13 riders you never knew completed the Cape Epic

The Absa Cape Epic has grown into the world’s premier mountain bike stage and has naturally attracted some of the biggest names in world sport - we look back at some high-profile athletes who’ve completed the race

Absa Cape Epic

off.road.cc staff

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Mar 20 2023

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Feature

[Words by Steve Thomas]

As the Cape Epic 2023 hits full flow, we take a look back at some of the more surprising riders you may or may not know have taken part in the race since its inception back in 2004.

Greg Minnaar

He’s best known as one of the greatest and longest-standing downhill racers of all time and is quite possibly Africa’s greatest cyclist of all time – he is, of course, Greg Minnaar. While most downhill mountain bikers run from the hills when the gradient turns tail on their carbon maidens Greg does the opposite, and he has always been known for his rigorous training, which has carried him through to the finish of two Cape Epic races.

Back in 2004, Greg was teamed up with then U23 XC World Cup champion Liam Killeen of the UK. It has to be said that it was hardly a sane match, but even so, the pair managed to finish the race – which came as a surprise to many an onlooker. In 2007 Minnaar once again returned to the race and teamed up with South African female XC racer Hannele Steyn-Kotze, and they finished 70th overall in the mixed category, which is nothing to sniff at.

Tracy Moseley

In 2010, Britain’s Tracy Moseley became the UCI MTB Downhill World Champion, after many years of being at the top of her game. Going into 2011 the Malvern rider roared in with all guns firing and won the opening World Cup round in South Africa, but that was not all she got up to on the trails of the rainbow nation.

Teaming up with her friend and fellow gravity racer and South African-born Anka Martin (who has ridden the race four times in all) to take part in the Cape Epic. The duo put in a fantastic performance and finished 14th overall in the women’s category and, in doing, so raised a considerable amount for World Bicycle Relief.

Moseley, of course, continued to race downhill, turned her attention to the EWS and became a triple world enduro champion.

Alain Prost

With some 51 Formula 1 wins to his name, fast Frenchie Alain Prost has been ranked as the greatest Formula 1 driver of all time (by the Economist), and he’s no slouch on a bike either. Prost has long been an avid road cyclist, and he has competed in countless major gran fondo events over years but many are unaware that he also aces the dirt during his pit stops.

Back in 2012, Prost (then aged 57) teamed up with Swiss international water-skiing ace Sebastian De Pasqua (22 years his junior) to ride, and finish his first Cape Epic in the 269th spot overall.

The following year the duo returned again to complete the great and finish in 174th overall, and in 2014 they went for the Epic finishers hattrick, but unfortunately, Prost failed to get through the full race.

Luis Enrique

Competing in his third Cape Epic this year is Spanish football legend Luis Enrique, a former star player with Real Madrid and Barcelona, and more recently renowned manager of Barcelona and the Spanish national team, a post he resigned from after the last World Cup. Enrique has long since been a cyclist and cycling fan, and also competes in various on-foot marathons around the world, too.

In 2013 he finished the Cape Epic when teamed with former Barcelona and Seville goalkeeper Juan Carlos Unzue’ - and in 2018 he finished the race with teammate Tomas Latorre. In 2020 Unzue was diagnosed with ALS, and this year Enrique will compete in the race under the Team Unzue’ banner in support of his friend.

Ben Bostrom

American former Moto GP and Superbike racer Ben Bostrom has had something of a varied career on two wheels – both with and without engines. Arguably his most successful season was 2009, when he won six rounds and the overall AMA Pro Racing title, while he also took an X Games gold in the inaugural Supermoto event back in 2003.

In 2014 he was part of the winning team in the road cycling Race Across America event, a team which included former US Postal rider and grand tour stage winner Dave Zabriskie. Earlier that same year he teamed up with Costa Rican pro-MTB racer and Olympian Paolo Cesar Montoya to finish a staggering 27th overall on GC.

Colin Charvis

Former Welsh Rugby Union captain Colin Charvis was one of the nation’s most capped and successful players of all time, and oddly enough he now owns a carpet shop in Wales. In 2013 he lined up for the Cape Epic with South African teammate Okkert Brits, a former Commonwealth Games pole vault champion. Unfortunately, Brits could not quite make the final high bar to finish the Epic, leaving Charvis to try and convert into completing the race as a solo rider.

Charvis also returned to the race again in 2015 and then again in 2016 but failed to finish the full distance either time.

Jakob Fuglsang

Danish World Tour road cycling star Jakob Fuglsang has had quite a career on two wheels. In the past years, he won two of the five great one-day Monument classics of the sport and has been one of the major grand tour GC contenders for several years, although it was on flat bars and in the dust where his career was first paved.

As a U23 XC racer, Fuglsang was arch-rival to Nino Schurter, and he became the World Champion in the category back in 2007. Earlier during that same year he also finished second in the Cape Epic when partnered with Roal Paulissen. The following year the pair returned to the race and took the overall victory. Later that same year he would turn his attention fully to road racing and sign a contract with the major CSC team.

Lennard Kamna and Ben Zwiehoff

It has to be said that 2021 was a strange time for the world in general, and things in the pro road cycling world took a few twists and turns, seemingly for the wiser - and that included an apparent change in attitude when it came to top pro road racers hitting the dirt and mixing up their cycling disciplines, a trend we all hope will continue.

In the haze of COVID-19 uncertainty, World Tour road team Bora-Hansgrohe sent two of their finest to compete in the Cape Epic – Lennard Kamna and Ben Zwiehoff, both from Germany. Kamna is something of a climbing ace, and is a past Tour de France stage winner, while Zweihoff is a former XC racer who had only tuned fully to road racing a year earlier. The duo finished a credible 22nd overall.

Stephen Roche

Irishman Stephen Roche is one of the greatest road racers of all time. In 1981, his first pro season, he burst onto the scene by beating French patron of the peloton Bernard Hinault to win the Tour of Corsica and Paris-Nice stage races, something which was outrageous and bold at the same time.

Six years later Roche would go on to win the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia and the World Road Race Championships in the same year, a feat only ever achieved by one other male racer – Eddy Merckx. In 2013 Roche made a surprising venture into the unknown and lined up for the Cape Epic with Sven Thiele. The duo finished 19th overall in their category.

Tom Ritchey

Californian master bike and component maker Tom Ricthey is widely considered the creator of the modern-day mountain bike as we know it and is one of the longest-standing and most respected names in the bike industry. Tom is also known for his pure love of riding offroad and has ridden and raced bikes almost every day since his early teens, and he’s achieved a fair few results along the way.

Tom has ridden the Cape Epic four times in all and has finished in the top 50 overall when riding with Thomas Frischknecht. In 2013 he lined up (and finished) with Canadian veteran Alex Stieda, the first North American rider to wear the prestigious yellow jersey of Tour de France leader. Ritchey is a long-time supporter of Project Rwanda and has ridden the race under that banner each time.

Cadel Evans and George Hincapie

In 2017, two years after retiring from pro road racing, former Tour de France winner and World Road Race Champion Cadel Evans of Australia lined up to do battle in the Cape Epic, partnered by former top road pro and ex-teammate George Hincapie.

Evans is no stranger to off-road racing, and much of his earlier cycling career was spent racing XC MTB, and he was one of the best of the 1990s era, winning the XC World Cup outright in 1998 and 99.

Meanwhile, for Hincapie, the Epic was his first real mountain bike race, yet despite that, the duo had an incredible ride and won the masters category overall.