Absa Cape Epic 2021 – Stage 1 - Untamed Action

After three days of racing it was time for a transition stage from Saronsberg, in Tulbagh, to the Slanghoek valley. The early kilometres ticked past with unnerving ease, but once the surface began to roughen the challenges came. Brutally uneven dual tracks through a private game reserve provided a sudden shock.

Stage 5 was short and brutally steep, a major physical and psychological hurdle for the riders on their trail to Val de Vie. The climbing started virtually instantaneously. Leaving Wellington, the only way was uphill on the lengthy Hawequa Climb. The descent from the summit started on dusty dual track, before slipping into the Brooklyn Bridge singletrack.

The Cape Epic 2021 returns after an absence of 36 months to the beautiful and iconic Table Mountain in Cape Town (RSA). The Absa Cape Epic is the world’s premier mountain bike stage race. This year’s route takes amateur and professional mountain bikers from around the world through 619km of unspoilt scenery and 15.250m of accumulated climbing, over some of the most magnificent mountain passes in the Western Cape, South Africa.

Stage 1 (98km distance // 1850m climbing) of the Cape Epic 2021 took the riders around Ceres today. In a tight finish on Stage 1, the BULLS (Urs Huber & Simon Schneller) and BULLS 2 (Martin Frey & Simon Stiebjahn) teams claimed first and second respectively, with Canyon Northwave MTB (Andreas Seewald & Martin Stošek) racing home in third.

With two converging mountain ranges to explore, Stage 3 of the 2021 Cape Epic was not short on climbing. Nestled in the nook between the Groot Winterhoek and the Witzenberg Ranges the Tulbagh Valley was not hasty to reveal its rewards.

The Witzenberg Valley was undoubtedly one of mountain biking’s most challenging playgrounds, making Stage 2 a fitting holder for the title of Queen Stage. Sheets of sandstone provided the ultimate testing ground for the riders. Crossing the Ceres Valley was the first step on the journey, followed then by the Old Gydo Pass. On the Bokkeveld plateau the dual track climb gave way to singletrack.

After three days of racing it was time for a transition stage from Saronsberg, in Tulbagh, to the Slanghoek valley. The early kilometres ticked past with unnerving ease, but once the surface began to roughen the challenges came. Brutally uneven dual tracks through a private game reserve provided a sudden shock.

Stage 5 was short and brutally steep, a major physical and psychological hurdle for the riders on their trail to Val de Vie. The climbing started virtually instantaneously. Leaving Wellington, the only way was uphill on the lengthy Hawequa Climb.