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