Cape Epic – Team Bike4Africa: Sweat, dust and amazement

We made to the finish line of the Cape Epic and managed to collect more than 10’000 Euro. There is still an option to donate for the cause.

For anyone is still wondering what the Cape Epic is: it’s 8 days, over 600 km and more than 16,000 meters of pure mountain bike madness – also known as the “Tour de France of MTB”. The route? Different every year. The trails? Sometimes epic, sometimes endless, sometimes just nasty.

Preparation: From the fridge to the oven

After months of training in what felt like arctic Zurich, we headed to sunny Stellenbosch a week before the race. A warm-up ride, a few practice laps – and most importantly: getting used to over 30°C! Because sweating needs to be learned. Side tip: If you love mountain biking and enjoy good food and wine, you should train here. Even if you don’t get any faster – you can at least drink your defeats away and enjoy the scenery.

Trail riding at it’s best!

The race: A rollercoaster of emotions (and body temperatures)

We started with the traditional prologue: 27 km, 800 m elevation gain, finished in 1h20min. Sounds good? The fastest professional team did it in under 60 minutes.

This was followed by seven stages with the same daily ritual:

5 a.m.: Kicked out of bed with a friendly “morning song” and an attempt to eat enough for the day.

7 a.m.: Start of the pros. Then divided into different groups according to classification. Sending all 750 onto the course at once is not an option. On the course: pedaling, sweating, suffering, swearing, rejoicing – repeat.

The highs and lows in fast-forward:

• Stage 1 (92 km/2750 m elevation gain): Michael felt like a squeezed sponge. Doubts about his own existence included.
• Stage 2 (66 km time trial): Suddenly it was going again. No idea why. Just don’t question it.
• Stage 3 (78km/2450m at up to 45°C!): Who needs a sauna when you have a bike?
• Stage 4 (80km/2000hm): Start in thick dust – Pieter didn’t like it at all. Asthma doesn’t help in combination, but in the mountains it got better and we got faster again.
• Stage 5 (98 km/2850 m): Longest stage, but with epic trails. “The Doctor” and ‘G-Spot’ – not medical terms, but magnificent trails near Stellenbosch.
• Stage 6 (87km/2550m): 4 out of 6 hours were ridden in the rain. The last 10km was a mud fight. The winners will be cleaned up today.
• Stage 7 (43km/1000hm): Thanks to rain and storms, the stage was shortened for everyone’s safety. The 2 hours in the rain and mud were a nice finish and the material was really challenged once again.

After a total riding time of 34h 15min and lots of mud baths, we ended up in 177th place out of 750 teams. Incidentally, only 532 of these teams reached the finish line – in other words, we survived!

Conclusion: Cape Epic is like a rollercoaster. Only without the safety bars. And with a lot more sore muscles.