The Cape Epic

The Cape Epic is the biggest mountain bike stage race in the world. Now an established part of the UCI Mountain Bike calendar, it attracts an international field of over one thousand riders, including the elite of world mountain biking. But also weekend riders, including club members Andrew le Cordeur and myself.

This article is intended as a guide to anyone wanting to ride in the future. If you've ridden, or plan to ride, get in touch with any extra suggestions or questions. Just email info@kingstonwheelers.com.

Training

Training is a subjective thing, you will have your own ideas, possibly you have a coach. So first, some general ideas on training and then some advice.

General Training
It's simple, you want to be able to ride fast, or just comfortably, for seven hours on your mountain bike. As a roadie myself, the prospect of several hours' riding is tiring, but off-road, well that's so much harder. So the basic thing to do is to build up your fitness. No need for seven hour rides but by February, you should be comfortable with back to back four or five hour rides. Aim to do these at the weekends.

But remember that the terrain can be hard. The Epic doesn't have much single track, a lot of it is on fire roads and so you can maintain a steady pace for a lot of the time. But given the sheer length of the stages, you are bound to encounter many short climbs, sharp corners and other moments when you have to accelerate, to put the power down in short bursts. So steady training isn't enough, think about working on your power, work on some sprints and accelerations and especially, train at your threshold. Below is a graph of my heart rate (in red) on the first stage of the 2007 Epic, click on it to enlarge in a new window.

As the chart shows, my heart rate was nudging 170 beats a minute for a lot of the time during the first few hours, before drifting down with fatigue later. For me, this level of intensity is like something I'd do in training sessions of 30 minutes to an hour. So you might want to think about training at high intensities too. We were aiming for a top-30 place overall, so my HR reflects this (but injuries on Stage 2 crushed this ambition). Many others I met also said they'd racked up loads of endurance but felt they needed more power for the riding.

Finally, do some running. You will have to carry your bike at times, sometimes just for a minute if a rider topples over in front of you, other times you might be doing it for an hour on unrideable or congested slopes. So being able to run and walk fast helps, not for your result but just so your legs will be less tired if you have to run with your bike.

Your bike

Make sure you're comfortable on your bike. If something's niggling and not right in the months before, change it long before the race so you can check it's ok. A saddle that's not quite right for a four hour ride at the weekend could be your nemesis after several days of back-to-back seven hour rides. Similarly, don't fit anything to your bike without testing it on a good ride first.

If you are thinking of a new machine, by all means a top of the range bike is great, but what ever you pick, stick to mainstream parts. The race is sponsored by Shimano and if something breaks in the karoo, the desert, then hopefully they will have the spare parts at the service point, if you're using, say, disc brakes by somone else, or cranks from some boutique German firm, this might not be the case. Ultralight parts might save a few seconds on a climb but snap your seatpost 50 miles from the finish and you're in for a horrible day.

Take a camelbak if you're used to it, I took one but being a roadie, was used to the water bottles and so the camelbak just became a rucksack to carry spares.

Tubeless tyres are a must. Please don't even think about not choosing this. Every day it was embarassing to watch the pros bent over their bikes, plucking thorns out of the tyres, replacing the innner tubes and pumping away. Seeing a world champion pumping up a flat was tragic, when the amateurs were sailing past. The secret? Use tubeless tyres with a good measure of sealant inside the tyre. Something like latex sealant or Stans is great. After many stages you will cross the line and pluck the long thorns out of the tyres, hear the hiss of air but with a spin of the wheel, the sealant will patch the spot. Both of us had no punctures.

Daily routine

The day starts with some who set their alarms early, but most wake up with the blast of the horn from the supporting truck at 5.00 am, enough to wake the deepest sleeper. Time to get dressed into some warm clothes as the mornings are often cold, often below 10°C. Drink some water from the bottle by your bed. Pack away your sleeping bag, it'll be damp from the dew but you can dry it later. Go for breakfast, try to avoid the bacon and eggs and go for something healthier, eat and drink plenty. Visit the portaloos. Go back to your tent and get changed into your bike kit. Pack your bags, fill your bottles with water and go fetch your bike. Return to the tents and apply suncream. Clear your tent and then drop off your kit bag on the way to the start line.

Race, remembering to eat and drink a lot all the time, always visit the feeding stations. The rest of the ride is the easy bit, you just pedal! Remember to look at the views, to take in the sights and sounds. Say "Molo!" to the local kids, it's hello in Xhosa, the local tribal language.

As you cross the finish line, drink something. One team mate takes the bikes for a clean, the other goes and selects some tents for the night, choose ones furthest away from the portaloos and generators to get a quieter night's sleep. Head for the showers and get out of your bike kit quickly. You can wear your bike kit into the shower if you like and wash it in there. Return to your tent and if it's dry, stick the sleeping bag on the tent roof to keep the sun out and to help dry the previous night's dew. Hang up your washing line between tents and dry your stuff. Then eat something and drink more, relax and set up home in your tent. It'll soon be dinner time.

Eat well at dinner but don't over do it. Yes, you're burning up a lot of food every day but the answer to this is to eat a little and often, not one giant meal in the evenings. The catering is very good.

Go back to your tent and bring in your washing, dry or not the dew will soak it if you leave it out. Check the route for tomorrow, prepare your kit for the next day accordingly, like the number of energy bars you'll need.

All through the day, eat and drink. And talk to your team mate too, it's essential to communicate well. If you're tired tell it straight your team mate - just don't whinge as it's not helpful - as there's no point struggling and then cracking. Discuss the ride afterwards together. It's likely you will both have good days and bad days, so ride accordingly.

Insider tips

- Pack a fitted single sheet. The tents have plastic covered matresses and it's not nice sleeping on vinyl, so a sheet is a lot less sticky.
- The faster you finish, the better you will sleep since it's first come, first served when it comes to picking a tent for the night. Get somewhere as far away from the portaloos as possible, hearing the slamming doors at 2.00 am are no good. Even if you're finishing amongst the stragglers, as soon as you cross the line, go get a tent. Resist the temptation to lie down and invest five minutes in getting somewhere quiet to sleep at night.
- Pack a headtorch, the sun sets early and you need to see in the dark inside your tent at night and at dawn too.
- Wash your hands. Bugs can spread easily around the camps, think about hygiene.
- Similarly, don't high five the kids by the roadside, they probably have resistance bugs that you might not have, so one hand slap's fun but you could get more than a smile from them!
- Take a good sun block, not the white liquid that'll run back out of your pores when you sweat, get an alcohol-based one.
- Communicate a lot with your team mate, make sure you both know how you are feeling. But don't whinge, just saying "you're tired" isn't going to be news.
- Rest, an old saying from the Tour de France is good: "never stand when you can sit, never sit when you can lie down". So don't walk about needlessly, rest as much as you can before and after the stage.
- Economise when you're riding, if you come out of a sharp corner or hit a short and steep hill, there's no need to sprint hard out of the corner or to crest the rise, change gears and accelerate or ease over the hill. Save your energy for the finale of the stage.

Staying in the saddle

Saddlesores are the bain of keen cyclists. Within a few days, every morning the race doctor's tent has a queue outside of riders seeking help for the saddle sores. From beginners to experienced riders, a lot of riders get them but take some steps to reduce the chances of getting them. Several riders had to abandon the race because of sores.

A saddle sore is a skin ailment in the nether region due to, or exacerbated by, riding on a bicycle saddle. It often develops in three stages: skin abrasion, folliculitis (which looks like a small, reddish acne), and finally abscess. Because it most commonly starts with skin abrasion, it is desirable to reduce the factors which lead to skin abrasion:
- Too high a saddle can make your hips rock.
- Choose the right saddle to support you.
- Wearing good cycling shorts, with good chamois padding.
- Using cream or gel to further reduce friction.

I'll say it now: don't bother using Assos chamois cream. I used to think it was great and whilst it does help reduce friction, it is water-based and after a couple of hours' riding time, it just acts as a harbour for bacteria. Instead, go for a zinc-oxide based like nappy cream which keeps things protected and importantly, dry. For any long ride or stage race, it'll reduce the chance of things going wrong.

What to pack

Below is a list of what I'd call essentials. If you don't use them, great but if you, say, wear your cleats out from walking up too many rocky slopes, you'll need new ones to complete the race.

Cycling Kit	Off the bike
Tubless tyres filled with sealant	First aid kit
Spare sealant	Sleeping bag
Inner tubes	Pillow
Tyre levers	Washbag
Spare brake pads	Towel
Multi-tool	2m washing line
Chain tool	10 x clothes pegs
Spare chain links	Petzl headtorch
Pump/CO2 inflators	Warm clothes
Proper chamois cream	Sports sunblock
Spare cleats	Books or magazines to read
Tub of energy powder	Cash and bank cards
Energy bars	Washing powder for kit
Several quality shorts and jerseys	Fitted sheet to cover plastic matress
Gloves and mitts	Spare toilet paper
Arm warmers	Spare mobile phone battery
Rain jacket	Camera
Helmet	Old newspaper, to put into wet shoes
Sunglasses	Lock to shut bag
Spare water bottles
Proper pump, to top up pressure
Spare tyre
Tweezers, to pluck thorns from tyre
Chain lube

You can download a copy of the original checklist spreadsheet here. The list above is missing some things from it but has extra stuff on it, so compare and work out what suits you.

And finally...

Enjoy yourself! You are meant to be doing the Cape Epic for fun, it isn't a military campaign. Take your preparation seriously, this is a hard event but aim to enjoy your training and planning, all that time on the bike before should be fun, no?

Above all, enjoy the ride, meet new people, take time to look at the beautiful views, the wildlife (don't stare too long at the cobras) and to enjoy one of the most memorable weeks of your life.

If you want to read more about how Andrew and James got on, and to see photos from the event, click here.