Cape Epic Stage 7 - The Final Day

69km
1800m climbing

SXC Racing finishing time 03:51:51

The last day of the Epic is one of many emotions. Relief and satisfaction that the last day is here and the finish in sight all the pain and physical exertion will be over. But also sadness and emptiness that a week of extreme physical/mental commitment and months/years of planning and training is over.

Cape Epic Stage 6 - In the BOX

88km
2060m climbing

SXC Racing finishing time 04:34:08

Today was supposed to be a fun day. Awesome single track of Oak Valley, with climbs in the race program not as severe as the previous day.

Cape Epic Stage 5 - The QueenStage

116km
3000+ m climbing

SXC Racing finishing time 06:34:24

Today was rated the biggest and hardest stage of the Cape Epic - and it was!

Cape Epic Stage 4 - Down and Out

88 km
1822m climbing

SXC Racing finishing time 6:13:30

Today was supposed to be a day to conserve energy, do what we had to do to finish in a good position, and have fresh legs in readiness for tomorrow (Friday) brutal stage with over 3000m climbing.

Cape Epic Stage 3

134 km
2089m climbing

SXC Racing finishing time 6:15:29

This was another massive stage. Really a transit stage which took us from our current home in Robertson to Greyton. Some fast dirt roads had us averaging around 33 kmh for 25km, before the climbing really started.

Cape Epic Stage 2

101km 1600m climbing

SXC Racing finishing time 5:53:13

What was supposed to be a more gentler stage (well in Epic standards) was changed to one of the most difficult epic stages with over 50mm of rain over night, and constant rain throughout most of the morning.

Farm roads on the flat plains were turned into mud baths filled with thick clay mud. Think the first Capital Punishment with more climbing. River crossing were deep, and it turned into a day of survival.

Cape Epic Stage 1

112km 2688m Climbing

SXC Racing finishing time 5:59:29

What have we done? What have we signed up for? Today we would jointly agree that this is the hardest marathon race we have done - and it is only day 1!

Cape Epic Prologue

Day 1
13th in Category
102nd Overall

What a day ! These guys certainly know how to put on a race / carnival / celebration.

Today was huge for us. Starting with packing up our accommodation in Cape Town, and moving bikes, wife, three kids and ourselves to a mobile home for the next week.

Cape Epic - Ready Set...

After 2 years of planning and preparation, months of intensive training, and getting equipment ready, we are ready to embark upon our epic journey.

2014 Absa Cape Epic - The Journey Continues

This week represents the completion of the second block of training for our Cape Epic campaign. What we thought was a hard first block of training has turned into an even harder, more intensive block of training to prepare our bodies for the intensity and day-to-day rigour of riding a MTB fast.

SXC Racing

Blogs