History of the Absa Cape Epic 

Cape Town, 16 February 2007: In its four short years of existence, the Absa Cape Epic, an annual eight-day mountain bike stage race taking place in the Western Cape, has broken so many records and achieved such an impressive number of world firsts, that it is not only capturing the attention of the international mountain biking world, but is also receiving substantial interest from worldwide mainstream audiences as well.

The Absa Cape Epic presented by adidas is the world's largest full-service, team, mountain bike stage race. Over a thousand riders every year are provided with tented accommodation, race nutrition, water, isotonic carbohydrate drinks, medical assistance and masseurs for the full duration of the race, as they ride from Knysna to Lourensford Wine Estate covering a distance of some 900 kilometres. Every year a new route is devised, offering riders a trip through some of Africa's most breathtaking and untamed territory.

Kevin Vermaak, founder of the Absa Cape Epic, first conceived the idea for a South African mountain bike race in 2002, when he was in Costa Rica participating in the La Ruta, a mountain bike race considered to be one of the world’s toughest. Two months later, Vermaak resigned from his job at the Royal Bank of Scotland and moved back to Cape Town, where he had completed his studies in Engineering at UCT. One year later, the inaugural 2004 race kicked off with riders from 21 countries participating.

News of the unmatched experience that the race offers spread so quickly through the local and international mountain biking communities, that regional entries for the 2005 race sold out in five hours while the world's leading riders tried to secure their entries for the 2005 race. The 2005 race saw 886 riders from 32 countries participating.

After being locally named Best Mountain Bike Race by the SA Cyclist of the Year Awards in 2004, the 2006 race was awarded Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) status as the first ever team mountain bike stage race and the only African mountain bike race to appear on the UCI calendar that year. “Receiving support and affirmation from the UCI was a huge milestone for the race. We had successfully convinced the international mountain biking community of the merit of a race like this. By guaranteeing that the race always ends at least three weeks before the World Cup season begins, we made it possible for the top riders to participate. Not only does this make for great viewing, but it offers amateurs the opportunity to compete against their heroes. Our next goal, however, was to popularise mountain biking and bring it into the mainstream consciousness of South African sports fans,” says Vermaak.

By 2005, the race was closing in on this goal and was being broadcast worldwide. To date, a record-breaking 3 500 hours of coverage have been broadcast in 52 countries and 22 languages, making it the most televised mountain bike race of all time. This year, the Absa Cape Epic will be producing a daily 24-minute highlights package for global distribution, another world first for mountain biking. “Our production team is going to be under immense pressure in producing the daily highlights. To save time, we will, for the first time, be recording all footage directly onto hard drives, meaning that the time taken for footage-capture is removed, and our editors can get to work immediately. To generate the kind of footage and the quality of the final product that we need, we have a thirty five-strong team including, amongst others, seven cameramen, three journalists, five editors, one scriptwriter and two producers, using two helicopters, seven cameras, two production trucks and four motorbikes,” explains Vermaak. 2005 also saw the race being declared the Platinum Winner of the SA Logistics Achiever Awards where it was competing against major national industrial corporations.

By 2006, not only was the race being recognized by mainstream sports stations, but by formidable sponsors as well. Last year, Absa, the existing title sponsor of two of South Africa's main sporting events, rugby's Absa Currie Cup and soccer's Absa Cup, signed a three-year title sponsorship deal with Cape Epic, while adidas International announced the extension of their presenting partnership, to create the Absa Cape Epic presented by adidas. The Absa Cape Epic was also beginning to receive attention from the mainstream logistics and marketing industries. The race was awarded a gold in the Medium Budget Sports Sponsorship category of the Business Times Marketing Excellence Awards, where it was the only cycling event participating and was pitted against some of the country's largest and most-followed sporting events.

The Absa Cape Epic, a Proudly South African initiative, has stayed true to its ethos described at the outset – to focus on rider satisfaction and offer a completely unique experience, to make the race sustainable by developing the economies of all the communities through which it passes, to use the race as an opportunity to promote the culture and beauty of South Africa and to set an example for similar events to maintain an ethical environmental approach.

This year, viewers will see 1 086 riders, including cycling superstars defending champion, two-time World Cup Overall Winner and Olympic medallist Christoph Sauser, Olympic gold medallist, World Champion and World Cup Overall Winner Bart Brentjens, the most prolific Olympic Cross Country format World Cup winner, Thomas Frischknecht, and mountain biking legend Tom Ritchey complete an 886 kilometre route with a total climb of 15 045 metres. The race will pass through a number of South African National Parks, five CapeNature reserves as well as the Cape Floral Kingdom, one of only six floral kingdoms in the world and the only one to exist solely in one area – the Western Cape.

“Testament to the race's unprecedented success, this year's race may be the best and most competitive Absa Cape Epic yet, and will undoubtedly set the stage for something even better in 2008,” concludes Vermaak.

For more information on the route and the race, visit www.cape-epic.com