Dispatch from Cory Wallace

Over here in South Africa things are starting to ramp up here at the Cape Epic. The trip over was smooth, and the body seems to have bounced back from the 11 days of racing at BCBR Doubleheader with a great fitness boost. My teammate Christiaan picked me up from the Cape Town airport Wednesday night and we hit it off right away. We looked to be a great matchup for the race, but unfortunately on our first ride together he had a freak accident and badly broke his collarbone. He is now in for surgery as we speak. 

It looked like the trip down here was going to tun into an extended Wine tour as Cape Epic is for teams only.  Luckily Chrisitaans teammate Craig Boyle, who manages a bike shop down here in Stellenbosch, decided to take a week off work and stepped in to fill Christiaans spot.  

We had the prologue yesterday in Cape Town and it was a beautiful 20 km circuit on the slopes of Table Mountain.  We finished 28th.  Today was Stage 1 in Ceres, a 98 km day with over 50% single-track.  It was a great course. The atmosphere was buzzing with the race helicopters and a deep field full of World Champions, World cup racers, marathon specialist and some very fired up South African teams. We used the Singletrack to move up to 22nd in GC.  Craig is doing great for a full time worker, only training 10 hours a week.  His singletrack skills are very good so that will be our strength for this race.  It looks like we are in for a great experience this week as the Cape Epic is certainly living up to its billing as the most Iconic Mountain bike stage race in the World.  It’s been on the bucket list for a while so I’m feeling very grateful for this opportunity to be over here!

Over and out from Africa!

-Cory