It's hard to believe: in just a few years, faraway, hot South Africa has become a hotspot for marathon sport. An incredible story: six years after the BIKE Transalp Challenge triggered a real stage marathon boom, Kevin Vermaak had the idea of organising a similar race in South Africa during a bike adventure in 2002. The format of the famous Transalp was adopted 1:1. Two riders = one team. Race duration: one week. The biggest difference to the original: The riders didn't sleep in hotels or gyms, but in tent cities. A lucky coincidence: the date in mid-March was also of interest to professionals from Europe, who were in the middle of their final preparations for the World Cup season at the time and were hungry for competitive hardness. As a result, the start list included some illustrious names from the cross-country scene who had never been seen at a stage race before.
And so it was no wonder that the first edition in 2004 became a huge media spectacle. The winners Karl Platt (Germany) and Mannie Heymans (Namibia) were celebrated like superstars and had a bigger media presence than a World Cup victory could ever have given them. The reason for this was a clever PR move by organiser Kevin Vermaak. In order to make the sponsors happy, first-class film and photo material was produced at his own expense - including highly dramatic shots from helicopters - which was generously given away to all the world's media.
Made famous by the Cape Epic
"After my victory, acquaintances from Novosibirsk suddenly called me who had seen a report about the Cape Epic on some Russian TV station," said Karl Platt, who has Russian roots, in amazement. The Cape Epic became famous. South African companies were almost fighting over who would be allowed to sponsor the race. Banks, insurance companies, telecoms companies. The organisers invested the proud budgets in fabulous, unprecedented logistics and infrastructure. In tent cities complete with chill-out bars, restaurant halls, press centres, shower trucks and, and, and. In the end, two tent cities even had to be operated, which were set up offset to each other because it was not possible to set up and dismantle the complex camps within a few hours. Some roads were even built to allow the huge lorries access to the camp site. And so the success story took its course. It is much more difficult than reaching the Cape Epic finish line to get one of the approximately 1200 starting places. Some of the places are allocated by lottery. Television reports live! Celebrities from the worlds of culture and business fly in by helicopter for the grand finale. A mega show!
A flourishing racing scene has developed in the slipstream of the Cape Epic. The support of the communities is huge, as the races are almost always linked to social projects that benefit from a portion of the proceeds. Cult presenter Paul Valstar, who also provides entertainment at numerous other MTB events in addition to the Cape Epic, estimates the number of annual stage races in South Africa at around thirty. An impressive figure. When you consider that the entire German-speaking region can't even come up with half that number.
Football, cricket and cycling
"People love biking. And they love stage races," says Paul Valstar, whose normal professional life is in the world of finance: "For one thing, the country is so big that it's hardly worth travelling here for a one-day race. Secondly, there are countless great single trails on private land. And you can only ride them as part of an organised race." The large media presence, he adds, is also due to the limited number of TV-compatible sports in the country. In Europe, there is Formula 1, boxing, ski jumping and many other sports, says Valstar. In South Africa, it's basically just football and cricket.
It is striking that the majority of stage races last three days. Although there is the Bridge Cape Pioneer Trek (16 to 22 October 2016), there will be another race of the calibre of the Cape Epic in terms of difficulty, length and quality of organisation. However, the three-day races are particularly popular with ambitious amateur riders. This is also linked to professional life in South Africa. Those who can afford to go biking usually have their own successful company - and can't simply stay away for weeks on end. A long weekend, on the other hand, is always possible.
If you ask locals about the best compact stage races, they almost always mention the Garden Route 300 the talk of the town. The race, which takes place every year two weeks before the Cape Epic, is a popular test of form. And it is famous for its high density of single trails. The starting point for each stage is the tourist town of Knysna, located directly on the famous Garden Route. Having already mingled with the starters of the Cape Epic and the Bridge Cape Pioneer Trek in previous years, this time our reporter zipped the start number of the Garden Route 300 onto his handlebars. He had his camera in his rucksack as he raced through the well-tempered trail network for three days. You can see the photo gallery here.
