Namibia at the Cape Epic – all you need to know

The 20th edition of the Absa Cape Epic mountain bike stage race will kick off with the prologue on Sunday at the Lourensford Wine Estate in the Western Cape.

This is followed by a further seven grueling stages on and around the mountains of Tulbach and Wellington. The grand finale is on Sunday 24 March in Stellenbosch, finishing at the Coetzenburg sport complex.

With a distance of 613 kilometres and a total elevation gain of 16 850 metres, this is considered to be one of the hardest Cape Epic editions in recent history.

Namibia’s Vera Looser, partnered by Kim Le Court of Mauritius, won their first Cape Epic in the UCI women’s category last year. However, Le Court recently signed with “AG Insurance – Soudal”, a professional road cycling team due to compete at World Tour level, and is therefore contractually not allowed to ride mountain bike races.

Over the coming week, Looser will therefore combine with a new partner in Alexis Skarda, who represented the USA at the MTB World Championships twice.

Namibia will again have a fair number of representative in various two-person teams, some combining with international team mates. One of the purely Namibian teams are Team Aurik/Prosperity Health of Christo Swartz and Ingram Cuff.

Swartz, a finisher of the 2022 Cape Epic (31st, men’s category) and his novice teammate, Ingram Cuff, are certainly relishing the opportunity to participate in the most prestigeous mountain bike stage race on the planet, which is open to professional as well as avid amateur cyclists.

After months of preparations with countless hours on their mountain bikes in the Namibian sun, Swartz and Cuff certainly know what is awaiting them and is physically and mentally prepared for the challenge ahead.

Although the aim is to perform at their best among their amateur counterparts, having an enjoyable and memorable experience will certainly also be the aim, as such an opportunity does not come around every day.

Swartz and Cuff has competed in various team events alongside each other. They completed the famous Nedbank Desert Dash team categories, the illustrious Wines to Wales between Hermanus and Somerset West, as well as various local Rock and Rut races and the Otjihavera Experience two-day mountain bike stage race.

The most import aspect as a team for them would be communication and relying on each other’s strengths to conquer the Cape Epic.

Furthermore, Namibia’s mountain bike champion Alex Miller will compete in the colours of his new team, Toyota Specialized, alongside his South African team mate, Johan van Zyl. These two will certainly aim for the jersey for the best African team, with a high overall placing not out of reach.

Since joining up with Toyota Specialized at the start of the year, Miller’s already successful combination with Matt Beers have been split up for the Cape Epic. The South African has been combined with USA’s Howard Grotts, a 2016 Olympian.

The prologue and the final stage will be televised live on SuperSport, with daily evening highlights for the rest of the stages.

• Registered teams that include Namibians:



Toyota-Specialized (category UCI Men)

16-1 Alexander Miller (Namibia) and 16-2 Johan van Zyl (RSA)

Epics Completed: Miller one (2023, UCI Men general classification 8th). Van Zyl one (2021, Men general classification 12th)

Prologue Start: 12:36:00 (position 713)



Efficient Infiniti SCB SRAM (category UCI Women)

61-1 Vera Looser (Namibia) and 61-2 Alexis Skarda (USA)

Epics Completed: Looser three (2023 winner UCI Women, following stage wins on numbers 2, 4, 5 and 6 / 2021 finisher general classification 68th /2017 finisher general classification 6th.

Prologue Start: 10:47:10 (position 539)



Hollard Nam (category Grand Masters)

115-1 Jaco Lamprecht (Namibia) and 115-2 Riaan Boshoff (RSA)

Prologue Start: 06:50:00 (position 13)



Toshiba Namibia (category Great Grand Masters Men)

121-1 Frank Snyman (Namibia) and 121-2 Atle Hansen (Sweden)

Prologue Start: 10:03:45 (position 477)



The Surgical Institute (category Amateurs Men)

122-1 Vaughn Roux (RSA) and 122-2 Nicolaas Swart (Namibia)

Prologue Start: 11:19:40 (position 606)



Sander Struck (category Amateurs Men)

256-1 Stefan Sander and 256-2 Jurgen Sander (both Namibia)

Prologue Start: 09:38:45 (position 418)



Aurik/Prosperity Health (category Amateurs Men)

715-1 Christo Swartz and 715-2 Ingram Cuff (both Namibia)

Prologue Start: 11:45:05 (position 667)