Cape Epic

Absa Cape Epic
Host country	South Africa
Competition period	March April
Stages	Prologue + 7 stages
overall length	over 700 kilometers
Starting field	600 teams from different nations

The Absa Cape Epic is a year in South Africa ( Western Cape take-find) Mountain - stage race and is in the international calendar of the International Cycling Union held. Together with the Swiss Epic Graubünden and the Pioneer Race in New Zealand, it forms the international Epic Series.

First held in 2004, the race usually covers more than 700 kilometers and lasts eight days. Cape Epic attracts top riders from all over the world. Amateurs are also allowed to participate, whereby the participants are drawn by lot. One stage is driven every day. To determine the winner in the respective category, the times of all stages are added up at the end of the race. The route changes every year, but the goal is always in the wine-growing region of the Western Cape. Since 2007 the highlight of the last stage is at Lourensford Wine Estate. The Cape Epic was once described by Bart Brentjens ( 1996 Olympic champion in mountain biking ) as "the Tour de France of mountain biking".

Origins

After founder Kevin Vermaak finished the Ruta del Conquistadores , a MTB stage race over three days in Costa Rica , in 2002, he left London and went to Cape Town . There he planned an event similar to La Ruta, which will allow drivers to experience the picturesque beauty of South Africa.

In 2016, Vermaak sold the organization to the WTC , a subsidiary of the Chinese Wanda Group , which runs cycling races, triathlon events, marathons and the like worldwide. organized. Kevin Vermaak was responsible for developing a series of mountain bike races around the world.

Racing concept

Team of two people
All drivers must compete in a team of two people. The teams register in one of five different categories (Men, Ladies, Mixed, Masters or Grand Masters). The concept of teams was originally developed because the stage race takes the drivers through very remote areas. Having partners who have to look after each other due to the regulations fulfills a useful safety function. The distance between the drivers of a team may be a maximum of two minutes during the race, otherwise a time penalty of one hour will be imposed.

Leading categories and jerseys
All riders aim to win stages, but mostly they want to win in their category. There are five categories: Men, Ladies, Mixed (one woman and one man), Masters (both drivers must be 40 years of age or older by December 31 of the year) and Grand Masters (both drivers must be at least 50 years old). The color of the jerseys indicates the category of the leaders. Yellow: Men, rust-colored: Ladies, green: Mixed, blue: Masters and pink: Grand Masters. The leaders in each category are determined by adding up a team's times on the daily stages. The team with the fastest overall time receives the jerseys at the end of each stage and is allowed to start the next stage in these jerseys.

winner

The following teams were able to win the Cape Epic in the categories "Men", "Women", "Mixed", "Masters" (since 2004) and "Grand Masters" (since 2013):

year	category	team	Driver 1	Driver 2
2004	Men	Focus / Rocky Mountain	Mannie Heymans	Karl Platt
	Women	Yellow jacket	Hanlie Booyens	Sharon Laws
	Mixed	HAI Bike / Scott	Kirsten Rösel	Robert Eder
	Masters	Bowmans - Giant	Frank Soll	Duncan English
2005	Men	Giant	Roel Paulissen	Bart Brentjens
	Women	Fiat / Bianchi / Adidas	Zoe Frost	Hannele Steyn-Kotze
	Mixed	Team Microsoft	Nic White	Anke Erlank
	Masters	Getaway / Mongoos	Friedrich Coleske	Doug Brown
2006	Men	Specialized	Christoph Sauser	Silvio Bundi
	Women	adidas fiat deer	Sabine Grona	Kerstin Brachtendorf
	Mixed	radys.com	Dolores Mächler-Rupp	Severin Rupp
	Masters	ABSA BUSINESS BANKING SERVICES I	Linus van Onselen	Geddan Ruddock
2007	Men	Team Bulls	Karl Platt	Stefan Sahm
	Women	DURAVIT	Anke Erlank	Yolandè De Villiers
	Mixed	IMC / Mongoose	Yolande Speedy	Paul Cordes
	Masters	Cycle lab	Andrew Mclean	Damian Booth
2008	Men	Cannondale Vredestein	Roel Paulissen	Jakob Fuglsang
	Women	Rocky Mountain	Pia Sundstedt	Alison Sydor
	Mixed	Joybike guided by VMT and Maloja	Ivonne Kraft	Nico Pfitzenmaier
	Masters	ABSA Masters	Doug Brown	Bärti Bucher
2009	Men	Bulls	Karl Platt	Stefan Sahm
	Women	Absa ladies	Sharon Laws	Hanlie Booyens
	Mixed	adidas Big Tree	Nico Pfitzenmaier	Alison Sydor
	Masters	Absa Masters	Doug Brown	Bärti Bucher
2010	Men	Bulls 1	Karl Platt	Stefan Sahm
	Women	Rothaus-CUBE	Kristine Noergaard	Anna-Sofie Noergaard
	Mixed	MTN Business Quebeka	Yolande Speedy	Paul Cordes
	Masters	Cyclelab Toyota	Shan Wilson	Andrew Mclean
2011	Men	36ONE-SONGO-SPECIALIZED	Christoph Sauser	Burry Stander
	Women	USN	Sally Bigham	Karien van Jaarsveld
	Mixed	Wheeler BiXS	Bärti Bucher	Esther Süss
	Masters	Juwi	Carsten Bresser	Udo Bölts
2012	Men	36ONE-SONGO-SPECIALIZED	Christoph Sauser	Burry Stander
	Women	Wheels4Life	Sally Bigham	Esther Süss
	Mixed	Contego 28E	Erik Kleinhans	Ariane Lüthi
	Masters	World Bicycle Relief	Bart Brentjens	Jan Weevers
2013	Men	Burry Stander - SONGO	Christoph Sauser	Jaroslav Kulhavý
	Women	Energas	Yolande Speedy	Catherine Williamson
	Mixed	RE: CM	Erik Kleinhans	Ariane Lüthi
	Masters	bridge	Nico Pfitzenmaier	Abraao Azevedo
	Grand Masters	Songo.info	Bärti Bucher	Heinz Zörweg
2014	Men	Topeak Ergon	Robert Mennen	Kristian Hynek
	Women	RECM 2	Ariane Lüthi	Annika Langvad
	Mixed	Synergy	Yannick Lincoln	Aurelie half wax
	Masters	BETCH.nl Superior Meerendal	Bart Brentjens	Abraao Azevedo
	Grand Masters	Cycle Lab Toyota	Andrew Mclean	Heinz Zörweg
2015	Men	Investec Songo Specialized	Christoph Sauser	Jaroslav Kulhavý
	Women	RECM Specialized	Ariane Lüthi	Annika Langvad
	Mixed	ETIS	Peter Vesel	Ivonne Kraft
	Masters	BETCH.nl-Superior	Bart Brentjens	Abraao Azevedo
	Grand Masters	Meerendal BIXS KTM	Bärti Bucher	Heinz Zörweg
2016	Men	Team Bulls	Karl Platt	Urs Huber
	Women	Team Spur-Specialized	Ariane Lüthi	Annika Langvad
	Mixed	Open - Kappius Components	Jean-Francois Bossler	Fanny Bourdon
	Masters	CST Superior Brentjens	Bart Brentjens	Abraao Azevedo
	Grand Masters	Robert Daniel	Robert Sim	Udo Bölts
2017	Men	Scott SRAM	Nino Schurter	Matthias Stirnemann
	Women	Meerendal CBC	Esther Süss	Jennie Stenerhag
	Mixed	Scott-Sram Nextlevel	Jenny Rissveds	Thomas Frischknecht
	Masters	BMC Absa Racing Team	Cadel Evans	George Hincapie
	Grand Masters	Meerendal CBC 3	Bärti Bucher	Heinz Zörweg
2018	Men	Investec Songo Specialized	Jaroslav Kulhavý	Howard Grotts
	Women	Investec Songo Specialized	Annika Langvad	Kate Courtney
	Mixed	Journey by Junto	Nicky Giliomee	Brennan Anderson
	Masters	Wilier Force 7C 2	Massimo Debertolis	Ondrej Fojtik
	Grand Masters	Robert Daniel	Robert Sim	Udo Bölts
2019	Men	Scott-Sram	Nino Schurter	Lars Forster
	Women	Investec Songo Specialized	Annika Langvad	Anna van der Breggen
	Mixed	TBR-Werner	Sebastian Stark	Laura Stark
	Masters	Merida Factory Racing	Jose Hermida	Joaquim Rodriguez
	Grand Masters	CST Sandd Bafang	Abraao Azevedo	Bart Brentjens
2020	because Corona pandemic canceled

statistics

The most frequent winners in the five categories are (as of: After the Cape Epic 2019):

Men

1. Karl Platt (2004, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2016) and Christoph Sauser (2006, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015) with five overall victories each.
2. Stefan Sahm (2007, 2009, 2010) and Jaroslav Kulhavý (2013, 2015, 2018) with three overall victories each.
3. Roel Paulissen (2005, 2008), Burry Stander (2011, 2012) and Nino Schurter (2017, 2019) with two overall wins each.
4. Mannie Heymans (2004), Bart Brentjens (2005), Silvio Bundi (2006), Jakob Fuglsang (2008), Kristian Hynek (2014), Robert Mennen (2014), Urs Huber (2016), Matthias Stirnemann (2017), Howard Grotts (2018) and Lars Forster (2019) each with an overall victory.

Women

1. Annika Langvad (2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019) with five overall victories.
2. Ariane Lüthi (2014, 2015, 2016) with three overall victories.
3. Sharon Laws (2004, 2009), Hanlie Booyens (2005, 2009), Sally Bigham (2011, 2012) and Esther Süss (2012, 2017) with two overall wins each.
4. Hannele Steyn-Kotze (2005), Zoe Frost (2005), Kerstin Brachtendorf (2006), Sabine Grona (2006), Anke Erlank (2007), Yolandè De Villiers (2007), Alison Sydor (2008), Pia Sundstedt (2008) , Anna-sofie Noergaard (2010), Kristine Noergaard (2010), Karien van Jaarsveld (2011), Catherine Williamson (2013), Yolande Speedy (2013), Jennie Stenerhag (2017), Kate Courtney (2018) and Anna van der Breggen (2019) with one overall victory each.

Mixed

1. Yolande Speedy (2007, 2010), Paul Cordes (2007, 2010), Nico Pfitzenmaier (2008, 2009), Ivonne Kraft (2008, 2015), Erik Kleinhans (2012, 2013) and Ariane Lüthi (2012, 2013) with two each Overall wins.
2. Brennan Anderson (2018), Jean-francois Bossler (2016), Fanny Bourdon (2016), Bärti Bucher (2011), Robert Eder (2004), Anke Erlank (2005), Thomas Frischknecht (2017), Nicky Giliomee (2018), Yannick Lincoln (2014), Aurelie Halbwachs (2014), Dolores Mächler-Rupp (2006), Jenny Rissveds (2017), Kirsten Rösel (2004), Severin Rupp (2006), Sebastian Stark (2019), Laura Stark (2019), Esther Süss (2011), Alison Sydor (2009), Peter Vesel (2015) and Nic White (2005) each with an overall victory.

Masters

1. Bart Brentjens (2012, 2014, 2015, 2016) and Abraao Azevedo (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016) with four overall wins each.
2. Doug Brown (2005, 2008, 2009) with three overall wins.
3. Andrew Mclean (2007, 2010) and Bärti Bucher (2008, 2009) with two overall victories each.
4. Duncan English (2004), Frank Soll (2004), Friedrich Coleske (2005), Geddan Ruddock (2006), Linus van Onselen (2006), Damian Booth (2007), Shan Wilson (2010), Carsten Bresser (2011), Udo Bölts (2011), Jan Weevers (2012), Nico Pfitzenmaier (2013), Cadel Evans (2017), George Hincapie (2017), Massimo Debertolis (2018), Ondrej Fojtik (2018), Joaquim Rodriguez (2019) and Jose Hermida ( 2019) with one overall victory each.

Grand Masters

1. Heinz Zörweg (2013, 2014, 2015, 2017) with four overall wins.
2. Barti Bucher (2013, 2015, 2017) with three overall victories.
3. Robert Sim (2016, 2018) and Udo Bölts (2016, 2018) with two overall victories each.
4. Andrew Mclean (2014), Abraao Azevedo (2019) and Bart Brentjens (2019) each with an overall victory.

Web links

• Official website
• Sport Xtreme broadcast. Cape Epic - Long and painful. ZDF, April 16, 2013, accessed on August 13, 2013 . 
• Epic Series

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Milestones of the Cape Epic (English). (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; Retrieved August 13, 2013 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
2. ↑ New ownership for Absa Cape Epic August 18, 2016
3. ↑ Rules of the Cape Epic. (pdf; 265 kB) (No longer available online.) March 8, 2012, archived from the original on October 2, 2012 ; accessed on August 13, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ About the race. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on February 9, 2014 ; Retrieved August 13, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ↑ ^{a b} Cape Epic: Past Winners . Online at www.cape-epic.com. Retrieved November 1, 2019.