The route of the Absa Cape Epic is designed to test the abilities of the very best in the world while also providing a stern, yet manageable, challenge for the bulk of the field. The mastermind behind the plotting and planning is route director Hendrico Burger.
You wouldn’t know it or think it due to his quiet, unassuming nature, but Absa Cape Epic Route Director Hendrico Burger is something of an icon in South African mountain biking circles. Burger has been involved with the Absa Cape Epic from the very beginning. He was one of South Africa’s mountain biking ‘early adopters’ and, when not surveying his event routes, can often be found on the trails of his hometown Stellenbosch (or patiently listening to rider input at Stellenbosch coffee shops).
Every participant of the Absa Cape Epic can take comfort from the fact that a man with Burger’s extensive experience in mountain biking is responsible for their eight days of riding. For riders, it’s equally comforting to know that Burger is a man with a very clear route plan.
“I work three years in advance,” says Burger. “I need to know where we are going so I can set the planning in motion. I don’t need the route 100 percent confirmed that early, but broadly I need to know which towns we will be visiting and a general idea of what we want to achieve.”
Burger and the Absa Cape Epic start the process by committing to the local municipality and the potential race villages, and then start the conversations with local role players. “On one hand it’s much easier now because every town seems to have a mountain bike club and some existing trails, so we rely on their knowledge and enthusiasm. And obviously many people get very excited at the thought of the Absa Cape Epic coming through their town! But at the same time every person who rides in that town wants to show you every piece of amazing trail or scenery. I have to temper the enthusiasm of people sometimes and remind them we can’t have 150km days.”
Building the Absa Cape Epic route each year is a balancing act - between landowners and organisers, between existing trails and new trails, and on what needs to be constructed along the route or not.
“A lot of trails do exist now in places where they previously didn’t, but we still need to link trails and that becomes a discussion with landowners. Some of the route we want to use will have existing structures like bridges, but they might need to be upgraded to handle 1200 riders going over them. Some trails we improve or extend. Some trails we open up for the event and then close until we come back to that town. There are a lot of balls in the air when it comes to route planning.”
What makes it Epic?
In terms of the essential elements that combine to make an Absa Cape Epic route ‘epic’, Burger always attempts to provide something for every type of rider. “I was given some grief a few years ago when I said ‘fitness alone should not be your passport to finishing the Absa Cape Epic’ but that’s my philosophy. A rider should have some level of technical ability if he or she wants to finish the event. I am not saying you must be able to ride a European cross-country circuit, but you should be able to ride switchbacks, over rocky trails and other typical mountain biking terrain.”
Burger says that once he has identified the towns of the route, he likes to sequence them in such a way that the riders get to experience different types of riding. “For example, we know that riding on the Tygerberg trails this year will be windy, a lot of off-camber riding, then Paarl is going to be rocky, then once you get to Lourensford there will be more canopy-type riding. These all provide different challenges and create the Absa Cape Epic experience.”
Over the years, the route has also evolved to reflect the changing abilities and sensibilities of mountain bike riders. The first Absa Cape Epic routes took participants on mostly gravel roads, but this style of stage has almost completely fallen away. “You know, some days in the past we would have two days back-to-back with no singletrack riding. Our usage of open roads has been drastically reduced. Where previously we might have had three or four stages going over 100km, today we hardly reach that distance. The stages are shorter, but the finishing times are the same or slower, with the average speed of the winners slightly slower than in the early days.”
Burger says there is no secret Absa Cape Epic recipe of 10% rocks, 20% sand, 30% climbing. “We don’t break it down like that. But when looking at the route overall, everyone taking part in the event should have a day or two where they are in conditions that they enjoy. I definitely don’t want to hear people saying it was ‘just seven days of rocky riding or seven days of flat riding’.”
When preparing a route that is challenging enough for elite mountain bikers but not so challenging that the bulk of the field will be left wondering why they entered at all, Burger comes back to his theme of balance.
“From the back of the field, a reasonably fit rider with some training and some technical skills should be able to finish fairly comfortably averaging around 13km/h. That’s the speed we work on when planning the route. We don’t want to go under 10km/h average pace - though that can happen on a very technical 70km day. That being said, the rider at the back should have training and skills and not rock up thinking he is going to finish just because he entered an event. As for the elite riders, the faster they go the tougher the route becomes. It’s their speed and their racing on the Absa Cape Epic terrain for eight days that makes the race challenging. Simply put, a total novice shouldn’t be able to finish, while a pro should never say ‘only we can do this event because it’s so technical’.”