If you think the professionals are competitive at the Absa Cape Epic, you should see the age category racers! The Master Men in particular. Aged 40-49 years, this is the largest category at the Absa Cape Epic. Winning it is a big deal, which is why the drama that unfolded for the Masters Category leaders on Stage 4 at Oak Valley is a tale worth telling.
By Sean Badenhorst
Craig Uria is a chiropractor with a young family who lives in Johannesburg. His Restonic teammate is Mike Posthumus, a Sports Scientist who lives in Cape Town and who also has a young family. Fiercely competitive as individuals, they share a love for mountain bike stage racing and are partnered for the first time at this year’s Absa Cape Epic.
Uria, the current South African 40-49 Marathon Champion, won the Cape Epic Masters title in 2021 with good friend Andrew Duvenage. It was understandably a lifetime highlight for blokes who never got the chance to race bikes full time and now have a heap of family and career commitments. Really early morning training sessions, lots and lots of time on Zwift, supplementary training for strength and stability, eating like pro athletes, you know, massive daily sacrifices as well as family and work-colleague support for months in the build-up to the Cape Epic.
That’s why when something goes wrong in the race, it’s a really big deal for these guys. A small issue with a tyre is dealt with calmly, but quietly builds a huge ball of stress. Losing seconds is expected and managed. A minute or two lost can be acceptable too. But more than that and it’s a flippen disaster!
With their sights set on contesting the 2023 Absa Cape Epic Masters title for months, Uria and Posthumus arrived at the race in peak condition. Mike is a cycling coache and Uria is a performance nutritionist, so they know how to prepare for a big race. After winning their category on Stage 1, they took over the lead and have been wearing the Dimension Data Blue Leader Jerseys ever since.
On Thursday’s Stage 4 time trail at Oak Valley, they suddenly and unexpectedly lost almost half of their 23-minute lead over their nearest rivals, five-time Cape Epic overall winner, Karl Platt (GER) and his Legends Bulls/Mondraker teammate Tomas Misser Vileseca (ESP). At the 41km time check, with five kilometres remaining, Uria and Posthumus were 2:26 behind on Platt and Misser Vileseca, who went on to win the stage.
Uria tells the story:
A very unlucky stage for us. We had a big lead on Bulls going into the time trail. We knew it wasn’t a stage for us to really go for the win. So, we kept it smooth and steady but still rode bloody hard. We were flying and when we got into the last singletrack I was a bit ahead of Mike and then I heard shouting and made out the word ‘chain!’.
I stopped, ran back to him and found him puzzling with a broken chain. We looked at it and was a lot worse than a typical broken chain. Under such high load the chain pulled into the cassette and the derailleur pulled into the wheel. As a result, the chain wrapped around the inside of the cassette, so it was a mangled mess and we had about three kilometres of the stage remaining.
After puzzling for a bit, I said to Mike ‘Just run!’. Mike started running with his bike, but he couldn’t wheel the bike next to him because the rear wheel was jammed by the mangled chain! So, he was carrying the bike and I thought this was too bloody slow.
So, we stopped and managed to get the back wheel off. We literally used a combination of mechanical and demolition skills – and instincts – and literally ripped it all apart. The cassette popped off; the derailleur was still sort of hanging onto the frame. We then managed to get the wheel back in and push the axle through. So Mike was then at least on the bike.
I then switched between towing and pushing Mike through the last section of singletrack. Not ideal because Mike is 85kg of pure muscle and that’s not easy to tow – or push! It’s all good. Unfortunately, we lost nine-and-half minutes or so to the Bulls team. We really hoped not to lose too much today. But it is what it is. Looking at it from the flipside, we have got 13 minutes on them. I’ll take 13 minutes on them going into the last three stages.
It was stressful and a hell of an experience, but we’re putting it behind us and are very excited for tomorrow and Groenlandberg to be honest.
Friday’s Stage 5 has been declared the Queen Stage of the 2023 Absa Cape Epic and takes in a distance of 102km with 2450 metres of climbing and includes the race’s most iconic climb, Groenlandberg. Uria and Posthumus hold a 12:58 lead over Platt and Misser Vilaseca in the Masters Category in which there are still 180 teams competing.
