What exactly is the Team Absa Training Camp? I was invited to the 2025 edition, held at the Absa Karkloof Country Club in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands from 23-26 January. After four days and three nights, here’s what I discovered about this unique event.
By Sean Badenhorst | Photography: Anthony Churchyard
If you have wondered what the annual Team Absa Training Camp is, you’re not alone. I had an idea, because I asked a few people, but actually being invited to attend it this year, gave me the opportunity to experience and understand it completely.
As most know, the Absa Cape Epic is the world’s premier mountain bike stage race. It’s held over eight days on a tough route through the Western Cape each March. If you are fortunate to secure an entry you can line up at the start. Being able to roll across the finish line eight days later though requires all kinds of tough tests – physical, mental and emotional tests.
The trick is to arrive on the start line in great physical condition and with confidence in your bike, equipment, nutrition plan, stamina, strength and skill level. Absa spends millions each year as the title sponsor of the Absa Cape Epic. Smart people know that strong brands leverage their sponsorships.
What does Absa do? It’s a bank, insurance and assurance company. It offers personal banking and corporate banking. The stats show that mountain biking in South Africa is predominantly a middle-aged male sport. Middle-aged males (and obviously females) are a key target market for companies like Absa because they have high-volume financial commitments such as home loans to pay, vehicles to finance, children’s education to fund and more.
If you have a personal or business relationship with Absa – and you’re a mountain biker – there’s good chance you will be eligible to apply to join Team Absa once you have entered the event. It’s a limited group and it gets almost unlimited support, both at the Team Absa Training Camp at at the Absa Cape Epic. Also invited to the Team Absa Training Camp are representatives of Absa Cape Epic partner brands, including Toyota, USN, Ciovita, Squirt, Exxaro, GIC and NTT. And there’s also Absa’s #SheUntamed Epic Trippers contingent – a group of women that do shorter distances in an effort to build awareness and motivation to one day tackle the Absa Cape Epic. Also attending this year, were several staff members from the Absa Cape Epic.
With an entry, anyone can start the Absa Cape Epic. But finishing it is way more impressive. For most that do so, it is life improving. Absa knows this and the annual Team Absa Training Camp helps address this. Unprepared entrants leave the Absa Cape Epic early, defeated, in a negative frame of mind and frustrated. Many of them don’t have the support to help them prepare properly. Absa changed that with the annual training camp as well as other supplementary initiatives, which could include offering access to a performance coach or a skills coach or a nutrition expert.
The Team Absa Training Camp is an invite-only event. It’s designed to offer four consecutive days of mountain biking over tough routes in summer conditions to help Absa’s valued clients and their race teammates gauge their preparedness for the big race in two months’ time.
Routes are pre-planned to offer the right combination of distance, climbing, smooth singletrack and technical singletrack. Day 1 (21km | 400m ascent) this year was a short two-hour ride to give the riders an introduction to the conditions and type of trails they would experience. Not everyone had arrived yet, but it was still quite well attended. Hard to turn down an opportunity to ride some Karkloof singletrack…
Day 2 (91km | 2550m ascent) was focused on distance and long climbs, which saw the inclusion of Lebanon, a formidable gravel road ascent, as well as other climbs on singletrack and gravel roads. Most of the invited riders at the camp are from Gauteng, where it’s difficult to find a climb longer than 10 minutes.
Day 3 (80km | 2300m ascent) was focused on both distance and singletrack. As time goes by, the Absa Cape Epic route includes higher volumes of singletrack. Unlike pedalling along an open gravel road, singletrack requires constant focus, judgement and skill. Not everyone is able to ride singletrack well, so incorporating it into the training camp is essential.
Day 4 (45km | 1000m ascent), the final day, was also focused on singletrack, driving home the importance of riders feeling capable and confident on this kind of trail, which offers little margin for error and requires rapid decision making.
Days 2 and 3 had three refreshment stations and Day 4 had one. These were stocked and staffed just like an Absa Cape Epic refreshment station to give the Team Absa riders everything they need from a route nourishment and replenishment perspective. A range of snacks and drinks were on offer, including product from USN, the official sports supplement partner of the Cape Epic. Also at these stops was chain lubricant from Squirt Cycling, the official bike wash and lubricant partner of the event.
Since 2020, Team Absa now also includes the Absa #SheUntamed community which gradually changed the make-up of the invited training camp list from predominantly middle-aged males, with 50% of the invited riders this year being female. You can read more about what Absa #SheUntamed is all about here.
With around 130 invited riders, there’s always going to be a spectrum of fitness and strength. So, the riders are divided into Group A, Group B+, Group B Group B- and Group C. The groups all cover the same route, but just at different speeds. Each group has a lead marshal and a sweep marshal to ensure continuity and safety. A large trails network like Karkloof, most of which is on Sappi forestry land, can lead to riders getting lost too, so guidance is essential. The focus needs to be on training, not navigation.
The entire event is based in a massive, air-conditioned marquee at Absa Karkloof Club with rider changing area, toilets, showers, bike park, bike wash, bike mechanic station, medic station, dining tables, lounge area, hot-and-cold drinks bar, meals station and more. It’s almost a duplicate of the Team Absa base at the Absa Cape Epic. It’s most impressive and it’s the work of Absa’s long-time activation agency, Playmakers, who understand exactly what the mountain bikers need – and want.
So that’s what the Team Absa Cape Epic training camp is. Very few have the privilege of being invited, which is why I was thrilled to get an invitation. I am not a member of Team Absa, but TREAD Femme, a division of TREAD Media has been providing partner media content and editorial comment on the Absa #SheUntamed project since its inception. TREAD Media has, since our launch in 2009, given the Absa Cape Epic race extensive media coverage. Quite possibly more coverage than any other mountain bike media brand in the world.
As a result, there’s a strong interest in the event from our readers, whether they are keen participants or simply mountain bike racing fans. I have started – and finished – two editions of the Absa Cape Epic and am planning to do a third. So, I understand the event and what it takes to complete it with some form of composure. I essentially attended this year’s training camp as an on-the-bike media guy. I’m not in Cape Epic race condition, so I took a Specialized Levo SL eBike and a Specialized Epic 8 EVO marathon bike.
I skipped the short ride on Day 1 to complete some deadline work and joined the A Group on Day 2. On the menu: Lots of climbing. Three-time Cape Epic winner, Matt Beers and World No 2 XCO racer, Candice Lill at the front. Me nursing a sinus infection and at around 60% of my fitness potential and 5kg above my race weight. The bike of choice would definitely be the eBike! I wanted to get some perspective of what the pace is like in this competitive group as well feel the vibe.
There were probably 30 riders in this group, including a cluster of Exxaro Academy members. Everyone looked lean and keen. The pace was quick almost from the start. Well, quick for me! As soon as we hit some steepish ascents, I needed to activate the Levo SL’s motor. We climbed quite a bit for the first 45 minutes before we hit some familiar singletrack descents.
Unfortunately, recent rain had left the surface quite damp, so descending at pace wasn’t an option. I found myself behind Geoff Lee, one of the top brass at Absa and a committed, competitive mountain biker. He picked some good lines but was on the brakes a lot, which is understandable. Preserving himself for the Cape Epic was his priority. Our tyres were caked in mud and the rocks and roots were just waiting to deliver some drama. Fortunately, we all exited safely before hitting the formidable Lebanon climb. The first water point was near the summit and a place to pause, replenish drinks, eat, and lubricate chains. I decided I’d ride further with them until I recognised a singletrack turn-off that I knew would drop me into a different valley via the iconic Sisonke descent. Heading that way would give me too much battery range anxiety, especially at the rapid pace of this group.
I said cheers and headed back to the Karkloof club on my own. I didn’t use the motor on the way back because I wasn’t trying to hang onto anyone. But that morning I did get a feel for the pace and the vibe of this group. There was some light banter, but not on the climbs and quite a high level of mutual respect between the riders. Barring bad luck, these riders will all finish the 2025 Absa Cape Epic. Probably all in the top 200.
On Day 2 I joined Group B+ until Waterpoint 1 and then I waited for Group B. I had expected a slightly slower pace than Group A, but was still feeling the effects of the sinus infection. To be safe, I chose the eBike again. Turns out I didn’t need any pedal assistance. The pace was very consistent and within my ability. Well, for the first three hours anyway. In the fourth hour I began to tire and started yo-yo-ing off the back on the big climbs. To my credit, I avoided using the motor and pedalled the 18.5kg bike with purpose… I have about a four-hour capacity when I am not training for something specific. So, I called time out at around 55km and rolled the 5km back to the air-conditioned tent and an ice-cold beer…
After having doubts the day before, I realised another Cape Epic is still within my reach as the pace of this group, most of whom are quite prepared and will certainly finish the 2025 Absa Cape Epic, wasn’t really a stretch. Phew! There was a high volume of women in B Group. The vibe was more relaxed and fun, the skill level a bit lower but the enthusiasm level was at maximum. Oh, and occasional pee stops were acceptable…
While I was impressed by some of the riders’ singletrack and technical skills, the overall level was quite low. Braking too much; choosing poor lines; not looking ahead; not shifting gears when necessary; not using dropper seatposts enough. Improving all of this can probably get you to the finish of a singletrack-heavy Cape Epic stage 60-90 minutes faster. And all of this can be improved by a few sessions with an experienced skills coach.
I didn’t plan for this personal experience article to run for this long, but here we are, close to 2000 words and I still have a lot more that I can say. To wrap up quickly though, the Team Absa Cape Epic training camp was exceptionally well organised and incredibly classy. I started mountain biking in KwaZulu-Natal in 1991 when mountain biking was just a fledgling cycling discipline, and have lived through its evolution. I cannot believe the status the sport has reached in South Africa when a major corporate can organise a training camp of this standard. And it must be said that the Cape Epic, with the support of Absa over the past 19 years, has been partly responsible for the growth in numbers and status of South African mountain biking. Long may this continue…
Sean Badenhorst, editor and co-founder of TREAD Media, is also a mountain bike skills instructor. He completed the 2005 and 2015 editions of the Absa Cape Epic.
