Top XTERRA pros Greg Krause and Josiah Middaugh spent the past few weeks battling the wild of South Africa in the multi-day mountain bike stage race, Absa Cape Epic. We followed the boys through their winter of training. Now Greg tells alll about his and Josiah's quite epic journey.

The long winter training road to the Absa Cape Epic was complete. Josiah and I had hours of CompuTrainer sessions in our legs and had tested our fitness at a few winter multisport and snowshoe events. We knew our lack of time on the mountain bike may present a problem or two during a nine-day mountain bike stage race, but we were happy with our preparation, and our results at the XTERRA winter world championship and U.S. snowshoe championship gave us confidence that we were race ready.

In our final week leading up to the Epic, we finalized some minor details like which bikes we would ride and what jerseys we would wear, but it all came together beautifully. The night before our departure, our custom Primal Wear jerseys arrived from China and our Handmade Ellsworth Truth full-suspension bikes were built up just in time to be broken down and packed into the bike boxes. We were very excited to have a title sponsor and be riding as Team Ellsworth Primal Wear. One thing was for sure, we would look fast and ride killer new bikes in Africa.

We found that one of the biggest challenges of the Cape Epic is getting to Knysna, South Africa. Our flight itinerary looked pretty good on paper: Depart Denver Tuesday morning, arrive Cape Town via Washington, D.C. and Johannesburg Wednesday evening, get a night’s rest and take a six-hour bus transfer to Knysna Thursday morning. Plenty of time to put the bikes together, check in and pre-ride the Prologue course Thursday before our 11 a.m. start time Friday. In retrospect, there was little room for error in our itinerary, and when our bikes did not make the flight from Washington to Johannesburg, it got a little stressful.

Wheeling up to the start

Photo: Greg Krause

One thing Josiah and I are good at is staying positive and relatively stress free. The one positive thing about our bikes not making it was it made for lighter travel from Jo-berg to Knysna. Our lightened load freed up some fingers which we kept crossed in hopes our bikes would make it on the next flight and we would have them at the start line. We tried to carry on with our plan without our bikes and headed to Knysna for check-in and bag pickup. At the pro registration table, we realized we did not bring along a few convenient items that many of our competitors had in tow, including a team manager, team mechanic and message therapist. We were happy to have made it and anxious to get the race underway even if it meant borrowing bikes for the prologue.

At 9 p.m. Thursday, the night before the race start, we had confirmation that our bikes had made it to the nearest airport in George. Our gracious host in Knysna gave us the keys to his vehicle, which happened to be the official Squirt Lube Company van, with good directions and important instructions to stay on the left side of the road. We safely made the 45-minute drive and were ecstatic to find out our bikes had arrived. It was time for the Prologue.

Our goal going into the Epic was to finish top-15, and we thought the 17km prologue would give us a good idea of where we stacked up against the top teams. The prologue was held through the forest of the Pezula Private Estate above the town of Knysna and consisted of a little singletrack and a lot of forest-road doubletrack with nearly 1,000 feet of climbing. We had a great warm-up ride from town on our new bikes and discussed our plan to stay safe, avoid crashes and go hard where we could.

We entered the start shoot on our brand-new Ellsworth bikes and Primal Wear jerseys wearing race #11. The pro teams started in one-minute intervals and our Epic Journey of 966 km and 18,592 meters of climbing was about to begin with 30 to 40 minutes of painful mountain bike team time-trialing. And painful it was— the legs were not very excited about turning over after our traveling adventure and to say I felt flat and like I had never ridden a bike before would be an accurate statement.

We did, however, accomplish our goals of no crashes or mechanical difficulties, but when we stopped the clock in 38 minutes and in 28th position overall, it was a little disappointing. We had a long way to go and plenty of opportunity to move up in the General Classification, but realized quickly that there are some serious competitors in this event that are peaking and primed. We had our work cut out for us but figured it could only get better.

Many meters up

Photo: Greg Krause

Our target for the 123km Stage 1 from Knysna to George was to start climbing the GC ladder. We figured things would sort themselves out with 3,091 meters of hills, and our plan was to try to make it over the first 3km climb with the leaders and see what happened. Pretty interesting when 1,200 cyclists all start together and at least 100 have the same intentions. Makes for some dangerous riding, but when the road tilted up to 7 percent, the race exploded and shattered to pieces.

We hung tough to the top of the 3km climb and crested the summit within seconds of the lead group, but by the third corner of the fast descent, we had clear roads ahead and found ourselves alone in No Man’s Land 20 minutes into Stage 1. Pretty amazing to start a race with 1,200 people and be alone in this "tweener zone" with 10 elite teams off the front and everyone else somewhere behind. We rode solo for 40km to Water Stop 1, where we stopped to fill the bottles. Within seconds, a group of 20 riders sped past without stopping, so we quickly screwed on our bottlecaps and hopped on the tail of the group for the next 20km.

Just as we were feeling a bit comfortable with the pace of the group, which included fellow Americans Chris Eatough and Jeremiah Bishop from the Trek Volkswagen team, I flatted and we made a quick stop to air up for the first of four times over the next 80km. It was a slow leak in my tubeless tire and cost us nearly 15 minutes overall as I rode most of the stage with 15 lbs. of pressure in the rear. We finished Stage 1 in five hours, 29 minutes, in 23rd overall place, moving us up to 25th in the GC. Not what we were hoping, but we felt we were getting stronger and more comfortable on the new bikes.

We finished at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University outside of the town of George and after over five hours in the saddle, it was time to clean the bikes, collect our bags, find a campsite, shower, eat and, most importantly, recover for Stage 2.

Stage 2 was from George to Calitzdorp and was hyped as the 2008 Cape Epic's most difficult. Our plan was to get over the 1,800-foot Monague Pass in the top 20 and settle into a good group for the 60km rolling hills that led to the final climb of the day at 103km. The stage started with a narrow, winding descent from the university down to George.

Our goal as always was to keep it safe in the first 10km and avoid crashes, and as we twisted through the grass fields at high speed in tight formation, I witnessed a cyclist helicopter off his bike after hitting a springbok or small antelope that darted into the pack. I avoided the carnage and carried on but took a deep breath and released a sigh of relief that we dodged another one.

The intensity picked up as we approached the pass and the group of 20 teams split in two, as the contenders charged to the top for the king of the mountains time bonus. Josiah and I made it over the summit in the second pack and established a good pace with it until the Trek team picked up the pace and broke off the front of the group. We were unable to make the break but made a move of our own and rode together through the Karoo in 100-degree temperatures. The bad part about being alone is that you don’t know how fast you’re going or if you are keeping it steady; the good part is that you have a chance of seeing some wildlife, which we did at 80km when a herd of eland, the largest of the antelope family, crossed the trail and sped away from us in fear. It was a nice sight and took my mind off the suffering for a moment before we hit "back break mountain.”

The final climb of the day proved to be a killer, loose jeep-track technical climbing and a wild, steep descent into the finish. We made it over the climb and pedaled through a near bonk the final 8km into town for a finishing time of five hours, 56 minutes and 15th place for the stage. Our result moved us up to 18th in the General Classification and I treated myself to an ostrich burger.

Stage 3 from Calitzdorp to Riversdale kicked off with the daily early-morning scare, but Josiah and I avoided the tangle-up and were in good position to start the 13km climb up Rooibergpass. With the painful memories of Days 1 and 2 haunting everyone's legs, we figured it was our time to move up in the GC. We made it over the climb in 10th place and bombed the smooth dirt descent at over 40 mph. We were feeling good and leading the second pack of six teams through the rocky jeep track of the Karoo. Josiah had a near collision with a jackal that leaped across the trail and we chalked it up as our wildlife viewing of the day.

We were setting a good pace at the front of the group with the Trek Volkswagen team and pulled away from the group. We worked together through the rolling hills, over the final climb and into the wind as we approached Riversdale. It was a nice feeling to have a successful break and, as we entered the finish shoot, we all looked at one another and sprinted it out for what ended up being a 10th-place finish. Josiah and I ended on top and were happy with a 10th for the stage in 4:43 and made a good move up the GC to 16th. We were certainly getting our mountain bike legs and the Ellsworth Truth had exceeded our expectations. We looked forward to Stages 4 though 8.

Check back to InsideTri.com for Josiah’s recounting of the Epic’s final stages.