Cape Epic

The Cape Epic, under current sponsorship as the "Absa Cape Epic", is a two person team annual mountain bike stage race held in the Western Cape, South Africa. It has been accredited as a XCO event by the Union Cycliste Internationale. Teams have to race together for the entire distance of the race, looking after each other and their equipment. First staged in 2004, the race typically covers more than 700 kilometres (435 mi), and lasts eight days. The Absa Cape Epic attracts top riders from around the world, who compete in teams of two. The race is also open to amateurs, who enter a lottery in order to gain a slot. The race is broken into day-long segments, called stages. Times to finish each stage are aggregated to determine the overall winning team at the end of the race. The team with the lowest aggregate time at the end of each day wears the yellow leaders’ jerseys. The course changes every year, but the race has always finished in the winelands of the Western Cape. Since 2007, the climax of the final stage has been at the Lourensford Wine Estate. The Absa Cape Epic was once described by Bart Brentjens, 1996 Olympic gold medallist in mountain biking, as the "Tour de France of mountain biking”.