Raphaël Gagné’s reflects on his first Cape Epic experience
Canadian Olympic mountain biker looks back on eight intense days in South Africa
When Canadian Olympian Raphaël Gagné signed with Silverback OMX Pro Team earlier this year, the main purpose behind the move to a new team was on moving up the World Cup rankings. Moving to the Europe based team, backed by South African bike brand, Silverback, has had other benefits, like the opportunity to race the infamous Absa Cape Epic mountain bike stage race.
Gagné recently finished the eight day event, making him one of the first Canadian pro cyclists to complete it since Alison Sydor won in the early 2000’s. When Gagné and I talked over Whattsapp, he was still in South Africa, and exhaustion from the cumulative effort of 700km of racing was still heavy in his voice. In a year with unusually high numbers of illness, among racers and staff alike, just making it through the eight days of intense racing healthy was something to celebrate.
RELATED: Raphaël Gagné joins Europe-based Silverback OMX Pro Team for 2018
Gagné and his Silverback OMX teammate Martin Gluth were there to do more than finish, though, they were there to race. Up against XC and marathon world champions and an international crowd of cross country elite, the pair were sitting in 13th overall and making progress up the leaderboard. And then, in the hours after the penultimate time trial, Gluth started to feel ill.
What started as a trip to the medical tent progressed quickly into a full blown flu or food poisoning type problem, one of the several illnesses that already taken a number of high profile racers out of the 2018 Cape Epic, and it quickly became clear that Gluth’s race was over. “It’s hard, because you don’t know if it’s going to be over in 24 hours, or last for 48,” Gagné said of the team decision to not send Gluth out to try finish the last day of racing. “When I got back from racing the last stage, Martin was just starting to feel better, but there’s no way he could have been on a bike racing.” It was tempting to try maintain the teams placing, but with Gluth still a far cry from being able to eat, never mind race, it would have been impossible to defend, says Gagné, “we would have been just crawling along.”
One of the unique, and defining features of the Cape Epic is it’s wildness. The course is often in remote locations where little race support is possible. While it makes for a visually stunning backdrop and long intense days of racing, this also means that, unlike at a World Cup where a mechanic is never far away, racers have to deal with their own equipment problems mid-race. Along with luck when it comes to avoiding illness, how racers handle these incidents under pressure becomes a deciding feature of the race.
While Silverback lacked luck in the health department, Gluth’s being a very intense illness, the pair had done an excellent job at managing the parts of the race under their control.When strong prologue was turned on its head by a flat tire, just five kilometres into an over 100km first stage of racing, the duo didn’t panic. They settled into a four hour solo chase to try contain their time losses, and then set to work fighting their way back into the race.
For Gagné, the thorns were one of the unexpected parts of the race. Not that they were there, flats are a constant part of the Cape Epic experience, but that they were absolutely everywhere. “There are all kinds of different thorns and cactus spines, and you have them scratching your legs and arms all the time while you’re racing, and you have to be careful where you ride to protect your tires.” If you’re picturing a clear, safe track with thorns nearby, think again. “They tell us to stay on the main trails, not to cut corners for a faster line,” Gangé said of the ubiquitous thorn threat, “but even just a passing line on double track jeep roads, there would be one side that was the race line, and the other side would have thorns and bushes hiding over every bump.”
Having survived their first mechanical, the Silverback OMX team were settling in and working back into the race. Doing so, though, is no easy feat, with long stages day after day and high intensity racing. “I knew it was going to be really hard going in, I had that expectation, but it lived up to that expectation,” said Gagné of the level of racing at the Epic. “It is a little less intense than a World Cup race, but it never really eases off the entire week. So it’s a little easier pace, but you’re doing it day after day, all the time.” The pace made regaining lost time a slow process. Cannondale Factory Racing made the mistake of trying to make up for a bad day in one blistering attack. They flatted, negating their effort in attacking, then lost even more time the next day.
It’s not just long days and fast racing, but the unfamiliar terrain and tough racing schedule that took it’s toll on racers. “I was quite surprised how hard it was on the upper body early on, when you’re racing on miles of bumpy jeep roads. Later on it became more flowing and more like real mountain bike trail, which eased that.” On top of the physical racing, there was the accumulated lack of sleep over the week from early race starts designed to avoid the worst of the African heat. “You’re not just racing,” said Gagné, “you’re waking up at 4:30AM for the 7:30AM start, so you try go to bed as early as you can because you’re going to be sleep deprived by the weeks end no matter what.”
In the end, it’s not just fast paced racing that makes the Cape Epic so hard, and so special, but all the unique elements of racing added together. “Each stage comes with it’s own challenges, and they’re all hard,” Gagné said when I pressed for one standout stage, “but it’s the full Cape Epic, everything that comes with it that becomes the challenge.”
By the mid-week Queen Stage, 110km with two massive climbs, The Silverback OMX duo were settling into the challenge nicely, and really starting to move back up the rankings after their Stage 1 flat. “It was the first day I really felt 100%, ” said Gagné, “the rest of the days, we were both putting everything out there and finishing totally empty, but that was the first day I really felt like I could Go, and Gluth felt the same way.” The sensations proved right, and pair had their best day out on course.
“We also knew what was coming up, a flat start with some winds, and then sandy sections, so we were ready. We got up to the front, and it was really hard to hold that pace, but then the race hit the sand sections and the group started to split up.” The long open Cape Epic stages make the race a hybrid of road and mountain bike racing, where staying in a group for open road and gravel is extremely important, strategically, but you still have to do your own work on the singletrack and technical parts. “We held on when it split up through the sand, making it into the front group” for the next open section. “After two hours of racing, the pace was too much,” and the pair trailed off to form a second chase group that would stay together till the days end.
“We came into the finish sprinting with four teams, and we were very happy we were albe to take that sprint after so much racing” Gangé said of finishing the Queen stage, “and you don’t know what position you’re sprinting for, it could be 11th or 9th.” The pair ended up finishing 11th on the day, their best result during the week, and jumped up into 13th in the overall standings.
Then Gluth fell sick. A number of top contenders had been racing ill but, in a year especially plagued by illnesses, there was more than one thing going around and several high profile racers had already been forced out. Nino Schurter had been forced out on the second day, when his Scott-SRAM partner fell ill. Gluth had survived until the last day, but when the sickness hit, it hit hard.
When I ask whether he’d prefer to have his race effectively end on the second day, or the second last, Gagné hesitates. “It’s heartbreaking when it happens so far in, for sure, but that’s racing. We’re not upset about it, you know going in it’s part of the risk of the race.” And, in a year when so many people were ill, it seemed sort of inevitable. “Seven days into racing, you’re drained from the event. Then, when you start getting sick, you’re already really tired and you have this big investment of energy over seven days,” making fighting to stay healthy even harder. “It’s part of the risk, for sure, but you have to be willing to take that risk to try win.”
Gagné did finish the last day solo, carrying Gluth’s number with him as a sign of recognition and thanks for what the two had gone through in the week of racing together. “I’m still really happy to have finished,” Gagné said of finishing the race off on his own. “Even with no result, I’m really proud to have finished in my first time racing.”
After four flights back from South Africa to Quebec, Gagné was not going to be back on time to defend his two Bear Mountain Canada Cup wins, and he’s still taking some time before jumping back into racing. “I think I gained really good experience,” the Canadian Olympian says of his South Africa racing, “but I need to be smart and careful with my training, and my fitness… and with recovery for what’s coming up.” While he’s taking care not to push himself too hard too soon, Gagné think’s racing the Cape Epic will have a positive impact on his year. “It’s a week of hard intensity and distance. I have to be careful, and see how recovery goes, but I think a week of intensity, of high paced racing, will be a good thing going into the rest of the season.” Depending how recovery goes, start looking for all that Cape Epic fitness at the Bonelli Park US Cup UCI HC event on April 14th.
Fitness and race experience aren’t the only takeaways from the week’s racing, though. Gagné entered the race just weeks after joining his Silverback OMX Pro Team for the first World Cup in South Africa, and racing the Epic really helped him feel at home at his new team. “We’re all together for eight days, traveling and living in the same place, it’s a really great experience.”
In the end it’s not just the difficulty that makes the Cape Epic really special, Gagné says. “There’s so much focus on how Cape Epic is really hard, and tough to finish, but it also brings professionals and amateurs together in one experience, You see the big names, but you also see all the weekend warriors out there on the same course.” The impact of that shared experience, racing on the same course as pros goes both ways, too. “We went to the finish one day, where we had been out racing for four hours or so, to see the last team come into the finish, and they were finishing in 10.5 or 11 hours.” Everyone’s out doing the same race, but “it’s a completely different reality for them, and I have all the respect for them completing that race.”
