Cape Epic 2026

[Skubarra]

35 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:

There is plenty but until recently not very well maintained. There was a race , the Makadas 75km marathon back in the 2000’s that included what looks like stage 1. Looking at the course map it looks like A lot of old trails from back then is being revived .

Camping there in December - will definitely go hunting for some "revived" Epic trails!

[milky4130]

1 hour ago, DieselnDust said:

There is plenty but until recently not very well maintained. There was a race , the Makadas 75km marathon back in the 2000’s that included what looks like stage 1. Looking at the course map it looks like A lot of old trails from back then is being revived .

As recent as 2021 we did WC Marathon Champs there, There was also a regular mtb event on the racing calendar called Montagu Mania if I'm not mistaken now.

[DieselnDust]

14 minutes ago, milky4130 said:

As recent as 2021 we did WC Marathon Champs there, There was also a regular mtb event on the racing calendar called Montagu Mania if I'm not mistaken now.

Montagu mania was mostly in private land? 
i was there over December holidays in 2022 and the easiest public trails was the Montagu trails . The other stuff I had to find farm houses and ask a Oom 

Edited October 13, 2025 by DieselnDust

[Skubarra]

18 minutes ago, milky4130 said:

As recent as 2021 we did WC Marathon Champs there, There was also a regular mtb event on the racing calendar called Montagu Mania if I'm not mistaken now.

I did the Doornlaagte mtb race few years back, very tough, lots of climbing, lots of rocks but not much singletrack that I remember. Montagu trails around town are also very limited? But if they are reviving old & unused trails for the race that's a great thing

[milky4130]

16 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:

Montagu mania was mostly in private land? 
i was there over December holidays in 2022 and the easiest public trails was the Montagu trails . The other stuff I had to find farm houses and ask a Oom 

 

8 minutes ago, Skubarra said:

I did the Doornlaagte mtb race few years back, very tough, lots of climbing, lots of rocks but not much singletrack that I remember. Montagu trails around town are also very limited? But if they are reviving old & unused trails for the race that's a great thing

I can’t imagine it all being seperate routes, definitely has to be some overlap. I remember gravel road out to the top of the climb and then back down the same way and you hit some jeep track and some short rocky single track. I’ll post my Strava Activity and then someone can overlay it.

https://strava.app.link/lRqMtMT9qXb

[babse]

4 hours ago, milky4130 said:

 

I can’t imagine it all being seperate routes, definitely has to be some overlap. I remember gravel road out to the top of the climb and then back down the same way and you hit some jeep track and some short rocky single track. I’ll post my Strava Activity and then someone can overlay it.

https://strava.app.link/lRqMtMT9qXb

#humblebrag

[DieselnDust]

18 hours ago, Skubarra said:

Camping there in December - will definitely go hunting for some "revived" Epic trails!

https://www.montagutrails.co.za/

 

https://makadasadventures.co.za/trails/

 

The publicly available trail network is relatively small, about 15km in total. Mostly a mix of single trail and jeep track. The bulk of the riding out there is on private land hence the "Ask a Oom".

he longer routes use district gravel roads mostly with a bit of single track here and there where farmers have allowed easy access without MTB'ers encroaching on farming activities. I did the Ouberg pass loop. Very scenic.

Edited October 14, 2025 by DieselnDust

[milky4130]

Bits of Stage 1 or 2? Going down this weekend, anyone entered for this?

https://www.entryninja.com/events/81659-the-hills-challenge-2025?fbclid=IwdGRleANcXvhleHRuA2FlbQExAAEe-wgGm2YNanCMIGjA6NoM3_yEaK303HsBxRBvKD8B8j2kQ-Fsm85Gf52HASw_aem_GyOgHnZF9AoqRTel1IKE6w

[mrcg]

2 hours ago, milky4130 said:

Bits of Stage 1 or 2? Going down this weekend, anyone entered for this?

https://www.entryninja.com/events/81659-the-hills-challenge-2025?fbclid=IwdGRleANcXvhleHRuA2FlbQExAAEe-wgGm2YNanCMIGjA6NoM3_yEaK303HsBxRBvKD8B8j2kQ-Fsm85Gf52HASw_aem_GyOgHnZF9AoqRTel1IKE6w

This looks lekker. Wish I had seen it earlier. Weather looks comfy too, although seems it might rain a bit in morning. Hmmmmm

[Bub Marley]

On 10/13/2025 at 3:33 PM, Rowl said:

Not like the ladies only train 6hrs per day and thus deserve 75% of the prize money.

 

Do the Springbok ladies and men's teams deserve the same remuneration given the different levels of the game, no necessarily not. Gender isn't always the main driver of pay in some industries/firms, other factors like market size/profit etc need to be considered.

 

Equal pay in the Epic, I think, is warranted even with the updated distance. Anyways.

Don’t think Prize Money is dictated by the amount of training you do.

 

Prize money is sponsor dependant. The reason most mens sport gets paid more is because their sponsors pay more. Now there’s a debate to be had on why that is the case but that’s not really important in this context. 

 

If we take cycling as a sport on its own, the mens game runs completely separate to the women’s. The dates are different, the routes are different and the sponsors are different. For the Epic, that’s not the case. Here they run together on the same weekend. It’s one event so I can understand the call for equal prize money but again, that’s all sponsor dependant. Personally, I think the ladies get proper coverage here compared to other races, so from a sponsorship point of view, I don’t feel like the coverage is less so I think it should be the same.

 

If you had to separate the race and have the women race a week later or something, then I don’t think you’d have the same eyes on the ladies race. So having everything in one event is better for the ladies.

 

In terms of the distances, this is just my opinion but physiologically men and women are different. The ladies race should 100% be shorter because they are not strong or as fast as the men. Those are pure facts. A shorter race for the ladies will 100% make it more entertaining. More ladies will try and attack, more breakaways etc. We dont want a situation where they all just ride in a pack, which actually does happen quite often. That’s also why people calling for the ladies Tour de France to be longer don’t understand how this would impact the dynamics of the race. Shorter races are more entertaining. Those are just facts. 

[Ozzie NL]

1 hour ago, Bub Marley said:

Don’t think Prize Money is dictated by the amount of training you do.

 

Prize money is sponsor dependant. The reason most mens sport gets paid more is because their sponsors pay more. Now there’s a debate to be had on why that is the case but that’s not really important in this context. 

 

If we take cycling as a sport on its own, the mens game runs completely separate to the women’s. The dates are different, the routes are different and the sponsors are different. For the Epic, that’s not the case. Here they run together on the same weekend. It’s one event so I can understand the call for equal prize money but again, that’s all sponsor dependant. Personally, I think the ladies get proper coverage here compared to other races, so from a sponsorship point of view, I don’t feel like the coverage is less so I think it should be the same.

 

If you had to separate the race and have the women race a week later or something, then I don’t think you’d have the same eyes on the ladies race. So having everything in one event is better for the ladies.

 

In terms of the distances, this is just my opinion but physiologically men and women are different. The ladies race should 100% be shorter because they are not strong or as fast as the men. Those are pure facts. A shorter race for the ladies will 100% make it more entertaining. More ladies will try and attack, more breakaways etc. We dont want a situation where they all just ride in a pack, which actually does happen quite often. That’s also why people calling for the ladies Tour de France to be longer don’t understand how this would impact the dynamics of the race. Shorter races are more entertaining. Those are just facts. 

"The ladies race should 100% be shorter because they are not strong or as fast as the men. Those are pure facts. A shorter race for the ladies will 100% make it more entertaining.  Shorter races are more entertaining. Those are just facts"

Most of the above is gender neutral. TdF and other grand tours have experimented with shorter stages for both men and women to make the racing more exciting.

I am of the view that women's races are too short.... on dirt they are typically equal and I do really not see an issue with that. Overall my feeling is that we would see different riders floating to the top if women races would be longer. As far as road is concerned, 

As I understand it the main driver for Epic is to get the women to finish at roughly the same time as the men which has got commercial benefits

Interestingly women are overall competitive in ultra distance events like Munga, SRMR etc

[Shebeen]

On 10/13/2025 at 5:15 PM, Skubarra said:

Love Montagu and love doing gravel rides there. But I don't know much about trails in the area? Not exactly a Stellenbosch or Paarl in terms of trail centres?

So is someone in the are building trails in the area for 2 days of 100km mtbing, are they going to do jeeptrack mostly or am I just unaware of the number of mtb trails in the area?

Spent a bit of time round there, having organised a 100km AR in the Koo Valley - lovely place.

Going back 20+ years, "The Krakadouw" was one of the classic MTB destination races on the calendar.

Mitzi from Makadas Adventures (https://makadasadventures.co.za/trails/) put on a night stage race series there called the Stargazer in the late 2000s, it was an awesome concept. Was over a long weekend/3 evenings? we would race ~40km starting at dusk, and this would be on roadbooks with a bit of marking along the way (pre feasible gps. We would finish about 9pmish, have a lekker braai and kuier for a bit. The next day you could whatever at your leisure. the one was based in montagu town itself, the next at Gecko rock. There was private single track involved, and this has probably come and gone over the years.

 

BUT,

Does epic need manicured single track?

I think these stages will see a bit of built trails, but the general jeep tracks there are naturally rocky and sketchy to keep you on your toes. I haven't looked at the race HQ or the routes but they have so many options to play with that I am certain there will be some exciting race routes.

 

 

[DieselnDust]

ah the Krakadouw! yes that was a superb event. I recall a long weekend adventure with Dial up Dick and Tannie Phillipa at the Krakadouw. Mitze puts on a proper event. Long may she continue

[Skubarra]

3 hours ago, Shebeen said:

 

Does epic need manicured single track?

I think these stages will see a bit of built trails, but the general jeep tracks there are naturally rocky and sketchy to keep you on your toes. I haven't looked at the race HQ or the routes but they have so many options to play with that I am certain there will be some exciting race routes.

 

 

Good point - obviously riders will miss out on the many established trails they had around Paarl & Stellenbosch this year, but Montagu will bring something different. Agree that the rocky jeep track in the area will bring its own challenges

[mrcg]

On 10/15/2025 at 9:16 PM, milky4130 said:

Bits of Stage 1 or 2? Going down this weekend, anyone entered for this?

https://www.entryninja.com/events/81659-the-hills-challenge-2025?fbclid=IwdGRleANcXvhleHRuA2FlbQExAAEe-wgGm2YNanCMIGjA6NoM3_yEaK303HsBxRBvKD8B8j2kQ-Fsm85Gf52HASw_aem_GyOgHnZF9AoqRTel1IKE6w

Can we get a ride/race report @milky4130 ? 😊

Edited October 20, 2025 by mrcg
Name

[milky4130]

11 hours ago, mrcg said:

Can we get a ride/race report @milky4130 ? 😊

I did not race it bro, was scheduled to run the Cape Town marathon that got cancelled. I must say this past weekend was rather busy on the racing calendar in the Western Cape. Durbie Dash, Tour De Plett & This Hille Challenge in Montague.