From 19 to 25 March, thousands of professional and amateur mountain bikers participated in one of the world’s most brutal tests of endurance – the 2018 Cape Epic.
Big Box teams at the Cape Epic
Huge congratulations to all three of our Big Box teams for completing the race and showing us what you’re made of.
Team Big Box
On team Big Box were super-fast Nicol Carstens and Jurgen Uys, who achieved Cat position 26 and GC position 28, with a hugely impressive total time of 2:53.46,1 for the race. Well done!
Nicol Carstens and Jurgen Uys; photo by Mark Sampson/Cape Epic/SPORTZPICS.
Team BIG BOX Mixed
Our BIG BOX Mixed team – husband and wife, Gerhard and Junita Kruger – inspired us with their tenacity and rock-solid partnership. They achieved Cat position 24 and GC position 368, with a total time of 41:35.20,1.
Gerhard and Junita Kruger; unstoppable!
Team Big Box Silver Foxes
Team Big Box Silver Foxes was made up by Andre Brand and Charl de Villiers. The team achieved Cat position 131 and GC position 410, with a time of 43:05.44,8.
Charl’s response to why he entered the Cape Epic: “To challenge myself. I decided to take up my team mates’ challenge to start cycling three years ago, not realising it would end in this!”
Andre Brand and Charl de Villiers; the silver foxes.
What makes the Cape Epic so tough?
Raced over seven stages, the Cape Epic is a marathon event, with a route that crosses rough, rocky and often steep terrain right at the end of the dry Cape summer. As consolation, there’s no denying the beauty of the Cape landscapes.
Photos by Sam Clark/Cape Epic/SPORTZPICS.
In this year’s race, the riders started in Cape Town and visited Robertson, Worcester and Wellington, before finishing at the Val de Vie Estate in Paarl.
Just some of the challenging features of the Cape Epic 2018 route:
- a 20 kilometre prologue featuring an unforgiving 600 metre ascent up the side of Table Mountain
- a total route distance of 658 kilometres, with four successive days involving race distances of over 100 kilometres
- 53 kilometres of steep ascents
- a section of tricky technical terrain in each day’s racing
- a time trial stage in Stage 5 of the race, which included three massive climbs
- a punishing final stage, from Wellington to Val de Vie, featuring 2000 metres of climbing.
Our congratulations to this year’s race winners – both Investec-songo-Specialized teams, Jaroslav Kulhavy and Howard Grotts in the men’s category and Annika Langvad and Kate Courtney in the women’s category.
Also well done again to all three of our teams, and to every other biker who participated in this challenging event. We hope to see you again at the 2019 Cape Epic!
