About two years ago I wrote about the fact that stage races were not future proofing themselves and in danger of losing the interest of the new generation of mountain bikers. At the end of April, I will be introducing my son to the stage-race culture when we team up to contest the 20th edition of KAP sani2c. It’s not as simple as it sounds though…
By Sean Badnhorst
I won’t bore you with a whole bunch of personal stuff I have had to negotiate over the past couple of years. What I can tell you is that while my son, Cade, has been enjoying improvement, growth and success with mountain biking, I have been experiencing almost the opposite. And now, we have committed to riding the 20thedition of the KAP Sani2c as a dad-and-son team and I’m unsure whether to be excited or afraid…
Cade has been training like an animal on the bike and in the gym and is strong like a young bull. I, an aging bull, am lacking the strength I once had. I could improve it, but I work long hours and any chance I get to exercise, I opt to ride. Stretching and core strength are both very necessary at my age, but I will get to those once I have regained a reasonable level of riding conditioning.
We ride together often. But since Cade is a committed Enduro racer (drawing me into that world too), our rides are mostly around two hours in duration with slow, easy climbs and fast, furious descents. Accepting the media entry invitation from Sani2c last November was easy. Preparation has been challenging, but not unexpectedly so.
“We need to build our endurance. Bit by bit we need to increase our duration and distance with longer rides,” I explained to Cade. So we started to do a weekly long ride, mostly on Saturday mornings. Cade informed his coach, Danny Fowler, of our Sani2c plan, so Danny incorporated it into Cade’s Enduro training plan. Me? Just training whenever I can, has been my plan.
Fortunately, we have had a drier summer in Gauteng, so we have been able to get into quite a good routine. We just bought a second-hand road bike for the indoor trainer, so I can add a bit more time to my weekly training for the final month of training as I feel a little under-prepared for a three-day stage race still.
Bikes? This has been one of our challenges. We have been riding Specialized Stumpjumper EVOs. With 150mm/160mm suspension travel, long wheelbase, relaxed geometry and robust components, an incredible trail and Enduro bike, but at just under 15kg, rather sluggish for marathon-style riding. We have done all our Sani2c training so far on these bikes. It’s been interesting. I have had a 30-tooth chainring, which the bike comes standard with, while Cade has been riding a 34-tooth chainring. It’s made him strong on the climbs for sure.
Fortunately, the good folks at Specialized are sending us some new Epic 8s to test ride. We’ll do the remainder of our preparation and the actual Sani2c race on them as we’re test-riding them for a TREAD Media bike review. Our plan was always to do the actual race on marathon-type bikes, but to be able ride them a few weeks before certainly helps. More than you may know…
What are we in for? Three days of fast, flowy riding. Sure, there are some climbs, but in my four completions of Sani2c, I never really remember the difficult stuff. But I absolutely recall and treasure the hand-built, hard-pack singletrack trails that the race is famous for. I can’t wait to ride these trails with Cade, a skilled, perceptive rider who understands and appreciates well-made trails.
- Stage 1: 84km |1290m ascent | 1441m descent
- Stage 2: 96km |1896m ascent | 2336m descent
- Stage 3: 86km | 1042m ascent | 1703m descent
That’s quite a bit of distance for two blokes who haven’t been in the distance-riding mode. I’m sure Cade will be fine. I, however, am expecting some pain, which has been a good motivator to keep up my consistency of weekly long rides.
Cade did a 90km ride in January at the Absa Cape Epic training camp in Karkloof, where he was doing some work for TREAD Media. My longest ride so far is 67km. It’s tight, but we have four weeks to up the ante. I believe that I will start the race in the condition to be able to finish it. But it won’t be fast. Cade will have to be patient with his Dad, but I guess that’s part of the pay-back for all the times I waited for him to decide which way he wanted his toast cut as a toddler…
I’m looking forward to new singletrack that’s been built for Stage 1. Although you cover the distance fairly quickly on the gravel roads, it’s still more fun on singletrack. Especially Sani2c singletrack. I’m also stoked to hear about the new approach to the finish on Stage 1. That final hour was always a bit of a slog before. I expect there will still be a similar amount of climbing (the finish venue hasn’t moved!), but hopefully more stimulating.
Of my four Sani2c participations, heavy rain forced the organisers to skip the Umkomaas Valley on two of them. This is the event’s signature stage so that was highly disappointing for me. I’m really hoping that this year will be dry and Cade and I can enjoy the Umko Drop together…
I’ll write more on our preparation in my next pre-race post, including our energy and recovery nutrition through what’s been a long, hot summer as well as where we have done our training rides. Cade will also weigh in with his experience of doing ‘long, boring miles’.
If you’re reasonably fit and looking for something exciting to do next month, there are still entries available for the 2024 KAP Sani2c. You can find out more and enter online here.
