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The Cape Epic 2007

Jeff’s story

Don’t know what I was thinking to actually organize an entry from one of the volunteers from last year and pay extra to go and do the most difficult Epic yet. From that day on the training programs appeared on my e-mail every Monday morning, even my December holiday turned into a training camp, but it all turned out well. The only way to do the Epic with comfort is to put in the hours on the bike (Training programs available from Ricky on request) and get Felicity to be the manager, with Mark as Driver, Bag Carrier and Food Sampler. Felicity did a great job with the B&B’s for accommodation (that’s the way to go.. leave the tent thing for the foreigners). This years Epic was 886km in distance (891km) they added 5km on the one day, and total climbing of 15045m. The start to the Epic was tough, the first 3 days were the hardest ever, it felt like the whole of last year’s Epic put into 3 days. After 2 days the soles on my shoes were worn through from walking up hills. The 4th day was supposed to be sort of easy with only 1285m of climbing, but they forgot to tell us the flat sections would be Jeep track with soft sand. Very hard work. Days 5 & 6 were good and we made up some time and positions. On day 7 & 8 we just looked forward to the finish. 59hrs and 48mins So in summary we had a good Epic ride (even beating Rob & Bruce by 1 minute on one of the stages, thanks to Adam getting them a time penalty). Good Planning, support and assistance along the way made all the difference. Thanks to Fil and Mark.

Mutt’s (Ricky’s) story

When accepting the invitation to ride “The Epic” not in my wildest dreams did I realise what was required to participate. It took a lot of research and planning to start preparing for this adventure. Once we started specific training on 22 October 2006 it became very clear that this was going to have an impact on my career and social life. As Andrew Maclean stated “Every cyclist should at some point in their life ride the Cape Epic” and how right he is. As you walk into registration in Knysna you get this overwhelming feeling that this is something big and immediately the negative thoughts start, have I done enough, what am I doing here? What is even more overwhelming is the first race briefing where besides the normal thank you’s, the actual race briefing starts then you realise this is for real. When the route is discussed the race referee logs onto google earth and you are shown the actual route that you are riding for the day, all very scary. The race waits for nobody and every day except for the last day starts at seven o clock sharp, cut off is ten hours [5.00pm]. The noise and the activity at the start always created a lot of anticipation and excitement for the day’s stage and one seemed to forget about the fatigue from the previous day. Each day had its own challenges, walking up incredibly steep hills, soft sand, heat, slow riders that we could not get past and very technical down hills. We took each day one at a time and concentrated on the height to be climbed [polar] and the distance and tried not to put any pressure on ourselves. This worked out quite well as we finished most days with something left for the next day. Thankfully we had no injuries and rode each day comfortably and were fresh for the start of the following day, our training certainly paid off (6 000km). The finish at Lourensford wine estate on the eighth and last day was something that will be with me for the rest of my life. We came onto a polo field at the estate and rode in to the finish with all these people shouting and clapping and it just seemed to be such organized chaos. Once we had gone across the finishing mats and had something to drink our bikes were taken away from us and we were led onto this huge podium, very similar to what the motor grandprix drivers would go onto to receive their trophies. As we were ascending the podium our team name, names and times were announced and then we were made to stand in front of crowd and were presented with our medals, it felt like we had beaten the pro’s home that day. My only regret is that our support crew Felicity and Mark could not be up there with us, they were the real hero’s. Our job was simple we had to start and make sure that we finished before cut off everyday, Felicity and Mark put in so much time and effort to make sure that everything was in place for us every day and believe me when you stay in a different town every night it is not that simple.

SPECIAL THANKS TO:

Felicity and Mark - without your help we would have had a difficult time. Southern Cycling Club - for the kit provided and members support. Shawn Hannie - for the tee-shirts. Romeo and GAIL from R&G Concrete Pumping - for the donation towards our costs. Justin Godfrey from Just Cycles for the flawless preparation of our bikes. Patrick Williams, Lana Dyer & Grant Chamier - for making up numbers in our training rides.