Between the Tape
Did you watch the Cape Epic? Like the spring classics and the Tour de France in road cycling, the Cape Epic is one marathon race I love following even if I don’t follow the regular season closely. Probably thanks to the live coverage, which is leagues above most other marathon races and stage races. Along with the easy access to coverage, the terrain the course covers and the stellar start list the race draws all combine to create an exciting spectacle.
South Africa has worked hard over the years to create a cycling calendar and destination that draws the biggest racers in the world to its shores. Even watching one stage of this year’s Cape Epic would be enough to entice many riders to make the trip. The long stretches of singletrack through wineries and the African bushland look amazing and are definitely worthy of an adventure. Every stage seemed to take riders from one great trail network to the next. A quick look on Strava of some pro riders’ early season training in the area sees the pros do similar rides. Starting in one trail network before moving on to the next, which only seems a short ride away.
Great infrastructure will certainly draw mountain bikers looking for adventures but the racing calendar in South Africa is also one that adds on to complete the package. Throughout 2019, South Africa has ten cross-country and stage races that have cross-country UCI points available not including their National Championships. Nine of these races are either the highest category (HC) or the second highest (S1) with stage races and cross-countries included. There has been a general increase in top tier UCI races over the years in South Africa with the last two years both being strong.
This is a big drawcard for top racers from around the world to make the trip. New Zealand riders have headed across this year to gain some points and MTBA is running a high-performance trip to South Africa to race some C1 races at Pietermaritzburg in June. Enticing international riders has a multiplying effect that the more riders you have, the more money you should theoretically make and therefore more money to spend on getting UCI status for races either that year or the next or just stocking feed zones with more cakes. Along with drawing international riders, it also gives South African riders a great chance to gain UCI points before heading to Europe or with sights on next year’s Olympics.
While points and the top-level stuff is good, it’s not all the Cape Epic and South Africa has to offer. Many of their races bring in international riders who are simply looking for an adventure. Even Aleix Espargaro, a MotoGP rider, took to the start line of the Epic. As it turns out, he’s pretty handy on a bike without a motor like Troy Herfoss. Maybe XC riders should start racing motor bikes at 300km/h for training…
I for one, like I’m sure many others, would love to go to South Africa just to ride. Head up into the hills and find those trails I’ve seen on the live coverage and photos, which is hopefully what South Africans will say about Australia when they see coverage from races like the Epic Series this year which will include the Port to Port, Reef to Reef and Cape to Cape. But to whoever is building South African mountain biking, keep up the good work!