SPORT: Epic action awaits! | News24

Off-road enthusiast Erica Green will be among the riders from Helderberg competing in the Absa Cape Epic mountain bike stage race, taking place from Sunday 19th to 26th March. Photo: Nick Muznik/Absa Cape Epic

When the Absa Cape Epic gets underway this Sunday (March 19), Helderberg residents will secretly hope that local riders can rival the pros in the world-famous mountain bike race.

While Helderberg amateurs will be the first to tell you that fun and challenge are the main drivers of their participation in the “Tour de France of Mountain Biking”, there is little doubt that they dream of going head-to-head with the world’s top pros somewhere dwell in their thoughts.

The 19th edition of the Untamed African MTB Stage Race, taking place from Sunday 19th to 26th March, begins with the prologue on the trails of Meerendal Winery in Durbanville before ending on the exquisite fields of Val de Vie Winery in Paarl .

Somerset West’s Jaco Venter, a household name in road cycling who has competed in the Grand Tour – the Vuelta a Espana, the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France – and is the 2016 winner of the South African National Road Race Championships, looks on Absa Cape Epic as the fourth event in the Grand Slam of cycling. “I’ve done all three Grand Tour events on the road, but I count the Absa Cape Epic as my fourth because it’s just as tough,” he said.

“Stage races are brutal. It is a great mental and physical struggle every day. It’s so unpredictable and the team dynamic makes it even more difficult. But that combination and the great trails, most of which I know, is why I love the Absa Cape Epic.”

Venter is happy with his pre-race preparation, which is a far cry from the same level last year.

“A year ago I was healing from a broken collarbone after hitting a bokkie on Tankwa Trek. I was only able to hit the trails a few days before the start so I’d say I’m a few steps ahead this year.”

He said racing on his home trails is definitely a bonus, but many foreign riders also train on these trails in the off-season so are used to the conditions.

“I’m most looking forward to the Lourensford stages and the new trails the team built there.”

Erica Green, a Somerset West Olympian who has been mountain biking since 1991, loves the Absa Cape Epic because it “gives ordinary people the opportunity to do the extraordinary.”

After representing South Africa in both road cycling and mountain biking at the 1996 Olympics, she said she wouldn’t normally compete in the event “as I am a former pensioner” but was riding “for fun” this year.

“I hope to be reminded of how the routes have changed and how that would affect preparation.”

However, there’s another reason she’s taking on the Epic.

“My partner for 2023 is a client of mine who didn’t make it last year. He had to retire with a day and a half to go as most of his training took place indoors. His physical exhaustion overwhelmed him.

“So I made a commitment to mentor him during the event – I just hope I did enough to make that happen!”

Another Somerset West rider, Petie Viljoen, has teamed up with longtime friend Erik Knoetze.

He is looking forward to partnering with the man he sold a mountain bike to 14 years ago as they have both come a long way together.

For these men, such friendship and camaraderie is what the Absa Cape Epic is all about.