The Cape Epic takes place every year around the last week of March and the first week of April. The race is held over 8 days in the beautiful Western Cape province in South Africa.   The route changes every year, and this year the route is from Knysna to Cape Town.  What is very interesting about the Cape Epic is that it allows amateur and professional mountain bikers from around the world to ride together, or rather they are allowed to start together…  What lies ahead is approximately 800 km of unspoilt nature approximately 16 000m of climbing over some of the most magnificent passes in South Africa.

You have to register as a team of two riders and George Oertel (whom I met at the Tour de Afrique) was riding with me.  Teams register in one of four different categories that include Men, Ladies, Mixed and Masters (both riders must be 40 years or older), and since George and I are both advanced in years, we registered for the Masters catagory.

I trained as much as I could, but it is not ideal to train for a race like this in San Diego since it is winter and has limited climbing opportunities.  I am therefore not feeling at my best, but looking forward to the adventure. 

We have great support with Rita driving the camper and Irmie, our good friend from Cape Town (which we also met on Tour de Afrique) was there to massage and attend to sore legs in the evenings.  Rochelle also visited for a couple of days from Pretoria.  

Stage 1

The first day started out with great excitement.  Knysna is not called the Jewel of the Garden Route for nothing.  The route headed out into the lush indigenous forest for the first 50km. Hilly open-road riding replaced the cool cover of the forest with no shelter from the elements. The major obstacle for the day was the 12km climb over Prince Alfred’s pass – complete with a gut-wrenching false crest two kilometres short of the real thing – and then it is into the heat of the Klein Karoo, finishing over a rocky historic Wagon Trail into the town of Uniondale.  We finsihed 5h22min, placed 14th in the Masters catagory.

Stage 2

Both George and I felt ok after the first day.  The start out of Uniondale was gentle, a rolling affair on open roads as the route followed the Kamanassie River. For some forty kilometres, we enjoyed the scenery of this spectacular area, before turning right and begining our assault on the Kamanassie Nature Reserve. 35km of back-breaking off-road riding followed, starting with a twelve kilometre rocky jeep track with over 800m climbing at an average of 6.6%. After a treacherously lose rocky descent, the final 50-odd km into Oudtshoorn was fast and fun.  Today was the longest day of the Cape Epic and we were glad to see Oudtshoorn.  We finished 20th in a long 6h57min.  I was pretty dusty and beat after today.

Stage 3

Oudtshoorn bid us farewell farewell, and almost immediately we were faced with fast jeep track through arid, ostrich-filled plains, a mild start to the toughest climbing day of the 2007 event. The speedy start grinds to a crawl after 40km at Fielie’s Folly where we climbed 430m at an average 14%!   The good news was that there was a fun, fast, open descent on the other side and almost 30km of recovery time before the Calitzdorp Crusher loomed, offering another 3km of brutal stony jeep track, before we descended to the foot of the Huis Rivier pass. 8km of grind upwards on the tar later, the route turns onto pleasant jeep tracks through picturesque apple orchards, followed by 30km of rolling open graded gravel roads into the finish at Ladismith.  I was pretty smashed today and was ready to hit the sack at 6pm.  We finished 12th in 6h38min.

Stage 4

When I go ton the bike this morning, I felt completely depleted and I wasn’t sure how I was going to survice another 121kms.  Amazingly my legs started peddling and we were off.  The route for today was suppose to be relatively easy, but it felt like it was never going to end.  Whereas yesterday was a lot of climbing, today was a lot of soft sand (and some more climbing…)   The roll out of Ladismith was on tar for 6km, before we heded onto sandy farm roads of the area. Wide open roads, short climbs and a few technical obstacles were waiting for us, before entering the Leopard Rock game reserve, where more sandy jeep tracks and perplexed wildlife awaited. Then it was onto more rocky terrain for the final 25km into Barrydale.  I was very, very happy to see the end of this day.  We finished 17th in 5h16min.

Stage 5

It is amazing how your body can recover.  Yesterday I thought I was going to die and today I felt like a new man.  The route out of Barrydale was spectacular with the first 40km crisscrossing the scenic farms in the valley, before we started out on a challenging 5km singletrack climb to the top of the Op De Tradouw pass. From this summit, all roads point down until we entered the moonscape valley leading to the Wolfieskop Pass, which climbs 430m in 7km, before sending us on a helter skelter ride down the other side on the best descent of the route. The roll into Montagu was fast and not too taxing.  We finished the day in good spirits – in 9th place and 4h41min.

Stage 6

Disaster struck today – after a blistering 5km tar start through Cogmanskloof, we left Montagu and headed into the farmlands of the lush Robertson valley.  Exiting the farmland, we had scenic 25km tar section before heading up the day’s big challenge, a 6km hike-a-bike section, followed by, what was suppose to be an open road and fast descents all the way to the foot of Rooihoogte.  This is where it all happened.  George stripped his back hub and we were straded for more than 2 hours trying to find a new back wheel at one of the water points.  Luckily George was ablt to buy a wheel from one of the spectators and we were on our way again.  We obviously lost a lot of time and we finished 111th in 6h51min.  This was a big disappointment for us since we were just starting to get our rithm.

Stage 7

Leaving Villiersdorp we promptly arrived at Groenlandberg – long climb before a long stretch of rolling jeep track through natural fynbos. A gradual climb took us up and over the mountain before the roller coaster descent into the Lebanon forest area where fire roads and cool shady forests await us. After this all-too-short forest section, a quick dip under the N2 and soon we were rewarded with panoramic ocean views before descending into the sleepy coastal town of Kleinmond.  We finished in 11th position in 5h20min.

Stage 8

The final day started in Kleinmond crossing the Palmiet River on a short and fast tar start, before turning right into the Kogelberg nature reserve riding alongside the Palmiet river on jeep track up and over the mountain.  We passed through the apple orchards of Elgin and Grabouw as the route works its way to the summit of Sir Lowry pass. Here, we were forced to a hike-a-bike section for about a kilometre down slippery rocks that still bear the marks of the Voortrekker wagon wheels.  The Gamtou pass is a national heritage site and special permission has been given for the first time to descend this historic track.  After dropping onto the railway line for a fun, bumpy few kilometres, it was into the magnificent Lourensford Wine Estate for the finish.  What a great experience.  I was very happy to see Rita and we celebrated with Irmie, John (Irmie’s husband) and of course George.  We finished the day 18th position in 4h36 min.  Overall we were 23rd in the Masters catagory in a total time of 45h44min.  We were a bit disappointed since we lost so much time with the mechanical problem we have had in Stage 6.  Nevertheless, it was a great adventure and I look forward to doing more stage races like this.