way for everything. Registration and the first 2 nights were going to be at Meerendal. Our tents were on a massive slope with the dining and medical tents at the top of the hill. So walking to the toilet or dinner was a laboured affair. The bike park was another 300m away at the finishline while TweedeKamp was nearly 1km away in the opposite direction!!! I walked over 10000steps per day everyday while at the Meerendal venue. Good for recovery? No!

Fairview was a thorny dust bowl, again with Tweede Kamp over half a km away. Possibly one of the worst venues ever right up there with the horse paddocks of Arrabella Wines in Robertson 2018. Gone are high school sports grounds, hello working farms. Next I’m sure it will be cattle barns…

Lourensford was decent. Unfortunately we had bad weather. But again the dining tent was a way off.

the food was average at best. Either too fatty or too dry and I didn’t see olive oil . Maybe it was just me. After Wednesday stage 3 we all needed light cool food , instead we got heavy fatty food. Not ideal meals for recovery.

the tents are an improvement but the water proofing sucks. I moved out of mine at Lourensford and camped at home because I could not keep the tent dry. It’s was always wet and the tent crew just laughed off requests and complaints.

i also didn’t know how the racing was shaping up. I will have to catch up this week. When you’re being beaten up everyday there’s no time to think outside of Me. You see this every amateur competitor. There is no #Gees. For that you need to find an s as alternate event. It’s moer en trap Elle dag. 
the toilets worked with only onetime I saw someone barely made it and shat on top of the lid and left the pressie. Too much carbs will wreck your gut. The urinals were a disappointment. Lovely design, no running water. Maybe middle class people don’t wash their hands after urinating? I don’t know but I do wash my hands. So I never shook anyone’s hand, fist bumps only.

This has all translated into a poor customer experience. I’m not alone. We had 6-7hrs per day to chat about it. I reckon the satisfaction ratings are way down or maybe they will just use feedback back, spin it and tell everybody to keep smiling. This is all juxtaposed by the sense of achievement of completing a gruelling event successfully. So hopefully the negatives are viewed constructively to build a better event.

The last focus area relates to us the riders. Technical and mechanical skills, ego. Everyone is using SRAM AXS. So much so that the head of SRAM marketing came out to ride a few of the stages. They take innovation and customer satisfaction seriously. AXS is awesome as long as the device connector pins don't bind or the connector pin springs don’t break. Good connection is key to electron flow. The solution is simple, use leaf spring pins on the battery not the device. The current design is fine when you’re in Europe where it was conceived and largely tested but not for the #untamed winelands dust and mud. So now if something goes wrong riders just stand and model in the middle of the trail. Even plugging tyres will have to become electronic to keep these ironpersons rolling. Garmin will have to create new apps that inform the rider how an obstacle looks on approach and departure because without they don’t seem to know how to ride. I rode up to F batch on some days, and technical riding skills are severely lacking. It was a massive problem on Wednesday in Rheebokskloof and Thursday through the XCO courses around Paarl. It was a major contributor to riders falling foul of the heat. I wasted an hour waiting in queues. An hour extra hydrations hour extra of being cooked. Add anxiety and brain and core muscle function becomes severely impacted. This in no way removes some poor organisational decisions , like letting the route use so much of RBK in the  heat but I do believe that by entering the event you have to equip yourself with nutritional and riding skill, not AXS. I include nutritional skill because  people watch too much nonsense on SM and have a number in their head that becomes a target without understanding the  metabolism that it needs to work with. 
 

Was it worth it? From a personal achievement perspective, yes. I used my science based and taught coaching methodologies, my dietician and my relationship with other coaches to develop my approach. A doctor needs a doctor, a coach needs a coach. My teammate, like many others used what worked for him in the past. That didn’t work. We’re all older and our bodies change. You move to another country your diet changes which influences your physiology which requires adjustment to your training to normalise / acclimatise yourself. I learned a lot about myself, I have to unpack my notes, digest and adjust my approach where necessary.

from a financial perspective I did this event on the cheap but others are spending up to R500,000-00 to just finish the Cape Epic. I certainly would not spend the bulk of that on an electronic kit equipped bike. It’s not necessary it’s an ego purchase and therein lies the rub. So much of the amateur mindset is focussed on ego for the ACE. Even carbs per hour is now Dick swinging contest. I had no bugs , no stomach bugs , no gastric distress despite eating in the Dining tent. Yet the common excuse for the runs is “stomach bug” while Mr bug is him reading the paper and mrs Bug is minding her own business knitting the kid bug jerseys so they can infect you in May when our next round of flu “bug” comes to visit.  
 

so the medals will be hung up and put on display, the t-shirt will be worn and the stickers applied to something where the sense of achievement can be a reminder to celebrate. Right now I feel tired. My sleep pattern is abnormal from getting up twice during the night due to fluid intake to ensure no dehydration and keep sodium Levels up. At some point I’ll brag about it before it slips into the treasure chest of life experience, but for now it’s work tomorrow with  a different set of demands.

cheers 

 

ps: I haven’t tried a mixed team yet…🤔

 

As someone once said, “Ego is the anaesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity”.

[GLuvsMtb]

16 hours ago, DieselnDust said:

Stage 7: so glad it’s over

 

firstly, I’m going to thank Lake Cycling SA, Williams Bike Shop, The Bike Uitsig and Lance the_skills_coach and dietician Kate Standley for all the help they gave me in preparation for the Cape Epic. None of them knew what they were prepping me for but that’s besides the point. These are great people, support them please. Also Special mention to Robbie's Bicycle Concept who loan me a brand new RS SiDLuxe Ultimate after the damper shaft in Float DPS let go for the 2nd time in 2years on stage 6. Without this help I would not have been able to complete the event.

Back to the stage, As you are well aware, the Neck became a muddy slipfest , so badly that two course recon vehicles got stuck up there last night. Basis this it became inevitable that the course would be altered. Prayers were answered!!

we ended up with a 42km 900 m short route gravel bike race . I’m not complaining, I’m celebrating. The last 10km were once again a mud fest that had the bike wash backed up for hours. But the traffic out of Lourensford was backed up even longer so the wait for a clean bike was at least tolerable. Gave me time to write this up.

So this is my fourth ACE. Being an  Amaboepensie I can say what i like without any “what-do-you-know” statements.

It’s a great feeling to cross the line for your first epic. The second becomes a little routine and the third is a celebration because you join the Special Persons Club known as Amabubesi. The fourth is a journey into the what next with questions like, “ do I want to do more, why do I want to do more etc. you reach a moment where you realise something has changed and the obsession is shifting or changing.

change can be good and it can be bad. It depends on your point of view.

the cape epic has always been tough from day 1 in 2004. Kevin was always focussed on rider experience. Between 2016 to 2018 there was a shift. By 2025 that shift has resulted in loss of a good experience to full on survival. Now for some that may be a good thing, it’s a matter of perspective. Going back through training logs and old warthog posts I realise it has become the animal I wanted 20years ago; more and enjoyable single track with slightly shorter stages. Over the years as I’ve spectated from computer screen I craved to be able to ride it more and I got the opportunity this year when a friend living and working abroad invited me to ride it with him. From day 1 he didn’t enjoy the experience.

registration was cold and almost too efficient. That again is a matter of perspective. We felt it was stake your things and go experience but we had to walk a long way to collect bags. A long way back to the cars, along way for everything. Registration and the first 2 nights were going to be at Meerendal. Our tents were on a massive slope with the dining and medical tents at the top of the hill. So walking to the toilet or dinner was a laboured affair. The bike park was another 300m away at the finishline while TweedeKamp was nearly 1km away in the opposite direction!!! I walked over 10000steps per day everyday while at the Meerendal venue. Good for recovery? No!

Fairview was a thorny dust bowl, again with Tweede Kamp over half a km away. Possibly one of the worst venues ever right up there with the horse paddocks of Arrabella Wines in Robertson 2018. Gone are high school sports grounds, hello working farms. Next I’m sure it will be cattle barns…

Lourensford was decent. Unfortunately we had bad weather. But again the dining tent was a way off.

the food was average at best. Either too fatty or too dry and I didn’t see olive oil . Maybe it was just me. After Wednesday stage 3 we all needed light cool food , instead we got heavy fatty food. Not ideal meals for recovery.

the tents are an improvement but the water proofing sucks. I moved out of mine at Lourensford and camped at home because I could not keep the tent dry. It’s was always wet and the tent crew just laughed off requests and complaints.

i also didn’t know how the racing was shaping up. I will have to catch up this week. When you’re being beaten up everyday there’s no time to think outside of Me. You see this every amateur competitor. There is no #Gees. For that you need to find an s as alternate event. It’s moer en trap Elle dag. 
the toilets worked with only onetime I saw someone barely made it and shat on top of the lid and left the pressie. Too much carbs will wreck your gut. The urinals were a disappointment. Lovely design, no running water. Maybe middle class people don’t wash their hands after urinating? I don’t know but I do wash my hands. So I never shook anyone’s hand, fist bumps only.

This has all translated into a poor customer experience. I’m not alone. We had 6-7hrs per day to chat about it. I reckon the satisfaction ratings are way down or maybe they will just use feedback back, spin it and tell everybody to keep smiling. This is all juxtaposed by the sense of achievement of completing a gruelling event successfully. So hopefully the negatives are viewed constructively to build a better event.

The last focus area relates to us the riders. Technical and mechanical skills, ego. Everyone is using SRAM AXS. So much so that the head of SRAM marketing came out to ride a few of the stages. They take innovation and customer satisfaction seriously. AXS is awesome as long as the device connector pins don't bind or the connector pin springs don’t break. Good connection is key to electron flow. The solution is simple, use leaf spring pins on the battery not the device. The current design is fine when you’re in Europe where it was conceived and largely tested but not for the #untamed winelands dust and mud. So now if something goes wrong riders just stand and model in the middle of the trail. Even plugging tyres will have to become electronic to keep these ironpersons rolling. Garmin will have to create new apps that inform the rider how an obstacle looks on approach and departure because without they don’t seem to know how to ride. I rode up to F batch on some days, and technical riding skills are severely lacking. It was a massive problem on Wednesday in Rheebokskloof and Thursday through the XCO courses around Paarl. It was a major contributor to riders falling foul of the heat. I wasted an hour waiting in queues. An hour extra hydrations hour extra of being cooked. Add anxiety and brain and core muscle function becomes severely impacted. This in no way removes some poor organisational decisions , like letting the route use so much of RBK in the  heat but I do believe that by entering the event you have to equip yourself with nutritional and riding skill, not AXS. I include nutritional skill because  people watch too much nonsense on SM and have a number in their head that becomes a target without understanding the  metabolism that it needs to work with. 
 

Was it worth it? From a personal achievement perspective, yes. I used my science based and taught coaching methodologies, my dietician and my relationship with other coaches to develop my approach. A doctor needs a doctor, a coach needs a coach. My teammate, like many others used what worked for him in the past. That didn’t work. We’re all older and our bodies change. You move to another country your diet changes which influences your physiology which requires adjustment to your training to normalise / acclimatise yourself. I learned a lot about myself, I have to unpack my notes, digest and adjust my approach where necessary.

from a financial perspective I did this event on the cheap but others are spending up to R500,000-00 to just finish the Cape Epic. I certainly would not spend the bulk of that on an electronic kit equipped bike. It’s not necessary it’s an ego purchase and therein lies the rub. So much of the amateur mindset is focussed on ego for the ACE. Even carbs per hour is now Dick swinging contest. I had no bugs , no stomach bugs , no gastric distress despite eating in the Dining tent. Yet the common excuse for the runs is “stomach bug” while Mr bug is him reading the paper and mrs Bug is minding her own business knitting the kid bug jerseys so they can infect you in May when our next round of flu “bug” comes to visit.  
 

so the medals will be hung up and put on display, the t-shirt will be worn and the stickers applied to something where the sense of achievement can be a reminder to celebrate. Right now I feel tired. My sleep pattern is abnormal from getting up twice during the night due to fluid intake to ensure no dehydration and keep sodium Levels up. At some point I’ll brag about it before it slips into the treasure chest of life experience, but for now it’s work tomorrow with  a different set of demands.

cheers 

 

ps: I haven’t tried a mixed team yet…🤔

 

Well said D&D. My own experience and ambitions to one day do the ride of all rides was buried many moons ago. I opted for more user friendly events ,i.e. smaller events that is more budget-friendly and affords me the opportunity to go for a clamping / guest house option to enable me to get the maximum return for my training and money spent. I also prefer solo events to team events as the team dynamic adds little to improve my race. The only time I'll even consider doing a W2W or S2C is if the entry is free, and most importantly, my racing partner understands that it's a team event. For ACE money I'll rather go and do 4 islands, or go do another BCBR and have a decent break for a week or so with the change. My thoughts go out to the rider who passed away. Hopefully the event learns from this. While we can't stick warning labels on everything, event orginisers have a big responsibility to factor extreme conditions and make pro active changes to mitigate these risks. There will always be the keyboard ninjas claiming that they've gone "soft" (these comments are ageing like milk right now), but these views are irrelevant when rider safety is concerned. There were many good things at this year's event. Media coverage was superb, the racing was out of this world and using so much existing trails gives the Western Cape so much exposure. Finally a big shout out to all that participated this year. You all have earned that medal and T Shirt, so wear them proudly.  

[DieselnDust]

I’m only starting to catch up on the media coverage now. It was indeed superb. The pros made dat 1 look easy because they ride everything. The amateurs had varying degrees of competence through the field so sometimes the steel

climbs required walking or the singletrack and that added a lot to our day coupled to starting later made it all the more much much harder. When I compare my moving be elapsed times there’s always more than An hour giveaway. That’s a lot of recovery time lost right there

[Squier]

I finished my first Epic on Sunday. It was brutal in every sense of the word but also the best riding (trails) I've experienced. 

The max for Wednesday was forecasted at 39. I recorded 46 on my Garmin. My partner was pulled by the medics at wp2 and sent to race hospital. Ended up finishing alone. It was a war zone out there.

That day would have been a super tough day even in mild weather. It was almost all single-track. I went past a guy completely unresponsive on the trail. Marshall's were already there but access would have been a problem. Likely that it could have been Ronny. (RIP)

That day stands out as the toughest, but all the other days weren't far off...

[CARANXCycleMobile]

RIP Ronny.

 

The heat on those two stages was out of this world. I recorded a 45 Deg Celsius average hitting 58 Deg C for almost 2 hours long a situation you can't mimic training / prepare for. Water points close to each other but took longer you'd think to reach by guessing and not filling up between WP's. Its not fair to judge and point fingers if you weren't there participating in the event.        

[DieselnDust]

35 minutes ago, Squier said:

I finished my first Epic on Sunday. It was brutal in every sense of the word but also the best riding (trails) I've experienced. 

The max for Wednesday was forecasted at 39. I recorded 46 on my Garmin. My partner was pulled by the medics at wp2 and sent to race hospital. Ended up finishing alone. It was a war zone out there.

That day would have been a super tough day even in mild weather. It was almost all single-track. I went past a guy completely unresponsive on the trail. Marshall's were already there but access would have been a problem. Likely that it could have been Ronny. (RIP)

That day stands out as the toughest, but all the other days weren't far off...

we must have been riding fairly close to each other. We got to Wp2 at 11hr35am. I left shortly after 12h05 before the WP was closed. Left my team mate there as well

[mazambaan]

47 minutes ago, Squier said:

I finished my first Epic on Sunday. It was brutal in every sense of the word but also the best riding (trails) I've experienced. 

The max for Wednesday was forecasted at 39. I recorded 46 on my Garmin. My partner was pulled by the medics at wp2 and sent to race hospital. Ended up finishing alone. It was a war zone out there.

That day would have been a super tough day even in mild weather. It was almost all single-track. I went past a guy completely unresponsive on the trail. Marshall's were already there but access would have been a problem. Likely that it could have been Ronny. (RIP)

That day stands out as the toughest, but all the other days weren't far off...

Well done to all finishers and, having had a few overheating (and freezing) experiences where some part of your brain tells you "You could die here" I am exceedingly impressed by Stephan & DnD et al.

After listening to a few friends' comments on their Epics I quickly realised it was out of my capability so I watch on and off from afar. My overall impression is that it is a bit like a poorly organised Dakar Rallye where it was rumoured that the organisers only allow for half the participants to get beyond halfway (and a few sad deaths each year RIP Elmer Symons).

Like Dakar, I'm guessing it will continue to have a full field but we shall see.

[ChrisF]

4 minutes ago, mazambaan said:

Well done to all finishers and, having had a few overheating (and freezing) experiences where some part of your brain tells you "You could die here" I am exceedingly impressed by Stephan & DnD et al.

After listening to a few friends' comments on their Epics I quickly realised it was out of my capability so I watch on and off from afar. My overall impression is that it is a bit like a poorly organised Dakar Rallye where it was rumoured that the organisers only allow for half the participants to get beyond halfway (and a few sad deaths each year RIP Elmer Symons).

Like Dakar, I'm guessing it will continue to have a full field but we shall see.

 

Much like the Dakar the media concentrate on the "front runners" .... while the "real stories" unfold much later in the field.

 

Respect to one and all the finished this Epic.  Thoughts with those that got pulled by the medics .....