Absa Cape Epic 2008 Route

“We don’t intentionally make the route harder and harder very year”, these were the words from Kevin Vermaak at the Cape Epic 2008 route launch gala last night as he introduced arguably one of the toughest routes yet. Launched at the Gala evening the route with 966km and over 18000m of climbing including the extra prologue day is going to be one serious ride. The evening was packed with the who’s who of SA MTB as well as some international MTB legends and local SA celebrities. It was a bit difficult to recognise the cyclists in black tie attire, but the local MTN Raleigh road and MTB team were there, as was Christoph Sauser and MTB pioneer Gary Fisher in amongst the other SA bike industry leaders. It was clear that the Cape Epic had reached a new level and become a truly world class and trend setting event.


The footage shown had images of climbs, rocks sand and awesome scenery showed just enough to alert the scenes, but not enough to scare you off. Introducing the new route Kevin Vermaak said the intention was not to make it harder every year, bat rather to go to new places in the Western Cape. To show off the spectacular scenery the route had to be stretched a bit to include some new technical and challenging sections. He said that history had shown more and more riders finishing the race every year, so to continue the trend this year and extra bit of training would be required.

The 2008 race route is as follows:
Prologue: 17km 310m in the Pezula estate
Stage 1: 123km 3091m : Knysna to Saarsveld
Stage 2: 137km 2518m: Saarsveld to Calitzdorp
Stage 3: 133km 2340m: Calitzdorp to Riversdale
Stage 4: 121km 2620m: Riversdale to Swellendam
Stage 5: 146km 1819m: Swellendam to Bredaarsdorp
Stage 6: 130km 2095m: Bredaarsdorp to Hermanus
Stage 7: 91km 1985m: Hermanus to Grabouw
Stage 8: 68km 1760m: Grabouw to Lourensford

There are no easy days on this route and long distances in the first 6 days are going to be challenging. Day 1 will be as tough as ever and day 2 has the potential to be the toughest day ever with a really long and hard climb towards the end of the stage. The other days are long and hard. Don’t be fooled by the shorter distances on the last two days, the climbing and the terrain will make them interesting and hard after 7 days on solid riding. It looks like there will be a fair amount of technical rocky and sandy stretches following the standard set by last years superb route. From experience the route organisers highlight the easier parts and smooth over the difficult parts, this was definitely evident from last night, with a few subtle warnings of extra training, rough conditions and long days and no mention of so called rest days. It promises to be another awesome event.

Gary Fisher was clearly impressed when he said that this type of race was exactly what he had intended back in the days when he was riding klunkers down the hills of Southern California. Clearly not a fan of the Olympic format XC racing, he was excited about taking part in the 2008 Cape Epic Event. He will be out there with some other local SA celebrities and past sports stars like Robbie Fleck, Brian McMillian, current MR SA, a previous idols contestant and a radio DJ. They will be riding for the newly launched Big Tree foundation, the formalised charity arm of the Absa Cape Epic. Asked whether he thought any of these guys would finish the race, Gary answered “No Way!”, but the bets are on the table as they ride to raise money for charity.
Full details are at www.cape-epic.com

How mountain biking is changing

While I was out this morning on one of my many to come Cape Epic training rides on a familiar route, I was wondering if I was quicker or slower today than the other day. So then I thought to myself, “Why am I doing this, why am I riding so much to try to get a better placing at Cape Epic 2008?” And so my mind wandered onto racing, what is the point, why bother? Why not just ride for enjoyment and not bother with training, programs, races, times etc. How did I land up here, in this racing mode?

Well I guess I started riding just like everyone else on weekends for fun. But with limited routes, places to ride and know how there was not much progression. Wanting more excitement, destinations and some challenges from friends, and here I am riding MTB races. Not a bad thing at all, great for fitness, health and sense of achievement having completed some of the tougher events around. But if you look carefully through the woods you will see the MTB landscape changing, there are signs all over the place.

The recent 10th anniversary edition of Ride mag shows just how everyone is into MTB. It has kept bike shops going as traffic and safety has people leaving the tar for dirt. Mountain Bike innovation is a whole topic to itself. MTB race organisers continue to innovate as MTB races have become lifestyle events. Mountain Bike Parks like Logwood and Giba Gorge start emerging and mountain bikers get stuck into trail construction like the various work parties at work in Tokai, Groenkloof and even around Braamfontein Spruit. Mountain bike holidays by South Africans in South Africa is a reality with the likes of Cycle Mashatu getting return visitors back every year.

And so the pressure mounts on both sides of the MTB fence, namely the property owners and the riders. A recent insert on 50/50 about mountain biking in the Melville Koppies area had local MTBers up in arms as does regular moans and groans from other trail users in the Cape Peninsula area. Cycling South Africa tries desperately to get more riders to register and continues to think up better ways (seems like more complicated ways sometimes) to license riders. But quietly a whole movement is gaining momentum as racing becomes just another thing to do and not the thing to do.

African Mountain Bike Association or AMA for short is the way forward for anyone who likes riding MTB. Why? Well because it is a trail advocacy organisation affiliated to IMBA (International Mountain bike Association). It is there as a voice for mountain bikers, flying the flag. AMA Rider is a mountain bike advocacy organisation aimed at improving mountain bike opportunities on the African continent. There are really exciting things in the future of MTB with long travel trail bikes starting to filter into bike shops and more riding opportunities opening up, get behind the AMA www.amarider.co.za - Its the future of MTB.

New trails bikes and rides

These last few weeks I have been fortunate enough to ride on some new trails and try out some new bikes. It reminded me how interesting and varied mountain biking really is. It also refreshing and really fun to ride some new tracks that I had never ridden before.

One of the greatest things about mountain biking must be to ride a new route. Not knowing what to expect really keeps your eyes wide open and focuses your attention. I have ridden some new fast downhills and tricky single track in the last few weeks, a welcome change from the routine of the regular routes. The feeling of blasting down a hill not knowing what is coming up and only being able to see a few meters ahead is one of the greatest feelings around. It got my adrenalin pumping and I new that if I slipped up there would be consequences.

Some of these new trails I rode with friends in various parts of the country. They showed me where to go and lead the way, a great way to get to know a new area. But some of the others I just discovered by riding out and following some paths and tracks. Exploring and finding new routes also has to be one of the great things about riding mountain bikes. It never ceases to amaze me how easy it is to find new routes. More often than not you will find some great new riding by just venturing out and looking for something new.

Riding a different bike on an unknown trail is also a sure way to keep the blood flowing. I took my first real ride on a 5.5” trail bike, the Commencal Meta 5.5 – what a blast. I rode some really sweet singletrack and rocky trails at Groenkloof in Pretoria. If you are going to ride some new technical singletrack then I can recommend a long travel bike, especially the Meta 5. When I got the lines all wrong and was heading for trouble I just held on and blasted over the rocks, with the suspension looking after the rest. It was amazing and seriously fun. After riding this long travel bike I can see what all the fuss is about. Here I was on someone else’s 5.5” trail bike going faster downhill that I could with my own bike that I know backwards. The combination of the trail tuned geometry and extra suspension gives this bike the ability to push past your previous limits and discover some new ones. It is seriously fun mountain biking – when everyone else realises this you can bet the race numbers will be dropping and the bike park and trail side numbers will pickup.

So the last two weeks were really fun just by doing something different, riding some different routes and swapping out bikes and getting a feel of something completely new.