A recent survey has revealed the statistics and numbers associated with the 2016 Absa Cape Epic, one of the world’s foremost mountain bike stage races, taking place in the Western Cape from March 13 to 20 next year.
The 13th edition of the challenging eight-day adventure covers a distance of 718km with 14 850m of climbing.
Riders from 47 countries will be represented in the field, including the southern Caribbean island state of Curaçao and the Philippines who will be joining the race for the first time.
Five riders from the former Dutch colony of Curaçao are set to participate next year, while the Philippines will be sending two riders to one of the most important races in mountain biking.
The rest the field will come from Afghanistan, Andorra and Angola through the rest of the world to Venezuela and Zambia.
With registration having closed but with the professional teams and charities to confirm their entries at the time of the survey a total of 40.5% of the field will come from outside of South Africa.
More than half of the registered entrants – a total of 54.8% – will be riding the Cape Epic for the first time.
Only 12.4% are existing Amabubesi club members or riders who have finished the event three or more times.
The oldest rider on the start line will be 63-year-old South African Ray Farrenkothen and the youngest will be 19-year-old Josep Colomina Tomas of Spain for the second year in a row.
The oldest and youngest women, 57-year-old Veronica Napier and 25-year-old Kristina Murray, are both South African¬.
A total of 90% of the field will be male and 10% female.
At this stage the percentages of entries in each category are: Men – 47.68%, Women – 1.96%, Mixed – 14.91%, Masters – 27.63% and Grand Masters – 7.82%.
For more information go to Cape Epic.
