Over 1,000 mountain bikers from all over the world will set off on one of the world’s great endurance events when the 2007 Cape Epic rolls out of the Knysna Waterfront on Saturday. The world’s largest full-service mountain bike stage race is an annual eight-day race through some of South Africa's most exquisite scenery.
This year's route covers 886 kilometers, moving through a number of South African National Parks, five CapeNature reserves and vast tracts of protected terrain, including the Cape Floral Kingdom, which is one of only six floral kingdoms in the world. The route is entirely off-road from Knysna to this year’s finish at Lourensford Wine Estate in Somerset West.
The route will see 1,086 riders climbing a total of 15,045 metres, the equivalent of riding nearly twice up Mount Everest.
The Absa Cape Epic is fast becoming one of South Africa's most prominent and globally-followed sporting events. Riders from 42 nations will be competing in the unique team race representing the likes of Brazil, Canada, Norway, Hong Kong and Australia. The race is the most televised mountain bike event of all time, being broadcast to 52 countries in 22 languages for a total of over 3 500 hours.
This year, renowned riders participating will include defending champion and two time World Cup overall winner and Olympic medalist Christoph Sauser, Olympic gold medalist, World Champion and World Cup overall winner Bart Brentjens as well as South Africa's own record-breaking downhill rider Greg Minnaar, who was South Africa's first World Champion in cycling and has clinched five Downhill World Cup wins and has twice been named the World Cup overall winner.
Founder of the Cape Epic Kevin Vermaak first conceived the idea for a South African mountain bike race in 2002, when he was in Costa Rica participating in the La Ruta, a mountain bike race considered to be one of the world’s toughest. Two months later, Vermaak resigned from his job at the Royal Bank of Scotland and moved back to Cape Town, where he had completed his studies in Engineering at UCT. One year later, the inaugural 2004 race kicked off with riders from 21 countries participating.
News of the unmatched experience that the race offers spread so quickly through the local and international mountain biking communities, that regional entries for the 2005 race sold out in five hours. The 2005 race saw 886 riders from 32 countries participating.
For more information, visit the Cape Epic website
