Hello! As most of you know, I’m over in South Africa for the Cape Epic, and 8 day mountain bike stage race. Over the course of the week, we’ll ride over 600 km and climb more than 14,000 meters. I am racing with my coach, Matthew Weatherley-White in the mixed division. There are 1200 riders and this is by far the most competitive stage race in the world.
Fires this season have ravaged Capetown’s surrounding areas and much of the primo mountain bike terrain here. The first pics are riding in Jonkershoeck just near our B & B. A fire ran through here a few weeks ago and burned everything in site. Matthew and I went up there to ride and the trails and place are trashed. Jonkershoeck is the location where Specialized has hosted it’s team tire testing for two years and the difference between riding there last year in pristine pine forest and this year in black soot was really depressing. They will have years of trail maintenance to rebuild this beloved area. Also, World Heritage site, Table Mountain, the location for the prologue on Saturday was also on fire yesterday. All pre-race practices have been cancelled and crews are working hard to get the course repaired in time for the start.
Today, Matthew and I spent time riding around the local wine country and then heading into the local Township of Kayamandi. Specialized team riders, Christoph Sauser and Burry Stander are racing to raise funds and support for a local BMX park and bike club for the kids in this area. After more than a year’s worth of work and fundraising, today was the official launch day where Specialized bikes, and gear were presented to the club and hordes of smiling faces. The park is built and the club has a healthy group of boys and girls who are discovering the joy of riding bikes. More info on the initiative can be found here:
http://www.songo.info/songoinfo-2009/#more-400
The next two days will be filled picking up the motor homes for our 8 day adventure, tinkering with bikes and gear, attending race registration and resting as much as possible.
I will be posting race reports from the field at:
Www.mountainbike.com
Www.velonews.com
Www.sleepmonsters.com
Take your pick, but the reports will be similar. I’ll try to get photos when possible and give you as much info as I can muster. I will tell you that the mixed team division is stacked with Olympians, World Champions and some really heavy hitting teams with intimidating resumes. Making the podium in this race will be an impressive task for anyone.
Complete official results and route profiles for each day will also be posted on:
Www.cape-epic.com
Our team name is Specialized / Red Bull in case you are trying to find us.
Thanks for following along. I’ll be posting to you as much as humanly possible!
Cheers
Reba
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