Professional endurance competitor Rebecca Rusch has tackled her fair share of adventure races and 24-Hour mountain bike races throughout the years. Now, the Idahoan is in South Africa, competing alongside teammate Cristina Begy in the Absa Cape Epic, a nine-day endurance mountain bike stage race across the country’s scenic Western Cape. And we’re along for the ride. —Editor

Well, I now have a definite taste of what the Cape Epic is all about. Every day starts really early, then 1200 people line up in the starting chute, all champing at the bit, waiting to mow the riders in front of them down.

Due to our finishing time in the prologue, we were corralled into group “E,” which is about 200 teams back from the starting line. It wasn’t a great start position, but after the gun went off Cristina hit the jets, and pulled some fast moves for the first few kilometers. I just slid in behind her as we snaked past other teams. She was very sweet and nice as we squeezed past hordes of riders on our way toward the front of the race. The day’s stage was long, so we settled into a decent pace through beautiful forest terrain. Luckily we were riding mostly in the shade. But during the few times that we popped out of the trees, I could feel the heat just pressing down on my back.

Unfortunately I have no wild-animal sightings to report today. I did ride along with quite the multinational crowd: Kiwis, Catalan and many South African riders dotted the course. It was a rolling global village, and everyone appears very friendly, as there are so few women in the race. Some of the other riders couldn’t believe that women were passing them on the descents.

Cristina showed herself to be a ripper on descents. She didn’t have a great day with all the climbing, but we worked together really well and ended the stage in sixth place in the women’s field. It’s a super-strong field and our goal is to work our way into the top five. I am pretty sure we can pull back some time as the race goes on and our endurance kicks in.

Most of the race's 1200 participants spend each night in one of these.

Photo: courtesy Rebecca Rusch

So far this race has really impressed me. The course markings, the organization of the route, the aid stations and the virtual city that they set up at the finish is a model of professionalism.

Today we arrived at the finish to find that our Specialized crew, Ryan, Benno, Claire and Bobby, our manager, had set up a Shangri-la for us. Yes, we’re racing in full style with a motor home, mechanics and a soigneur. Most riders here pack one bag that the race transports and they sleep in the tent city. Having food and crew, someone to wash our stinky riding clothes and pamper us, will really make a difference in our recovery each day, not to mention the overall enjoyment of the event. It’s a big traveling circus with big rides in between.

Now, I am off to a race meeting, dinner and early sleep tonight. Tomorrow is supposed to be the hardest stage of the whole race. Stay tuned on how that turns out.