Colm Crowley and John Mason, who made up the Irish Wolfhounds team for the ABSA Cape Epic in South Africa last week, reflect on a job well done after making it to the finish. The pair would race for a total of 42 hours, over 750 kilometres, with 16,000 metres of climbing. “Three weeks training squeezed into one,” said Mason.
By Brian Canty
Eight-hour days in the saddle, dehydration, sweltering temperatures and the fear of lions were just some of the challenges Irish duo John Mason and Colm Crowley faced up to last week as they completed a race known as the world’s most gruelling mountain bike event.
The ABSA Cape Epic in South Africa attracts hundreds of competitors annually.
Many never make it to the finish but Mason – a Rás veteran - and his teammate Crowley overcame many challenges to place 127th out of 512 finishing teams.
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Mason, who will ride the Kerry Group Rás Mumhan as well as the An Post Rás next month, banked valuable miles in advance of those two events and went as far as saying the Epic was considerably harder than the Rás.
“It’s an extremely tough event,” he said.
“If you’re to go and race this event full-on it would be savage, significantly tougher than the Rás.
“There’s no free pedalling; if you’re on a downhill you’re concentrating 110 per cent just to stay on the bike.
“If you’re on the flat you’re riding on a rutted road like something you’d ride at Strade Bianche.
"And there’s a huge amount of climbing on single tracks; some of them went 2,500 feet straight up and took well over an hour to complete.”
Crowley - a brother of well-known Irish domestic rider Aidan, and Mason, roll out for the start of yet another long day in the saddle. The pair finished 127th out of over 500 finishers and plan on returning to improve on that some time in the future.
Staying properly fuelled throughout the day was another big test.
“The scenery is absolutely stunning; like riding in Killarney with 34 degrees heat but we had to be drinking 5 litres of fluid minimum every day," said Mason.
“The challenge is being in the saddle for eight hours and all the other days were a minimum of five so every day is a long day. I think we clocked up 42 hours in the week.
“I got about three weeks training done in one week,” added the DID Dunboyne man.
Getting into the Epic isn’t cheap at around €2,000 a man but Mason would recommend it to anyone.
“It’s an absolutely unbelievable experience and I’ll do it again.
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Mason puts the power down - and gets in some quality miles on tough terrain - during the ABSA Cape Epic in South Africa last week.
“I’d like to think I could be up there in the top 50, it’s hard to know.
“I’d totally recommend it to anyone who wants to have a once in a lifetime experience.
“Go and do it if you want to see a bit of Africa. It’s a fantastic adventure but you can’t go down there unprepared, without the proper equipment or the proper training.
“You have to be good on the bike and we were lucky too because we’d no mechanicals.
“We had five punctures in one day but nothing else for the week which is highly unusual because a lot of people would have multiple crashes, punctures, mechanicals.
“Sometimes you’re riding blind down a hill at 40mph not knowing what’s around the next corner.
"And there were buffalo, lions, giraffes, zebras, and buffalo in some of the parks we were going through. That was quite fun.”
Well done boys! Crowley and Mason (in dark blue kit) on stage at the finish of the eight-day sufferfest.
Mason combines training and racing with his job in food company Glanbia.
That sees him travelling for many months of the year.
He’s yet to race his road bike this year and won’t do so until the first stage of Rás Mumhan but he feels okay about it.
“It is what it is; I’ll be going down there to support Mark (Dowling) and I think I should be able to get around it reasonably okay.”
After that he’s on work duty in Germany and the US after which he’ll return for the Tour of Ulster and the Rás, a race he managed to escape in a break last year.
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