CapeEpic Stage 1

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 and welcome to a new episode of the Afasteryou Cape Epic Podcast. Today was Stage 1 after the prologue. It covered, I think the advertised distance was 94 kilometers, in the end it was 90 kilometers with advertised 2.6 I think, measured by my Garmin it was 2460 meters of elevation. The winning time by Schurter and Colombo was 4 hours 51, and today we finished in 4 hours 36. The first thing that you probably don't know from Europe is that the races always start very early here. Pro start here is at 7am. Then three minutes, or rather I think five minutes after that we started, that was the A-Batch, so that included the 20 best teams, after... the pros — so regardless of whether you're a pro team that for example drops back outside the GC, you still always start at the front. After that it's organized in blocks, A-block, B-block, C-block and so on. It used to be that after the pro men the pro women started, and then of course the fast masters, amateur riders and grandmaster riders would relatively quickly ride through the women's field. To avoid that a bit, they've now taken the 20 fastest amateur and masters riders and essentially put them in the A-block, letting them start directly behind the pros, and then five minutes later the women, and then another five minutes after that the B-block, which has the other amateur, master, grandmaster and also mixed team riders. Right. So that was definitely, I think, also — I'd imagine — an advantage for the pro women too, because of course it also affects the race when some amateur falls back, suddenly rolls up on the race from behind and causes a bit of chaos, and then women can sometimes latch on to the men and so on. Otherwise, a 7am start means — depending on where you're staying — a bit of travel as well. Right now we still have to drive 40 minutes every morning, which means the alarm goes off at 4:30. You eat some breakfast, get dressed, get in the car, drive 40 minutes over. Warm up a bit, line up at the start and off you go. Which conversely means going to bed early in the evening ideally, so you get a bit of sleep. So the days here are all shifted a bit. I personally, for instance, don't have too much trouble getting up early, however in the mornings I'm always cold for example. My old teammate Paul always used to make fun of me, because even when it's somehow 20 or 21 degrees here in the morning — at least it was like that last year — I'd be sitting there in a thin down jacket because I'm just always cold in the mornings. But actually, this morning it was only 16 degrees. And when we arrived in Wellington, in Merendal, and got out of the car, there was a really heavy wind with 16 degrees, really strong wind, which was already cool. And that also actually determined the race a bit in the beginning. So for us groups formed relatively quickly, and nobody really wanted to ride in the wind, at least in our group. After 8 kilometers we hit the first climb. That's where this A-Batch that I was in got torn apart. Up front a group broke away with the later amateur class winners. Two Germans, that's really cool. And then for example Kyle Blatt with his partner. They rode up front in the group. I was with my partner in the second group. I think with the masters world champion and his partner. Then there were also, I think they were Brazilians, then there was a second Brazilian team as well. They did a bit of the leading and the work. Otherwise, on the flats I actually pulled the field, or our group, into the first climb. The first longer climb, so it went up to kilometer... Hold on, let me pull that up. Up to kilometer 40 it was actually very rolling with small climbs and really quick. We rode up to there... hold on, we averaged 24 km/h, which for a masters and amateur field is really actually quite quick. Then came the first climb, which also went over a VP (water point). That's where I went for example and filled up my hydration pack with cold water. After that there was a small intermediate climb and then at kilometer 51.50 we hit the first main climb. And the whole race actually kind of revolved around that one. It went up to a radio tower, where for example a road also leads up. My team partner also mentioned that in the past they'd had a road race with a mountaintop finish up there, and he himself has ridden that climb in a road race summit finish. The climb, when we rode it the first time, was kind of split in two. First it was a normal wide jeep track, then it turned into a really rocky jeep track that wasn't easy to ride at all, because it was already quite steep. I actually had a bit of trouble there because of my gearing, since I still have a 38-tooth chainring on. I would have liked to ride a bit faster, simply because my gearing would have fit better. But there were a few riders in front of me. Then, I think about one third up the climb, it went off to the left again. Short singletrack descent, short flat section, and then right again, sharp right-hand turn. Also a steep, sharp right-hand turn. into the, I'll say, second third of the climb. In that corner, at least in our group, several people had to get off. My partner and I made it through. Then it went up there, and it was so steep that you also saw with the pros, for example Keegan Swanson had to briefly get off the bike and also had some trouble there. The climb was really really steep, and from that point on I rode these steeper sections in places a bit faster than my partner, simply because of the gearing. And after we made it through that part, so the second third, there was a short flat section again. And then came the last part up to this, I think, KOM ranking. It's the first time this year they have that at the Epic, with prize money for first place up there. That part was then again really, really steep. Let me try to pull it up. What the maximum gradient was there, I actually don't see. but I can say that the whole climb was 3.6 kilometers long with 8.5 percent on average, and in that 8.5 percent average there was a short descent and two flat sections included, so it was really a super steep climb. At the top there was another kicker. Right, the last 700 meters averaged 14 percent, which was even paved, and there for example I went up in the Wiegetritt (standing/out of the saddle), because I wouldn't have managed otherwise. That was really unpleasant. After that we went into a pretty flowy descent first. Then another climb up between some vineyards, before we actually rode up the climb again from the back. You also saw that on the stream. That's where real gaps actually opened up. So you came from below again. Um... That was at kilometer 72, right. There it slowly started to build up, then goes up again pretty steeply between vineyards. Um... Then at the top it actually got rocky and very steep again. My partner was able to ride up, I had to get off the bike there once too. I think in the stream for example that was a spot where Marco Gilbert also had to get off and push. I always find it funny — from the camera or helicopter perspective it never looks that steep. But when you see that one of the top pros gets off there and has to push briefly, you can actually already imagine, oh man, this is really really steep. So it was definitely 20% on loose gravel going uphill there. After you'd already... had about 1800 meters of elevation in the legs in that case, and at that point it was already 26, 27 degrees in the shade. Then the climb at the top went again over like a field, in switchbacks up top. The field doesn't roll well either. So it wasn't really grateful terrain. Then you were basically almost back at the top of this radio tower. But then you went down a trail again off to the side. and then had to go up almost half of the whole climb again, and that whole thing again went through vineyards, but there the ground was very, very loose, which made the whole thing really hard, at least in the lower part. In the stream that was a spot where — Pierrot was there with his partner, I think, in the yellow jersey up front, and behind them you saw Nino and Colombo slowly closing in again. That was really a spot that was very nasty and pulled out some real matches. Then you got onto paved sections and could ride the climb all the way to the top again. And from there it was almost all downhill to the finish. It was a very, very fast descent. I definitely hit my top speed of the day there at 79 km/h over relatively large unpaved rocks. So that wasn't exactly safe, but it went really well downhill. It wasn't technical in that regard, because you could just go straight down. Burned through a lot of elevation really really fast. And then at the bottom around the Sealord Merendal on this winery, we looped around for a few last meters. You essentially, you crossed the road that you warm up on in the morning and then you know, you ride onto the winery and then see another 3-kilometer sign, even though you know if you were to fly straight, you're 500 meters away. That was really ungrateful. And above all, what I also a bit — yeah, those are always the final thoughts in a race like this, when you're already a bit flat and in our case already somehow 4 hours 20, 4 hours 25 in the legs — then it went once more over this field, which also slightly went up, I think 3, 4 percent, but just didn't roll at all. So that was really crunchy again, and then out the back, really until just before the finish, in these waves the whole time going uphill. Let me zoom in once more. So the last 3.5 kilometers had in that case only, I think 170 meters of elevation, yeah, but that was really, yeah, I thought it was quite mean. Especially for my partner it was definitely hard at the end. Overall for the 4 hours 36, today I needed 289 NP and 236 watts on average. That was a 155 average heart rate for me. And again I hit the peaks when I either filled up the hydration pack and then rode back up to the group, or filled up my partner's hydration pack and then rode back to him, or pushed him, then I also had heart rate peaks of 185. Otherwise it was for me today relatively — in quotation marks — relatively relaxed. So I was able to pace it well, which makes a big difference in the feel. For my partner Juri it was definitely too fast up to kilometer 40. That really cost him real matches later on. And as a result, of course, from 3:30 onwards we really got slower. But he really fought well. And overall we ended up coming in I think 53rd overall. When you consider that 48 teams here at the start are pros, that was really really strong. In the Open Men category we were fourth, and unfortunately lost the podium in Open Men today by, I think, a minute. And the team Velo Vital, also two Germans, they only passed us in the last descent. Were actually within striking distance for the last three kilometers. Until that last wave uphill, then they really rode away from us completely. But my partner had nothing left in the tank and then in three kilometers gaps open up quickly and you quickly lose a minute. Nonetheless, today in our category we moved up five places, we're now in fifth place. Which is really quite cool. But we'll have to see over the next few days how well and how long we can still ride up there. Whether maybe on a good day we can push further forward. Or whether we'll fall back more. We'll have to manage Juri's energy a bit. But I think... He has so much race experience and has ridden so many races. He'll definitely handle it well. Right. Then overall on the race. With the women today it was really crazy. So Toyota Specialized definitely let the gaps open. They definitely had a small front tire issue. I think they had to plug it and put in a cartridge. You saw that on the stream. But otherwise today they pulled out a gap of 5 minutes 42 on the second team with Vera Looser. Eight minutes on Rosa van Doorn. And yesterday's second-place finisher — fell back a good bit with 17 minutes 20, Moschetti. Best German today was again Stefanie Walter in 9th place. On the stage today, 19 minutes back. And in the GC, Toyota Specialized now leads with Langvad and Gomez at 6 minutes 58. So that's definitely a good lead already. I think Vera Looser should definitely not be underestimated on the marathon stages. So the race is definitely not — I'd say — decided. We'll have to see how much more happens. In any case, the men's race today I thought was really really awesome. I watched almost the whole thing again afterwards, so skipping through in phases. Speed Company with Baum and Egger definitely put on good pressure first. Tried to keep the pace high the whole time. A bit into the climb, this Rhinocline, where it went up to the mountain ranking. There was still, I think, a 15- or 16-man group together. Um, you also saw nicely once, when the helicopter flew over, how these groups all rode into the climb bit by bit. The gaps there overall — let's say in the first 20 teams — really weren't that big yet. Um, then it definitely went, the mountain KOM, Schurter and Filippo Colombo definitely won the mountain ranking. Egger and Baum really put on good pressure. You could already see that Keegan definitely had trouble, and Beers was definitely the stronger one of the two of them. What was wild was that at that point Marco Gilbert and Tristan Nortje were definitely still riding from the front the whole time, in the end they only came in in eighth place, six minutes back. And... Then, I think the second time up the climb, Luca Pierrot and Simone Avondetto definitely launched an attack and also pulled out a gap on Schurter and Colombo. And then the last time up the climb, Schurter and Filippo fought their way back, and on the descent essentially tore open a gap, or rather tried to tear open a gap, and then only at the end on those last three kilometers I mentioned, which went slightly uphill again, could they really drop them there and pull out those 31 seconds of gap. So even for the pros, to pull out 30 seconds in two kilometers — that was really wild. What I — yeah, not good, but in any case kind of nice to see — was that Schurter is human and maybe he is getting older after all. And Filippo Colombo today was definitely the stronger partner at least. But that guy, so Schurter, really fights really really hard. That was a strong performance from him. Really wild to see that at his slightly older age he's still riding so, so incredibly strong. Also really awesome to see, Lukas Baum and Georg Egger with two minutes back. I think almost... So Georg must have definitely had a good day today, because he was riding really well from the front the whole time and flying up those climbs. Also nice to see in fifth place today, Stibian and Rabensteiner. Overall you have to say — let's say the top marathon riders, so Baum, Egger, Stutzmann, Porro, Rabensteiner, Stibian — all very close together within 46 seconds, and all today only lost 2 minutes 40 and 2 minutes 50. That's definitely very good and there's really still a lot in it. Also nice to see, Seewald and Hartmann today 12th. place, definitely rode much stronger than yesterday. And if we look at the GC, Schurter and Colombo are now first, Pierrot and Avondetto second at 11 seconds, so a very tight battle. And then Baum and Egger in 3rd place. Really nice to see at 3 minutes. I think tomorrow's 66-kilometer stage with 900 meters of elevation, the time-trial stage, could really suit them. I'm very curious whether the guys can pull something off there. I'd definitely wish it for them, and we've just looked at it ourselves — it should be east, so either there's a headwind or more of a crosswind, so like windbreak wind. I'm curious whether that will have an influence on the race and who can prevail there. I mean, if you have a strong headwind... it's of course hard, because then two riders, if you have two strong riders who can swap more, but if you only have one rider and for example the second is clearly smaller and lighter, then it gets hard for him, because when he's up front in the wind, the second rider can't do as much. We'll have to see, it could be exciting. And yeah, I'm definitely curious. 66 kilometers, 900 meters of elevation, that's tomorrow. And I think tomorrow I'll definitely manage to record a podcast again. And then I'm going to go to sleep now and wish you a good evening.