Stage racing is a fantastic way to experience the sport of Marathon mountain biking. You get to race hard every day, ride in some amazing locations, and meet like minded people from around the globe. At the ABSA Cape Epic, this experience is elevated beyond what you could ever expect.
The start house has a real ‘pro’ feel to it – one of the many attractions of this race
Today, the Prologue was raced at Meerendal Wine Estate, about half an hours drive outside of Cape Town. With the first riders off soon after dawn, and the gaps between teams as low as 25 seconds on the start ramp, the prologue is a very busy day. At 22km long, this race distance is just a small part of the start of eight days of mountain bike racing. Some riders were leaving Cape Town soon after 5am, and with coach transfers delivering riders to the Citrusdal race village mid afternoon, surely there are as many challenges today with packing and unpacking bags, bikes and riders multiple times.
Despite the short length of the stage, it managed to pack in 700m of climbing, with a lot of single track and very little flat. Those who started early were in fog descending from the top of the first climb, and would no doubt have been grateful for the cooler temperatures. With the thermometer set to climb into the mid 30’s this coming week – anything more reasonable than that is a gift.
Riders hit the steps at Meerendal wine estate
In the men’s event, the results went more or less with the form book, particularly if you take past Absa Cape Epic results and the Olympics; Christoph Sauser and Jaroslav Kulhavy of Burry Stander – Songo took the win, just over a minute ahead of their closest challengers, the ever-popular Jose Hermida of Multivan Merida with his team-mate Rudi van Houts. In third place were Marco Fontana and Manuel Fumic of Cannondale Factory Racing.
Also with the form book, Ariane and Erik Kleinhans of RE:CM took a convincing win in Mixed; Esther Suss and Jane Nuessli of BMC Wheeler won the ladies, two minutes ahead of Suss’ erstwhile team-mate Sally Bigham, with Milena Landtwing, of Topeak Ergon. The evergreen Bart Brentjens and Robert Sim won the Masters.
Particularly in the men’s event, the depth of the field is exceptionally impressive; and there is enough at stake that risks are being taken. Nino Schurter (Olympic silver) and Florian Vogel of Scott Swisspower managed eighth, after Vogel crashed on the first descent and broke his saddle. There are recognisable names all the way down to the high teens.
Will’s view from the Subaru-MarathonMTB.com team:
After a few days working up to the race this week, on top of a winter of lots of training and little racing, I was just keen to get under way with the competition. Always a fine balance with the prologue – you need to go hard enough to get into a good start block for the first real stage, but no so fast as to kill your legs. I was lucky enough to have a ‘no chain’ day – it felt as if I had tapered well, then done the right kind of riding this week to open up the pipes again. After the usual gasping for breath trying to follow Mike off the start, I got into a good rhythm, and was cruising along at 90% heart rate without feeling anything from my legs – such a good sensation.
Mike Blewitt and Will Hayter of team Subaru-MarathonMTB.com roll down the start ramp for the prologue
The course was great, particularly at the start, where it went through the manor house at Meerendal wine estate and down some steps, with plenty of spectators to cheer us on. After that, lots of dusty fast single track was the order of the day, interspersed with some tough climbing. Unlike last year, the big climb went all the way up the single track on the ‘Stairway to Heaven’. Plenty of twisting and turning on the way up.
We kept it together pretty well, had some fun, and only got overtaken by two of the really fast teams behind us. Team Scott Factory Racing looked particularly smooth as they powered past us on a loose gravel section. I’m reasonably pleased only to be 11 minutes behind Christoph Sauser and Jaroslav Kulhavy, the stage winners. Enough for 31st in the men’s category, and 37th overall. Now to the race proper!