Cape Epic Training: What My First Cape Epic Taught Me
Updated: Oct 2
The Cape Epic is one of the toughest mountain bike stage races in the world. Eight days. Two riders. Long days in the saddle. Thousands of metres of climbing. Technical terrain. Heat, cold, wind, dust and the occasional mechanical problem.
But preparing for the Cape Epic isn't simply about becoming fit enough to ride a long way. I learned that during my first Cape Epic in 2015.
The Cape Epic demands more than fitness
The race takes place in the Western Cape and the route changes every year, but the basic challenge remains the same: you and your teammate have to get through several demanding days of mountain biking, one after another. Stages can involve four to eight hours or more on the bike, with long climbs, technical descents, loose surfaces, singletrack, jeep track and everything in between.
You may be hot. You may be cold. You may be tired before the day even starts. And your teammate is dealing with the same thing.
That's what makes the Cape Epic different from simply riding a long-distance mountain bike event. You're not preparing for one hard day.
You're preparing to do it again tomorrow.
My first Cape Epic
I was fortunate to get the opportunity to ride the Cape Epic in 2015 through Pitstop. My teammate was Malcolm Isaacs, an experienced and talented rider with strong bike-handling skills. He had raced BMX when he was younger and was already competing successfully in XC and gravel racing.
For me, the opportunity was a big one. I wanted to arrive at the start line knowing that I had done everything I reasonably could to prepare.
My basic fitness was already there, and I genuinely enjoyed training, so I started my formal preparation in August. Most weekdays included commuting by bike, with at least three early starts each week for interval training or longer two-and-a-half to three-hour rides. There were some runs as well.
Weekends and long weekends were used for longer mountain bike rides, often back-to-back, with a focus on accumulating both time and elevation.
But the important part wasn't simply the amount of riding.
I tried to make some of my preparation resemble the demands of the race.
Training for the demands, not just the distance
I used several events and blocks of riding to build towards the Cape Epic. Cape Pioneer Trek came in October. Wine2Whales followed in November. At the end of December I completed another block focused on distance and elevation, followed by Twanka Trek in February.
These weren't simply races added to the calendar. They gave me opportunities to experience repeated days of riding, deal with fatigue, test nutrition and hydration, and learn what my body and equipment were like after several hard days.
That's an important distinction when preparing for a stage race. You don't necessarily need to recreate the entire event in training.
You need to understand what the event is going to demand from you and then find sensible ways to expose yourself to those demands before race week.
Your teammate is part of your preparation
The Cape Epic is a team event. You don't simply arrive with another rider and hope it works.
You have to ride together, make decisions together and deal with good and bad days together. If one rider is struggling, the other rider is affected too.
That makes your choice of teammate important. You need someone you trust, but also someone whose riding style, ability and expectations are reasonably compatible with yours.
More importantly, you need someone who understands that there will probably be a bad day at some point.
I experienced this myself. Halfway through the race I wasn't feeling well. Malcolm helped us get through it, and we eventually finished with an overall GC position of 91st.
For two riders doing their first Cape Epic, I was happy with that result. But the result isn't what I remember most.
I remember that when things weren't going well, having the right person beside me mattered.
You need to prepare for things going wrong
A stage race rarely goes exactly according to plan. You can have a great day followed by a terrible one. You can feel strong on the climbs but struggle with the heat. You can eat perfectly for three days and then suddenly lose your appetite.
You can also have a mechanical problem. Being able to deal with basic trailside repairs is therefore part of being prepared.
So are nutrition, hydration, sleep, recovery and looking after the small problems before they become big ones.
These things aren't separate from performance. They determine how much of your fitness you can actually use.
Nutrition doesn't have to be complicated
For training, I kept my nutrition relatively simple. I generally started with a good breakfast and carried mostly water in my bottles. Food came from my pockets: apples, bananas, dates, dried figs, nuts and raisins, peanut butter and jam or cheese sandwiches.
Sometimes there was a Coke during a hard or longer ride.
It wasn't a sophisticated race-nutrition strategy. It was something I knew I could eat and tolerate.
That experience reinforced something I still believe today:
The best nutrition strategy is not necessarily the most complicated one. It is the one that works for you and has been tested before race day.
So, how should you prepare?
There isn't one training programme that is right for everyone. Your starting point, available time, previous experience, strengths, weaknesses and goals all matter.
But I would start with the demands of the event rather than simply asking how many kilometres you need to ride.
You need enough aerobic fitness to handle long days, and you need the muscular endurance to climb repeatedly.
You also need to be comfortable and competent riding technical mountain-bike terrain.
That doesn't mean you need to be an elite technical rider. It means being able to descend technical sections with control, handle loose, rocky and steep terrain, ride singletrack confidently, manage technical climbs and maintain control when you're tired.
You should also be able to deal with basic trailside mechanical problems. The ability to fix a puncture, repair a broken chain or make other basic repairs can become very important when you're several hours into a stage.
You need to practise eating and drinking while riding. And you need enough recovery to be able to repeat the work day after day.
If you have an established training background and some underlying fitness, around six months of focused Cape Epic preparation can be a reasonable starting point. If you're new to endurance training or starting with little fitness or cycling experience, 12 months or more may be more realistic, giving you time to build the fitness, durability, bike-handling skills and experience needed to handle several demanding days in a row.
The goal isn't to cram as much training as possible into the available time.
The goal is to arrive prepared for the demands of the race without arriving exhausted from the preparation.
The Cape Epic is more than a fitness test
The Cape Epic will test your fitness. But it also tests your ability to manage fatigue, nutrition, equipment, discomfort, changing conditions and another rider for eight days.
That's why I don't think preparing for it should be reduced to a simple question of kilometres, hours or FTP. The numbers are useful. They just aren't the whole story.
I learned that during my first Cape Epic, and it is something I still consider when preparing riders for long mountain bike events today.
The better question isn't simply:
“How fit do I need to be?”
It's:
“What will this event ask me to do, and how can I prepare for those demands?”
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