April 18, 2008

Frischi's impressions of the Cape Epic

www.frischi.ch

This year the Cape Epic in South Africa was again a multi-purpose attendance for me. First of all, it’s the right time to train and get into racing shape for the upcoming World Cups. With 41 hours in the saddle in just one week, I definitely got enough base training in that way. But in doing this under the warm sun and spectacular nature of South Africa, it all happened to be quite comfortable. My partner in this event was again mountain bike pioneer Tom Ritchey. We had a lot of fun together, and a lot of tough times too. The 966km of riding and 19,000 meters of climbing were no walk in the park, for Tom or for a well-trained pro. But we made it to the finish near Cape Town in 39th place (out of 600 teams), happy and in one piece. This shows that Tom is still very competitive at the age of 51. The other purpose was to promote Tom’s charity, Project Rwanda ( www.projectrwanda.org ).