Raphaël Gagné to race Cape Epic with Silverback OMX Pro Team
Canadian Olympian pairs with Martin Gluth for one of two teams from squad
After starting the World Cup season in Stellenbosch, South Africa, most Canadians have returned north to find more winter waiting. Raphael Gagné, though, isn’t on his way home just yet. The Canadian Olympian is pairing up with his Silverback OMX Pro teammate Martin Gluth to take on the 2018 Cape Epic mountain bike stage race, one of two teams the squad will enter. Mariske Strauss and former Silverback rider Annie Last, now riding with KMC-Ekoi-SR Suntour, will represent the team in the women’s field.
Gluth has raced the demanding 658 km course before on two occasions, experience that should help the pair get through the eight stage event. Gagné, on the other hand, will be experiencing the Cape Epic for the first time. “There are some nerves, since this is new,” says Gagné, of the upcoming challenge, “but I am really excited for the experience.”
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The early season race is notoriously difficult, covering huge distances over long stages in wild South African environment. But the challenge and unique setting have made the Cape Epic one even top pro’s look to return to year after year. On finally getting his chance to take on the Epic, Gagné says “I look forward to the race itself, and everything it should throw at us: landscape, safari on the bike, harsh racing conditions.”
The Epic requires pairs of racers to race together for the entirety of each, physically demanding stage, which makes the relationship between racers crucial. After just one week training together, new Silverback OMX teammates Gluth and Gagné seem ready to take on the challenge.
They will be joined on the start line by Annie Last and Mariske Strauss, a pair re-uniting to repeat last year’s successful Cape Epic showing despite now racing for different teams. A South African local, it will be Strauss’s fourth time racing the event, and second time racing with Last. The duo placed second overall last year, when both were on the Silverback squad, winning the Queen Stage along the way. This year, Last will be supported by here KMC Ekoi SR Suntour team, who will work in conjunction with the Silverback OMX Pro Team support crew as they take care of Strauss.
“This will be my first Epic with the same partner,” Strauss says of re-uniting with Last. “YOu really get to know your partner on a deep mental, spiritual and physical level. It’s like a marriage that grows and develops over the eight days.” Last is also keen to build on the foundation the pair laid last year, saying “it’s about being in tune with how your body is feeling on that day and being able to communicate that to your partner and for them to do the same, then you can work out the best way for you both to go as fast as possible!”
Last and Strauss will have their work cut out for them, if they want to improve on their second place showing from last year. Most notably, they will be up against the Specialized team of Annika Langvad and Kate Courtney. Langvad won the opening World Cup round in Stellenbosch last weekend, where Courtney finished 24th in her first race as an Elite after winning U23 world championships last summer. It will be Courtney’s first team stage race, but she will have an advantage racing with Langvad, who’s won the Epic on each of the three times she has entered.
