All set for a brutal eight-day adventure, come rain or shine
It was raining when I landed in Cape Town on Wednesday night. It was raining when I landed in Cape Town last week on Wednesday. I am like the rain god from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the truck driver whom rain clouds love so much that they follow him wherever he goes.
Rob McKenna, the rain god, has never seen the sun. He has kept a log book to show that the rain has never left him. “And as he drove on, the rain clouds dragged down the sky after him, for, though he did not know it, Rob McKenna was a Rain God. All he knew was that his working days were miserable and he had a succession of lousy holidays,” wrote Douglas Adams.
“All the clouds knew that they loved him and wanted to be near him, to cherish him, and to water him.”
KARL PLATT, THE FIVE-TIME WINNER, HAS RETURNED FROM A BROKEN HIP TO ATTEMPT TO CLAIM HIS SIXTH TITLE, WHICH WOULD BE THE MOST IN THE HISTORY OF THE RACE
Perhaps I should come to Cape Town every Wednesday, bringing rain and smiles to the parched masses down here. They crave for the heavens to open. I watched a man wash his hands in a toilet under a running tap. The man behind him almost fainted at the sound of it.
Kate Courtney hopes it does not rain in the Western Cape this week. She smiles when she talks about starting her first Absa Cape Epic on the slopes of Table Mountain on Sunday.
She is American mountain biking’s next “big thing”, a tag that is never fair on those who have it imposed upon them. She will be riding with Annika Langvad, the Danish three-time winner of the Epic, who is at the peak of her powers right now. Courtney is 22, which some may suggest is young for an Epic rider, but, like I said, she is riding with the sport’s current superstar. It will be one hell of a ride for her.
Rain would be good for the trails of the Epic, a sprinkling to settle the dust and compact the dirt. Rain can go too far, though.
I rode through the rain at the Epic in 2012. It was the fifth stage and we heard it settle in during the night. We lined up, expecting the organisers to cancel the stage. But mountain biking rides on through the rain and the snow.
You never ride alone. I was strong on that rainy day, perhaps the strongest I had felt since the first stage. It took its toll on me as I crawled home on the penultimate stage, bereft of energy, hope and passion. That’s the Epic. It gives you good days and then bad, just to remind you that you can take little for granted.
Save for the power of Annika Langvad, the 15th Cape Epic has an uncertain feel about it. The men’s race is wide open. Karl Platt, the five-time winner, has returned from a broken hip to attempt to claim his sixth title, which would be the most of anyone in the Epic’s history.
The German celebrated his 40th birthday this week. He looks as fit as ever — in “super” condition, to use the word Germans put in front of every phrase. The race was “super” hard, his team-mate was “super” strong. You get the drift.
Platt has been prepping for the Epic in Paarl, away from the temptations of Cape Town city. He is part of the DNA of this race, along with Manie Heymans, the first winner back in 2004.
Phillimon Sebona will take part in his first Epic as a fulltime professional. He will ride for the Pyga Euro Steel team with Julian Jessop as his partner. Sebona has twice won the Exxaro category for the previously disadvantaged riders, winning in 2017 with Diepsloot MTB Academy teammate William Mokgopo.
In 2017, he considered quitting until Mokgopo enticed him back. He bought his first bike by setting up a small business selling peanuts, enabling him to ride the 40km to school and back to his village of Botshabelo in Middelburg. He rode through the sun and the rain until he finished matric.
On Sunday, Langvad and partner Kate Courtney, Platt and Sebona will begin an eight-day adventure in which nothing is certain. Not even the chance of rain falling in the Western Cape.