Have you ever done something so spontaneous, you have to question your sanity and double-check your common sense? Well, Mark Nel, a mountain biker from Cape Town accepted an invitation on Tuesday, 13 October to do the 2021 Absa Cape Epic that starts on Sunday 17 October! What was he thinking?
By Sean Badenhorst
Mark Nel is admittedly not new to mountain biking, or the Cape Epic for that matter. He’s been mountain biking for more than a decade and has completed three Cape Epics. But as any experienced mountain biker knows, you can do a marathon race (60-90km) on the spur of the moment, but the Cape Epic? That’s a different beast!
While he’s been riding fairly regularly, Mark is far from peak fitness for an eight-day stage race. He recently started a new job as head of marketing for Omnico, South Africa’s largest cycling wholesaler. Mark has been juggling his new job, which includes making people aware of – and wanting to buy – brands like Cannondale, GT, Mongoose, Kenda, GoPro, Bell, Giro, Fox suspension, Ryder Innovation and many more; along with the fact that he and his wife have two small daughters and a one-year-old son. What you have here is a man that’s far from Cape Epic ready – certainly by modern Cape Epic standards.
“I was having a coffee on Tuesday morning with Patrick von Schoor from DSTV and he mentioned his Cape Epic teammate had pulled out and he needed a partner at short notice. He asked me if I was keen and I thought he was joking. Then I realised he wasn’t joking. I called my boss and my wife and both of them said I should go for it! So, here I am. Too late to train – straight to taper mode!” explained Nel.
By all accounts, this year’s Cape Epic route is one of the most brutal in the race’s history. The fact that it’s taking place in October and not March as usual means it could be scorching hot or cold and rainy. A long-range weather forecast confirms both!
We figured that since we won’t have a TREAD media team at the 2021 Cape Epic, we’ll follow Mark’s progress with a daily report from sufferville. Patrick trained to finish in the top 100 which mean’s Mark has his work cut out…
Team DSTV Media – race number 280-1 (Patrick) and 280-2 (Mark), will start their 2021 Absa Cape Epic at 09h28 on Sunday morning. At this stage, that’s all they know for sure about the race.
“We’ll just ride steady and safe and see how it goes. It could be slow murder or it could be magical. Either way, it’s going to be memorable,” grinned Mark.
Check in here daily during the race to find out if Mark is going to justify his time out of the office…
