This is a man's world

The 2012 ABSA cape Epic was apparently the toughest one yet. I competed in the women’s category and started my preparation well in advance. Our team MTNQhubeka used world-class equipment and we had no technical issues. My coach, Dr Carol Austin set my training schedule at a very competitive level of 20 to 24 hours a week for about 4 months building up to the event. I was well trained and tapered for the Epic. In terms of race preparation the team did everything possible to make sure that we were ready.

The race changed for women this year were there were UCI points allocated, and an increased price purse. This attracted a much more competitive field, and my hopes of getting a podium position materialised with a 3^rd position in the category. We also got 39^th in the General Classification, which would include all the men, women and mixed categories. Even though I have been in the best form of my life, it still felt as if there was so much more to do. This race just seemed so incredibly hard.

Most riders will attribute this years particularly tough Epic to the brutal weather elements. There was scorching heat, nearing 40 degrees Celsius, gale force winds, storming rain that also had temperatures plummeting and athletes treated with hypothermia. These conditions certainly attributed to a hard race in most opinions, but how can this scientifically compare to the hardest sports?

Most professional cyclists use a power meters to gauge efforts the most accurate of them being the SRM power meter. In many discussions with my coach, we debated whether this race is actually fit for women to compete in. The time and effort it takes for professional women is so much longer than for men. The question of what the effort is for women racing the Epic, lead me to a study done by Dirk Friel. He tried to illustrate the effort of racing the Tour of California to that of the Tour de France. For purposes of this exercise the comparisons of these two major tours were compared to my personal data from the Epic 2012.

Dirk Friel drew comparisons and contrasts with the 2010 Amgen Tour of California, which is roughly only one-third the length of the Tour de France. For purposes of the study he used the eight hardest consecutive stages of the Tour de France, being stages 2-9 of the 2009 Tour from Team Saxo Bank’s Chris Anker Sorenson’s. Sorenson’s race files can be seen here http://home.trainingpeaks.com/races/2009-tour-de-france-files.aspx. As for 2010 Tour of California data we looked at power files from Darren Lille of team Fly V Australia and Jakob Fuglsang of Team Saxo Bank which can be found here http://home.trainingpeaks.com/articles/cycling/2010-tour-of-california-team-saxo-bank-and-team-fly-v.aspx.


Comparing The Epic, The Tour of California and the Tour de France



To help determine the effort of women racing the Cape Epic the race data was compared to at five different categories: 


1-The Hardest Stage as Measured by Most Kilojoules


2- The Total Kilojoules Measured for the Eight Consecutive Days


3- Duration (Hours) of Accumulated Winning Stage Times


4- Hardest Stage Measured by Training Stress Score (TSS) Value


5-Total Accumulated (Eight-Day) TSS Points


1. Kilojoules- The Hardest Stage

• Lill- 4844kj, Stage 6: Big Bear

• Fuglsang- 6364kj, Stage 6: Big Bear

• Sorenson- 5652kj, Stage 7: Barcelona to AndorreArcalis

• 
Karien- 4169kj, Stage 5: Caledon to Oakvalley

Even though there is no clear winner within this category the Epic stage 5 absolutely measures up to the hardest stage of any Grand Tour
. Although this stage was not the hardest on paper, the rain created a challenging surface and the energy consumption compares well to the major tours. The reason why Fuglsang’s kilojoules were so high is because he was in the breakaway for nearly all of the stage so his intensity was much higher than Darren Lill’s who rode within the main peloton.

2. Total Accumulated KJ’s

• Lill- 28,221kj (3,527kj/day)

• Fuglsang – 29,061kj (3,632kj/day)

• Sorenson- 31,479kj (3,934kj/day)


• Karien- 25,377kj (3,172kj/day)

The highest energy expenditure is Tour de France at an 8-day total accumulated value of 31,479kj and an average of nearly 4,000kj a day. The Epic however includes one prologue of only 27km, and the final stage of only 63km. For this reason we can rather use 7 days for the Epic in this instance. Should one use this seven-day reason for the Epic, the daily energy expenditure is about 3,625kj per day. This compares well to the Tour de France energy expenditure.

3. Winner’s Accumulated Stage Times


The women’s winning time for the Epic was 38hrs and 34 mins. The winners included defending champion Sally Bigham and former world champion Esther Suss. The 2010 Amgen Tour of California’s winner, Michael Rogers, completed the race in 33hrs and 8 minutes, as compared to 33hrs and 3 minutes for the accumulated finish times for stages 2-9 for the 2009 Tour de France winner Alberto Contador.
 The women in the Epic raced for much longer than men do in most major tours. The Epic men’s winning time of 31hrs 46mins is more on par to the major tours, but there is a dramatic difference between men and women’s racing.

4. Hardest Stage Measured by Training Stress Score (TSS) Value

• Lill- 361TSS, Stage 6: Big Bear Lake

• Fuglsang- 431TSS, Stage 6: Big Bear Lake

• Sorensen- 391TSS, Stage 7: Barcelone - Andorre Arcalis

• 
Karien- 433TSS, Stage 5: Caledon to Oakvalley

The Epic TSS score of 433 is higher than any major tour. To illustrate this workload, Fuglsang recorded 431TSS points since he was in the long breakaway group. In contrast Sorensen measured 391TSS points within stage 7 of the ’09 Tour de France. Fuglsang would have had a lower value if he hadn’t been off the front for so long. It seems as if the hardest days in the grand tours measure around 400TSS points.


TSS is a very valuable metric to track since it takes into account the intensity of the race as compared to the individuals own functional threshold power value. Besides an intensity factor being accounted for, the TSS value also takes into account the duration of the race. This has much more meaning than kilojoules since kilojoules do not account for the relative intensity of a race. What might be a threshold pace for one rider may be a lower tempo type zone for another, yet if the two riders weigh the same, and recorded exactly the same watts, the KJ’s would also be the same.

5. Total Accumulated (Eight-Day) TSS Points

• Lill- 2254 TSS total

• Fuglsang- 2192 TSS

• Chris Anker Sorenson- 2152 TSS

• 
Karien- 2642 TSS

The total accumulated TSS for the Epic is higher than both the Tour de France and Tour of California.

On all accounts it was similar or more demanding for women to race the Epic than it was for men racing major tours. Perhaps a Tour de France style-training program is the way to go for women racing the Epic. This is a man’s world!

Epic mind games

We are in the final stretch before the most significant bike race race commences, and all I can hope for is that it must just start now. Why would I edge on such a hard experience such as the Cape Epic if I had done it all before? Truth is, I can not remember the suffering. I remember crossing the finish line at Lourensford with my hands in the air, happy to have finished the race, and not only finish it, winning it! Winning in the sense of finishing first in the woman's category was the ultimate for me, but winning is the feeling for every competitor crossing the line. The 8 gruelling days is what you need to complete for you to have the most incredible experience of your life.

So for the last 4 months I have been training for the Epic and may have sacrificed some other races in the process, but there was always one big goal in mind. Now that we know how incredible it is to finish the Epic and also how much training goes in to it, one can understand that doubt may set in from time to time. Doubting, especially in the last few days before the race when your training is tapering off. Have you done enough hours? Should you rest more now, or be training a bit harder? Will your equipment be good in the race? Will you be good enough for your partner? The list goes on....

I know the answer to these questions. I am stronger than ever. Well rested, and ready to race. My equipment is tested and it is good. The partnership is already strong and we have the same goal in mind. Instead of doubting, I am now making these my mantras. Coaches, spouses and friends help us remember this, cause when we not training we are thinking too much.

EPIC PREPARATION INTERVIEW 4 May 2011.mov

2011 Epic experience

Team USN comprised of myself and Sally Bigham as we set out to ride the ABSA Cape Epic. The Epic battle began a few days ago with a prologue in Tokai. How much fun can one have on bike? Beautiful singletrack, and sitting close on Sally's wheel- she is technically gifted. We were fast, but lost about 3 minutes- 2 minutes because my chain got jammed and another 1 minute because I flew over the handlebars. I do believe that we are favoured in the universe because the battle could have ended right there after just 25km's. Always a front brake involved, and on such a steep drop I was going one way only, and that was down. With my rubber bones in tact we finished second on the prologue and the first 2 stages, closely behind the Colnago team.

Stages 1 to 3 were challenging days. The days were long, technical and temperatures high. The best part of the day was finishing on the podium and being invited into the ABSA winners lounge. Here you got to sit down, water buckets with sponges, hand held showers and recovery drinks awaited. Stage 3 was one of the hardest rides I have ever done. Sand, stone and plenty of bike wrestling made this stage a very rewarding one to win.

Stage 3 gave us confidence as we were surprised the night before to be handed the brown leaders at prize giving. "Team USN inherited the race lead after Stage 2 when early leaders, Schneitter and Lechner were handed a one-hour penalty for infringing the race’s ‘outside assistance’ rule." This was a surprise, as our initial strategy was to ride consistently and conservatively over all 8 days. We had to stay really focused now as we were now being chased and not chasing.

All of the racing excitement is really hard to tone down in an event like the Epic. I have heard that recovery is the most important part of a stage race, and being it was critical to stay focused each and every day for the next day's race. There are so many variable and if your eye is off the mark for one moment everything can change. So this meant waking up before 5 am to eat, warm up, race, having a shower after the race, getting a massage, getting back to the guest house, eat pasta, prepare bottles, bikes and race food, try and relax, sometimes do a recovery spin, get to prize giving, eat more, get home, sleep- force yourself...

Support on at the Epic is key. John Hooper looked after our massages. After the 4th day, the massage turned into a mere stroke but it helped a lot. Jake came for support and cooked me pasta for the first time :-) Amongst other things of course. Bike mechanic is critical, Dave Paddfield (Sally's man) serviced our bikes every day. The bikes take such a beating and they need constant attention. Dave was a dream. Although he made us carry more spares, heavier tyres and extra sealant... This was well worth it because with our technical abilities, we would have been far worse off had we taken risks.

On equipment, we both used SRAM xx. Light but it served us well. We were both on Continental UST's and these proved to be bomb proof. Spokeworks built me some ZTR podiums which were great. Sally is hard core she rode a Canon hardtail! I went for comfort with my Cannondale Scalpel full suspension- the bike is light so it was nice to have the suspension on the really rocky bits.

That was that, months of preparation and Epic build up. My coach Dr Carol Austin has taken a few athletes through this proces. Her experience in managing expectations and prescribing a goal focused training program was key.

In a nut shell, it was about training for long hours, racing hard, nutrition, recovery and support. On nutrition USN served me well. Epic pro is a great drink with right amount of carbohydrates, protein and electrolytes. I had 2-3 servings during each stage and another for recovery. Of all the products available this specific one made my Epic experience a lot easier.