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October 2018

  • Text
  • Rover
  • Rovers
  • Epic
  • Defender
  • Vehicles
  • Donegal
  • Phev
  • Arctic
  • Kolisi
Share the passion of a Land Rover-loving community in a remote corner of India | Experience the thrills of driving on ice in the Range Rover Velar | Explore stunning Donegal with seafarer Monty Halls and his family | Relive the child-like sense of wonder captured at the Above & Beyond Tour | See why the Range Rover PHEV impressed mountaineer Jimmy Chin | Encounter the most powerful Defender: the Classic Works V8 special

CAPE EPIC MOUNTAIN BIKE

CAPE EPIC MOUNTAIN BIKE RACE NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART Participants in the Absa Cape Epic – from keen amateurs to world class professionals – come from all across the world to compete, in teams of two, over a distance of more than 650 kilometres, split across seven stages and eight days. Some stages include climbs of more than 2,000 metres. Riders typically train for six months ahead of the race, for up to 12 hours a week. 50

Land Rover vehicles‘ capabilities are put to the test every year in the Cape Epic, making sure its riders face some of the toughest and most challenging routes on the planet throughout that 18 months of preparation.” Indeed, when it comes to the massively complex task of scouting the route of the race, the Cape Epic’s fleet of ultra-capable Land Rovers play a crucial role. “We simply couldn’t do it without the support of Land Rover because we’ve got to be out every single month monitoring the state of the next year’s itinerary. For that we need highly capable, and above all, reliable scouting vehicles," says Vermaak, thinking no doubt of the upcoming 2019 Cape Epic and its possibly entirely new route. He, his scouts and their Land Rovers are set for another busy year. This year’s race – the 15th Cape Epic and the third with Land Rover as its Official Vehicle and Route Partner – started with a 20km Prologue on the iconic Table Mountain followed by seven gruelling stages which visited the towns of Robertson, Worcester and Wellington, before finishing at the beautiful Val de Vie Estate in the Paarl-Franschhoek Valley. Those spending eight days in the saddle could expect to face four consecutive days of over 100km, as well as a draining time trial on Stage 5 and a final stage taking the exhausted riders from Wellington to Val de Vie over a testing 70km with 2,000 metres of climbing. The Cape Epic race organisers made sure that those prized finishing medals didn’t come easy. It’s no surprise, then, that only 84 per cent of riders managed to cross this year’s finishing line. “It’s such an intense ride,” says 59-year-old Mike Nixon, ex-mountaineer and a member of Land Rover‘s own official Cape Epic team, which participates in a “YOU LITERALLY number of categories with a 12-man roster. As one of only four HAVE TO FIGHT riders to have completed the Cape Epic all 15 times (a group known FOR EACH PEDAL as the Last Lions), Nixon knows STROKE ON what he is talking about. “This year’s Stage 4 – the THOSE CLIMBS” Land Rover Technical Terrain MIKE NIXON section – was the toughest stage on the Epic this year by far. The single-track trails going up the Goudini Spa segment were incredibly dry, rocky and sandy. You literally had to fight for every pedal stroke on those climbs.” As for the Land Rover team, all of its 12 riders successfully crossed the finishing line this year. Mike Nixon came in at 252nd overall with his riding partner Jasper van Dijk, while former Proteas batsman and all-round cricketing legend Gary Kirsten and his partner Roddy van Breda, competing in the over 40s Masters category, finished 87th in their category. And All Blacks hero Carlos Spencer, together with Clinton Mackintosh, finished 98th in the Masters category. “It was a truly incredible eight days,” says Gary Kirsten, who managed the Land Rover team as well as riding for it. “I felt honoured to be leading this group of people under the Land Rover banner. Simply finishing this gruelling race really is an achievement in itself.” Carlos Spencer, it seems, really wasn’t wrong. RIDE ON Next year‘s race runs from 17-24 March. For more information on the Absa Cape Epic, visit cape-epic.com 51

 

Land Rover Magazine

 

Land Rover Magazine showcases stories from around the world that celebrate inner strength and the drive to go Above and Beyond.

In this issue, New Defender is put through its paces by two inspirational young adventurers as they prepare for an expedition to the South Pole. We also celebrate 50 years of Range Rover by taking a journey of discovery to Dubai. As well as looking back, we look to future as a group of visionaries explain the technologies that could change the future for all of us.

Jaguar Land Rover Limited: Registered office: Abbey Road, Whitley, Coventry CV3 4LF. Registered in England No: 1672070