CapeEpic Prolog

Niclas: Welcome to the Afasteryou Podcast, where everything revolves around endurance sports and training. Here, Sebastian Schluricke, Björn Kafka, and Niclas Ranker give you valuable tips and insights to help you take your performance to the next level. So, good evening for a short solo episode of the Afasteryou Podcast. And that's me, Niclas. I'm currently racing the Cape Epic and just wanted to give you a few insights into what the course is like and what's going on. Yeah, I hope I can provide a bit of added value. So, I'm racing here with a masters rider. I actually wanted to, or I tried to start in the UCI category. However, this year things are a bit different: both riders need UCI points to start in the pro category. That was different a few years ago. I have points; my partner, Juri, doesn't. Juri is 49 years old, and I basically jumped in as a replacement rider because Juri's partner, Björn Klaßner, unfortunately broke his upper arm. So I cut my training camp in Girona short and flew to South Africa on short notice, because of course you can't pass up a chance to ride the Cape Epic. And so Juri and I are now starting in the amateur class, in Open Men. At the end of the day, we're just looking to get through it well and have fun. I should mention that Juri has been mountain biking his whole life, because back in the early days of mountain bike racing he was a pro. He was German U23 champion in cross-country. So Juri can definitely mountain bike really well, and you can see it. He descends really confidently and well, and uphill he also pushes really solid power numbers, can race tactically, and so on. So I'm really impressed, and it's genuinely fun. Um... Right, now a bit about the race itself. Today at the Cape Epic we rode the prologue. I think the official distance was 25.8 kilometers or so. I clocked 26.1 myself. It was listed as 700 meters of elevation. My Garmin showed exactly 706. Today we took one hour eleven. The winning time for the pros from Villiers Vittoria was 59:45. And the winning time in the Open Men class was 1:09. So we're 2 minutes and 4 seconds behind. Which, I have to say, is actually really, really good. Um... For the numbers, I only have my own data open right now. I myself today, I think I'm around 80 kilos at 1.84 meters. Like I said, I came here straight from training camp, I'm not in top form yet, I was sick a lot over the winter. So I'm probably still a good 30 watts off my threshold right now compared to my top form. Today I rode the 1:11. 315 NP, 264 average, at an average heart rate of 176 and a max of 192. I should mention, whenever I could, I pushed Juri in places, meaning I put my hand on his hydration pack and pushed him along a bit. For example, on one climb I went for over 40 seconds at 450 watts, but I also hit 600 watts at times. And I think the main phase where I pushed him was one minute at over 500 watts. So I tried to support him there whenever I could. Uphill, I let him ride his own pace, whatever he could manage. On the flats, I gave him as much draft as possible and rode as fast as he could hold my wheel. The way hopefully every stronger team partner at the Cape Epic does it. Right. For comparison. I also have another athlete racing here. He's also a masters rider. Today he took one hour 21, had an NP of 283 and an average of 243. I think this week they'll also, at least I hope, get through it really well. So those are numbers I'd say you should be able to put down — around 200 to 250 watts average — so you can finish the Cape Epic with fun, and it doesn't turn into complete torture. Because you see teams here too... who are really struggling, not today of course, but as the stages progress, really struggling to even make the time cutoff. And I mean, when you come here you don't want to — they start at 7:45 in the morning because it's always in blocks — you also don't want to come in at 5 p.m., because then there's still dinner, cleaning the bike, maybe fixing a mechanical issue. The day just gets really tight when you think about it. I believe at the camp, people get woken up around 4:30 to a quarter to five in the morning. We ourselves also get up — I think we said 4:30 tomorrow morning. Then breakfast. And then in our case drive over, and in other cases pack your stuff if you're maybe moving camps after the stage. Right. Then as an insight into the course. Today was the prologue. At the start it went straight uphill. That was three kilometers with 230 meters of elevation. First you rode through vineyards, on a relatively wide trail. Then it wound up the mountain and got steeper and also looser. Then it went right onto a pretty well-built singletrack going uphill. That one you could ride well. For example, in the race we made sure that in the sections where the trail was still wide, we pushed harder than on the singletrack, because we wanted to overtake as many teams as possible. so we wouldn't get stuck in a traffic jam. Those kinds of small tactical moves probably end up saving a bit of time in the end, because if you're stuck behind a much slower team on singletrack, it's very possible you can't get past without risking a mechanical, because if you ride off the trail here, there are these Devil Thorns everywhere — very, very big thorns — and you can shred your tire really quickly. So you have to be a bit careful with line choice. Right, the first descent was basically a jeep track, but very worn out. There were two lines. The right one was clearly more rutted, looser, lots of rocks. In that case, I let Juri ride in front so he had clear sight, because you can ride down that track relatively fast. But the second rider then rides in a dust cloud. And you have to watch out here and there so you don't hit a rock. The left line was a bit better, but there were clearly more bushes. Possibly with thorns. So I avoided that section. Then it went down onto a few regular jeep tracks, so normal wide trails. Um... After the descent you could push pretty well for about 6 kilometers on flat terrain. I pushed a bit more at the start, and over those 6 kilometers we averaged about 300 watts. Of course with corners and stuff. Then I naturally just checked how much Juri could manage on my wheel, without completely burying himself, because after that there were still three climbs, and of course I wanted him to still be able to ride fast on the climbs. Then we went into the next climb, which was about two kilometers long, steeper in the lower part and also wider again, then turned into singletrack again. Same game basically as the first climb. We saw, okay, we're catching a lot of teams. That means in the lower part we pushed. I also pushed him several times so we'd overtake as many teams as possible. Let me check quickly. In the lower part, for example, I averaged 366 NP over 4 minutes. 343 average with peaks of 830. I hit those peaks again and again whenever I pushed him. After that it went into singletrack. There it got harder to overtake again. And so it was a bit quieter. Then came a short descent. And then another steep climb up to... Yeah, that was about 700 meters. I couldn't push him much there; I could help him a bit. I rode up at 380 watts and actually hit my max pulse there, because I pushed him again at 600 watts and then had 192 heart rate. After that came the descent Toyota Tough Terrain, which at the Cape Epic is basically — I'd say — the descent of the day. It was 1.3 kilometers long. And after that it went through vineyards again, a bit hilly. There I pushed Juri more again, here and there I also pushed him a bit more, once again at 600 watts. The main thing was that right after came the steepest climb of the day, and I knew that since I'm running a 38-tooth chainring, if I go too slow uphill, with the 38 I'll just tip over, because I don't have quite enough gearing. So I pushed him a bit beforehand so that, keeping my hands on the bars, I could give him a little breathing room on the steep section. And he actually made it up pretty well. That steep ramp was only 300 meters. But it was about 16 to 17 percent on average, and I think max around 20 percent. After that, relatively relaxed at first, it went onto singletrack, but almost flat, slightly downhill along the hillside. There was another short bump in there, which you could actually push up well out of the saddle. And then we were already into the last climb, which was almost entirely singletrack. It then wound up over slabs of rock a bit before the final descent. Um... Juri was already a bit gray by then, he couldn't push much anymore, and I have to say, down there after that long fire road you turned left around a corner, and were at the foot of the climb, and it felt like after that corner someone opened a door and you rode into a sauna. It was incredibly hot — at least that's how it felt to me that day. Overall, I don't think it was even that extreme by South African standards. I mean, at peak I only measured — in quotes — 30 degrees with the Garmin. That thing, I'd say, always reads a bit high. So it was probably really 28 degrees in the shade. But of course the sun was beating straight down. And there the peak temperature measured was 30 degrees. And up there Juri couldn't ride as quickly anymore. We were still going up the climb at 300 watts. But compared to the earlier climbs at 350 or even 370, that was of course a bit less. And then last descent, basically just brought it home, we rode a 1:11. With that, I'd say, already a really good result. Right. Then to the UCI women. I think, relatively clear picture, in quotes. Annika Langvad and Sofia Gomez took the win and they deserved it. However, with a really strong second place, the French champion Margot Moschetti with her New Zealand partner Samara Shepard. They were only three seconds behind. And Vera Looser was only 1:16 behind with her partner Alexis Skarda. Then in 4th place Kendell ISB at 3:17. What I found a bit surprising was that Buff-Megamo were only in 7th with Rosa van Doorn, who is European champion, and Janina Wüst — they were already 4:56 behind. That's a big time gap, so picking up 4:56 on an Annika Langvad is a serious piece of work. The best German woman is Stefanie Walter, also from the Kendell ISB team, with Costanza Fasolis, an Italian. Her gap is 7 minutes 8 seconds. Right. Then, with a few surprises I thought, the UCI men's pro race. It was won by Villiers Vittoria with Luca Braidot and Simone Avondetto. Both cross-country riders, and also very good cross-country riders. I think both are currently in the top 10 of the world rankings, or top 20 at least. They won with 59:45, the only ones under an hour. On that course, to ride a 26 km/h average is actually wild. They really made it fly. 2nd place was Schurter with Colombo, only 20 seconds behind, and then, I'd almost say, the clear winners of the day: Honeycomb 226ers, Marc Pritzen and Wessel Botha, at 1:49, only a minute back. And then Buco Champ A with Marco Joubert and Tristan Nortje. Those were both South African teams, at 1:55 and 1:10 back in 3rd and 4th, and then a New Zealand team in 5th. Craig Oliver and Ben Oliver appear to be brothers, at 1:01... sorry, only 1:15 back. The three teams — Marco Joubert and Tristan Nortje I would have seen as the strongest African team anyway. South African team. But... the other team I didn't know before. The Honeycomb 226ers team is known — it's a South African pro team — but those two riders weren't on my radar. Nice to see, best Germans with Orbea Leatt Speed Company, Lukas Baum and Georg Egger in 6th at 1:30 back, so all doable, completely within reach. And then a surprising combo that came together: Torpado X-Singer, Rabensteiner and Stiebjan, since Martin Frey unfortunately couldn't start due to illness. And Rabensteiner's teammate Casey Sauf unfortunately broke his collarbone, I think three days before the race. So really two unlucky guys there. I don't know, they probably won't hear this, but get well soon. Thanks a lot. And now I'm really excited. Fabian Rabensteiner together with Simon Stiebjan. Really cool combo. Super experienced riders. Fabian I think is very calm. Has awesome tactical knowledge. Rides really clean. Technically very strong. And I think he never goes gray. Together with Stiebi, I'm hopeful anyway. I'm crossing my fingers for the guys that they bring home a really good result. And then my — in quotes — favorites in 9th, in quotes only 9th, Matthew Beers and Keegan Swenson at 2:33 back. So nothing bad yet, but... you still have to close that gap. Right, that's it for the teams. Overall, I think you really have to say the field is unbelievably deep. It's genuinely wild, and you really can't afford any weakness here, especially if you want to race for the win up front. The guys all ride unbelievably fast. And just one example: Andreas Seewald and Jakob Hartmann. I think, if I understood the live broadcast correctly, Hartmann had some problems today. What exactly, I don't know. But... at 1:04:53, so five minutes back, and they're in 22nd. So everything is really that close together. The guys all ride that fast. It's genuinely wild. Right. That would be my little insight just on the Cape Epic. I'll try, as long as I'm feeling good each evening, to do this every evening. Thanks a lot for listening. Feel free to give feedback, whether you like this kind of thing, find it interesting, or whether I should drop it. Right. Then thanks again for listening, and to every participant hearing this, I'm crossing my fingers for you. It's going to be an awesome week for sure. Cape Epic is always really fun. And to everyone else, keep training hard. Ciao, ciao.