The End in Sight

[Jeremiah Bishop checks in following Stages 6 and 7 of the 2015 Absa Cape Epic 8-day mountain bike stage race across South Africa, where he and Robert Mennen (Topeak-Ergon Team 2) raced in support of their fellow Topeak-Ergon teammates Alban Lakata and Kristian Hynek (Topeak-Ergon Team 1) This update follows Bishop’s previous account: Dusty Desert Riding and the King Stage.]

The Single Track of Wellington

In slate dark morning of Stage 6, we woke to the sound of raindrops patting the tents and campers. ‘Hmm,’ I thought today’s XC-distance stage could be more decisive than we’d expected. Sure enough, soon after the starting gun, the field was peppered with crashes. The peloton was snaking through turns and the accordion of riders would scrunch together vying for position. The sound of riders bikes smashing behind and sliding on gravel indicated my instincts to get the FRONT where spot on.

My tired legs didn’t want to snap like a criterium race, but I had to move up. For a while, I rode at the front for the team. Then Robert and I were separated. The ensuing single track was awesome. We were parked on the back of Team Bulls 1 for a fast trail tour! Karl Platt was trying to nurse his teammate and Swiss Champion Urs Huber who was having back pain. The pace was brisk, but since we had no need to help the third-place team chase our guys down, we were content with that. The trails were awesome;  30km of single track – including Roller Coaster, Point Break and Heaven’s Gate weaved and dashed thru a pine forest.

The End in Sight

The finale of Stage 7 was a point-to-point race to Laurensford Vineyard. It was anything but an easy stage. This one was especially tough not because of the course, but because it was the last chance for a coveted stage win!

Again, the start was chaotic. I suppose that after eight days in a row, I shouldn’t have expected anything less. One minute you’re cruising at 25-mph down the road looking out for widow-maker potholes through a sea of wheels and riders. The next minute you see the helicopter hovering in place, and then hear the sliding of brakes on gravel as riders chicane across a narrow bridge. Then it’s back to 25-mph from a sandy standstill. After being yo-yoed once, I pushed through and picked up Alban; bringing him to the front and setting a stiff tempo to keep it single file and moving. It was fun to command a peloton and set a hard pace on the front.

Soon we approached the KOM climb. It was 2,000 vertical feet  with some nasty hike-a-bike in the middle. Team Merandal Centurion Vaude was going full gas to get the $1,700 prime at the top. Team Multivan Merida was in hot pursuit. I was behind them with Kristian, but it was important not to pass our boys on the big downhill backside; my job was to make sure my Topeak-Ergon team brought home second-place in the overall and the slightest crash could ruin the week.

Sure enough, the two teams up front descended like men with nothing to lose. Once we regrouped in the valley, Robert, Kristian and I took up chase. We did 40-kilometers of farm tracks, dirt roads and sandy connectors in just over an hour.  Without much help of the Team Specialized’s Kulhavy and Sauser or Martin Guijan and Fabian Geiger. We came up just short of catching the escape artists just like a road race. We hit the final climb and I nuked it trying to see if I could get our team leaders in position for the podium, but we’d have to be satisfied to secure second-place for the week.

It’s difficult to describe the satisfaction of riding as hard as we did this week.  My hands were raw, my right knee was aching, an ankle barely holding out to the last day seemed like a army mission. To finish this one feels good; but to do so as a team working together to battle the best in the World is very a special accomplishment. It was Christoph Sauser’s last Cape Epic as a pro, and he earned it! The celebrations showed a career’s accomplishment with 5 Cape Epic Wins.

Next up for me is a little break at home to enjoy the spring and some family time. The next big race is USA National Championships for Marathon MTB in Augusta Georgia.

Thanks for cheering!

– Jeremiah

Dusty Desert Riding and the King Stage

[Jeremiah Bishop checks in following Stages 4 and 5 of the 2015 Absa Cape Epic 8-day mountain bike stage race across South Africa, where he and Robert Mennen (Topeak-Ergon Team 2) are racing in support of their fellow Topeak-Ergon teammates Alban Lakata and Kristian Hynek (Topeak-Ergon Team 1). Bishop previously wrote “Prepping for the Cape Epic,”  “Opening Days of the Epic,” and “A Day to Forget, Another to Remember.”]

Stage 4

Worcester’s Stage 4 was long and hot with tons of dust; as is common late summer on the desert side of the mountains. We started hard. Matthys and his Scott teammate nailed the first climb and got a gap on the rest of us.

It’s always really nervous in the pack. I guess it’s because you can’t see the ground at all at times. Dust is so think you only see shadows of the riders 5-feet in front of you. This is particularly dangerous when the group is doing 35 mph down a rutted rocky downhill. It’s so dry that sand patches can be a foot deep and you don’t know they are not solid until you’re sideways!

Eventually, the leaders decided the Scott Team was not a threat to the top-10 in General Classification and the pain was not worth the effort of chasing them. It was a nasty 50 minutes though.

After that, our lead group just rode tempo until the late climbs; even taking it easy at times, including a rare pee break that was initiated by Cape Epic veteran Karl Platt of the Bulls Team.

Along the desert route we passed through a few vineyards. Each had some 60 or more employees out en masse and cheering loudly for us. During this stage, several schools also turned out to cheer for us. There were kids jumping up and down; breaking our game faces for nice smiles.

Finally, on the course’s last three climbs, the racing got hot. Our A Team went on the offense, but weren’t able to gain any significant time over the others. Alban and Kristian won the race against the heavy hitting teams in our group, which felt like a win; the Scott Team had managed to stay off the front and had a taste of victory with the actual win.

Robert and I had a punctured tire, but it seemed to seal, so we rode in trading pulls with the Merida Team. We came around one corner after our flat to see Centurion Vaude teammates Jochen Kaess and Daniel Geismayr laying on the ground on a steep rutted dirt-road drop-in. They’d crossed wheels in the dust, and as one of them corrected, the other went over the bars! We stopped to check on them. Kaess had a bloody nose and both their helmets were cocked from impact. Physically, they seemed ok. Since they were both coherent, the rest of us continued on.

At the finish, we looked like gladiators covered in fine black powder.

 

The King Stage

I knew Stage 5 would be hard, but it turned out different than we planned.

Early on, Alban flatted and I gave him my wheel. By the time we’d repaired Alban’s flat, Robert and I had lost considerable time. We rode a steady hard pace, but there was no point killing it, since we couldn’t even see the lead helicopter on the naked horizon. We pushed hard to catch a large group that was about three minutes ahead and included the Masters Category leader Bart Brentjens. I knew this group would move fast on the great expanse of flat bumpy Jeep roads and pavement of the Pass.

Only a little while later, we got word that Alban had twisted his chain while Robert and I fixed the flats. Bummer! They’d clawed their way back up to fifth, descending into second. The looks on their faces showed the great disappointment; it’s the biggest race of the year for them, and they probably won’t be able to win it.

There were some highlights of the day’s stage for me. One would have to be seeing a puff adder –a fat nasty looking one! The other highlight was witnessing the closest race in Master’s Category GC history of the Cape Epic: those guys were attacking the last climb like hornets! They’d block the second rider of a team before the singletrack in a bid to hold up the front attacker: clever moves!

In the end, it was another five-plus-hour stage. We are all tired now. Painful hand blisters, weary eyes, sunburn and saddle fatigue all add up. Legs are working very good, but at times I can feel every sore fiber of muscle within them.

We have two days left, and thankfully they’re not the “Leadville 100’s” of the past days!

Come on finish line!

– Jeremiah Bishop

A Day to Forget, Another to Remember

[Jeremiah Bishop checks in following Stages 2 and 3 of the 2015 Absa Cape Epic 8-day mountain bike stage race across South Africa, where he and Robert Mennen (Topeak-Ergon Team 2) are racing in support of their fellow Topeak-Ergon teammates Alban Lakata and Kristian Hynek (Topeak-Ergon Team 1). Bishop previously wrote “Prepping for the Cape Epic” and “Opening Days of the Epic.“]

For Stage 2, an other-worldly landscape was the backdrop for some serious suffering on my part. Early in the stage, a piece of netting became caught in my cassette. I was sidelined while I worked to get it free. Then I tried to chase back to my teammate Robert and the rest of the leaders. As I rode on, I had stomach trouble. My legs followed and became powerless. Things settled down by the time I passed the second feed zone. Unfortunately, while I was struggling, Robert rode ahead to carry on his support role for Alban and Kristian in case either of them flatted or needed assistance. At the checkpoints, the time separation between Robert and me was greater than the allowed two minutes, we were penalized an hour in the GC.

While I was riding alone, the route entered a burn area. It was surreal. My bonked state enhanced the strangeness of weaving through pillars of white rocks on a white line of single track. The maroon pine needles, and black trees rising up from grey ground made me imagine it is what a forest on Mars might look like.

Eventually, Robert and I reconnected. I rode with him pacing me, as we crossed to the vineyard side of the mountains. I felt like a dog being dragged on a leash with a sharp collar.

Then I started to feel better and actually enjoyed some of the North Shore-style features made in part with used wine barrels cupped together like a bobsled track. Sweet!

Stage 3 was much better; my legs were back!

Over the tough first climb, Robert and I made the selection of the elite group. Our team worked the front and kept steady pressure on Songo-Specialized. In tow were Multivan-Merida, Scott, Centurion Vaude and the Bulls. I was wondering if I could keep doing every climb at 370-400 watts for a 5-hour stage?

As we approached Aid Station 2, Specialized flatted. Alban decided not to attack but ride tempo. Specialized had a fast wheel change, got back in the group and went hard on the hot, rock-strewn climb! My face was red with the baking heat under the Karoo sun. Robert and I got gaped, but caught back after that climb.

The Bulls flatted and the pace ramped up. It got nasty as we pace-lined down the road. Then we faced three kilometers of beach-like sand. After a mistake in a deep sand trap, Alban was gapped and Kulhavey sensed it.

The pace was fierce. We raced across a 500-meter long damn; I paced Alban halfway across, helping him and Kristian move into second place for the stage and moving them into second in the GC.

Robert and I crossed the line in third place and were quickly swept up in the podium reception.

It was an awesome feeling, indeed, after a hard 85-mile stage of the Cape Epic!

Follow Jeremiah Bishop and Team Topeak-Ergon at the Absa Cape Epic

The Absa Cape Epic is known as the toughest mountain bike stage race in the world. March 15-22, 2015 Team Topeak-Ergon will take on the challenge.

An interactive multi-media page On the Edge will follow the team’s adventure at the 2015 Absa Cape Epic.

Opening Days of the Epic

[Jeremiah Bishop checks in after the Prologue and Stage 1 of the 2015 Absa Cape Epic 8-day mountain bike stage race across South Africa. This account follows his first update Prepping for Cape Epic.]

The Table Mountain Prologue was a short, intense and exciting opener to the Cape Epic. In this team time trial, Robert and I nabbed ninth place. The exhilaration of racing in the world’s biggest mountain bike race, with a TV helicopter shadowing you along the cliff-side, is indescribable. At the Finish Line, we were interviewed on live TV and then escorted to the “Rider Reception Zone” where we were offered towels and a place to sit; at each chair was a bucket, sponge and mini hose for each rider to clean off with. Lets just say the details are dialed at the Cape Epic. At that point, it became obvious to me this race had doubled in importance, with the richest prize purse in the World since my last time competing at the Cape Epic in 2008. Now there are more pro teams here; and the big teams all have back up teams, like mine, that will sacrifice a wheel or help pace the leaders back to the front group in the event of drama. Notably, there is some great single track on the course versus the point-to-point gravel roads of days gone by.

[The following day,] Stage 1 was going great, despite the hectic start with a giant dust ball from the peloton as we rode into the rising sun. It was an amazing sight, but terrifying because you can’t see a hole or rock on the jeep trail until your get up from your crash! As we climbed into the clouds, Robert and I made the leaders group – that’s no small task, against a field of Olympic gold medalists, national champions and world champions.

Then we descended a steep treeless jeep trail that I could only describe as obliterated with broken building blocks strewn on top of sand. Riders were flying down it at breakneck speed and with the dust cloud in our tearing foggy eyes it was impossible to avoid every rock. Robert and I both flatted at the same time. We patiently fixed our flats, but mine went down again ten minutes later so I plugged it with my samurai handle bar end tire plug.

We got a wheel at the feed zone and chased back up to Centurion Vaude’s Jochen Kass and Keismier, and along the way we rode with Bart Brenjins a bit, so that was novel.

But once we got clear of the group of eight, I sensed a soft rear tire. ‘Again?? You’ve got to be kidding,’ I thought. We carried a Topeak pump with us, so we fixed it without incident. This time we got back on and decided it was best to just ride steady, since we lost a lot of time and our job for the remained of the stages will surely involve supporting our main team of Alban and Kristen. They rode well today, and with one flat just after our first, they managed 4th in GC.

The race has just begun, but now I remember just how hard the Cape Epic is!

– Jeremiah Bishop

[Jeremiah’s next update will follow Stages 2 & 3. Follow this link to view comprehensive coverage of Team Topeak-Ergon.]