8 days of racing on trails with breathtaking landscapes, 750 duos competing and pushing their limits, it's the Tour de France for mountain bikers aka The Absa Cape Epic! To tell us about this epic adventure, we take the wheel of Hugo Parmentier, who made this South African dream come true with his father Franck. On this occasion, the two residents of the Biker's Club Noisy-le-Grand donned a custom Chef de File outfit in their image to carry out and experience this challenge.
For the uninitiated, the Cape Epic is a stage mountain bike race taking place in South Africa. It attracts cyclists from all over the world to tackle varied terrain and extreme conditions over several days, offering the ultimate experience of surpassing oneself and exploring the wild African landscapes. It is an iconic event that requires endurance, strategy and teamwork to cover hundreds of kilometers through spectacular landscapes. On the program, a prologue followed by 7 marathon stages for a total of 8 days of racing. Their week was marked by 3 scorching days, but above all some good figures: 602 kilometers, 36 hours in the saddle and more than 16,000 meters of positive altitude difference, a nice project! For the father/son duo, new to this format, the primary objective was to have fun and store as many memories as possible, as Hugo tells us:
“It was clearly a goal to check off in my life. Throughout the event, we had a lot of fun on and off the bike. It's a wonderful adventure, even more so when you have the opportunity to share it with your family. It's always a special emotion to achieve this after my father introduced me to cycling around twenty years ago! The level was very high, we had no particular objectives. Completing the event was already a goal in itself. In the end, with our competitive spirit, we still finished 33rd duo in our category, it was a bit of the icing on the cake. »
The sporting routine quickly settled in for Franck and Hugo who were marked by the kindness and welcome of the locals: “everything was done to the millimeter to put us in the best possible conditions” . One of the particularities of this event is that the entire sports caravan is housed in the same boat - night in a tent, general wake-up at 5 a.m. and an early departure around 7 a.m.:
“The bivouac being very large, we also had to adapt on this point. Despite stages ending quite early in the day, our days passed very quickly. Daily life was very rhythmic and all the staff helped us to make our cycling experience as pleasant as possible. We were able to meet great people from all over the world, during our hours in the saddle but also on the base!
During the event, we were rather lucky because we did not have any mechanical problems and, above all, no physical problems. Particularly on the hydration part in the face of water that was not always drinkable! In addition to that, despite the high temperatures we did not particularly suffer from the heat. Aside from some nights where sleep was hard to come by with temperatures not dropping below 20 degrees. »
Obviously, on the bike it wasn't always fun, we had to endure and overcome the various physical challenges that presented themselves to Hugo and Franck. In this event where gaps in the pair are not accepted, you also have to adapt your efforts mainly when one is easier than his teammate. Exceptional trails, lots of dust, moments of mutual help and memories engraved forever, this is the recipe for their adventure:
“We were going through some pretty difficult times, the stages were long and hard, this can create tension in the pairs, some don't even speak to each other anymore. Being with family is also an incredible moment of sharing, and it erases this type of tension, it was lighter. But we keep beautiful, lasting memories throughout our stay. On a section of road we saw a sign “be careful Leopard”, from that moment we increased our pace and we swore not to stop! We also had the right to a 100% bike park shaper day like never before on private land, it was pretty incredible. As also a 12 kilometer climb with more than 120 hairpins and an incredible view from the top at 1000 meters above sea level. We really advise all cycling enthusiasts to have the opportunity one day to taste all this! »
Already nostalgic since their return to France, the desire to go back on this type of adventure is already present. Thanks to Hugo for the time given, and to the organization for the photos. Our partners are talented and they deserve to be highlighted!
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