March 21, 2009 (Gordon’s Bay, South Africa) – Canadian MTB cycling legend and Pedal columnist, Alison Sydor (Rocky Mountain) is competing again at the 8-day Absa Cape Epic, this time for the Big Tree Foundation on a mixed team with Nico Pfitzenmeyer (RSA) – last year’s mixed team Cape Epic winner – and will be sending us daily reports as conditions allow for an inside look at this fabulous 685km adventure MTB race with 1,200 teams from 46 countries.

Greetings from South Africa. With pleasure I made the loooong trip here once again for the 2009 Cape Epic. After the great experience I had at the Epic last year (yes one year is long enough to forget all the pain and suffering and only the good memories remain) I really hoped to go back. So this winter when I received an invitation from Nico Pfitzenmeyer (one half of last year’s winning mixed team) to be his partner in the race, with the support of adidas and the Big Tree Foundation, I immediately accepted. And thus began the planning process and…training!

Like last year I arrived in South Africa well before the race started to get over the jet lag, recover from the long trip and get acclimatized to the heat. From two degrees to 40 – after 30 hours of travel. Landing in Cape Town is always a fabulous feeling after the winter, the warm air, the sun, the beautiful scenery.

The race route has changed dramatically this year starting in Cape Town with the Prologue on the lower slopes of Table Mountain, and not in Kynsna, 600km away. So because of this and having the opportunity to stay with my team mate in Stellenbosch, I decided to come early to have 10 days to train here and get some sun.

From the moment I got off the plane we’ve been quite busy just dealing with our equipment, organizing logistics, and quite a bit of socializing as well. We have driven to Cape Town a few times to meet groups for riding and training on the Prologue course. Cape Town is one of the most beautiful cities in the world and I can also say it has some pretty darn good MTB trails too.

A few days ago we rode from Stellenbosch (think Napa valley) to the sea 30km away. Then along the coastal hwy. Wow, that was the most beautiful coastal hwy I’ve ever ridden in all of my travels. Great scenery and also lots of wild life in the ocean and on land. Hard not to smile when you see the baboon adults on the side of the road carrying the babies on their backs.

The race this year is a different concept from all the previous ones when it was a point-to-point route of close to 1,000km. This years route is shorter, 700km over eight days – no longer going in a straight line to the final stage – but promises to be more technical in nature. I’m pretty excited about that, though I had no complaints about last year’s route either. Ok, so it’s quite a few less kms, but with much slower average speeds it is still a long week on the bike.

Prologue Report

We just finished up with the Prologue in Cape Town (more on that later), and tomorrow begins the first of the seven long days. It’s going to actually be a relief to start the stage tomorrow as later that night we’ll finally be at the race camp. The past three days have entailed a lot of moving and re-packing – three different host houses in three nights. But one can’t complain as our hosts have been absolutely wonderful and very generous with some very delicious dinners and comfy beds. Still with lots on our minds to get ready, sleep has not been so easy. Thus we’re looking forward to the simple camp life tomorrow night.

I wanted to explain about our team name and what the Big Tree Foundation is, which I’ll do in my next report as I need to hit the hay soon. The Prologue today was pretty hard physically, though quite straight forward. Minus of course getting sent off course by a marshall once and all the traffic on the few single track sections. We knew the course pretty well, though the scenery had changed quite a bit after the Cape Town fires last week. Still the race went off as planned thanks to the efforts of the fire fighters and race organization.

Our 7:48 am start time seemed a tad early for my liking, but nonetheless it was nice to ride in the morning cool air, just as the sun was coming up on to the city scape. Quite a majestic view we had from our vantage point racing on Table Mtn. today. I have to hand it to the organizers, they pulled off a pretty cool show managing to hold such a stage on the lower slopes of the iconic mountain.

Being a pretty new partnership I have to say today was a genuine test of our ability to ride together. I’d give us an A and see A+ days from here on out. We had the benefit of starting last of the mixed teams and so after 1/3 way when we had passed or caught the three strongest teams we were really able to relax and ride safe the rest of the way – and that was a big advantage. The longest descent was certainly high speed with rocky loose corners.

So is tomorrow 111km, the longest hardest stage on paper. Looks like a beautiful course from the seaside, up and over two big passes. Hope we feel strong and get to enjoy a clean hard fight with the other mixed team on this spectacular route.

Cheers
Alison