“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to
do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.
If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll
know when you find it.” – Steve Jobs
That has been my mantra for most of my working life, whether it was during the 20-year
journey of building the Cape Epic or now, as we dive into the Gravel Burn. The first time
around was way more stressful – fewer resources, more uncertainty, and that classic startup
fear of “is this actually going to work?” But immersing myself in a new venture at 50, I
promised myself that it ALWAYS had to be fun and a lot less stressful. And a huge part of
ensuring this has been the people I’ve chosen to work alongside. I count it as a rare privilege
to be so selective as to who I work with.
Our full time Team has over 110 years of combined experience working together. Back in
the Cape Epic days, we had a pretty ruthless policy: no one was hired full-time until they’d
survived their first event as a contractor. Only about one in three made the cut and we
eventually built the team into a 30-person-strong events company that ran MTB stage races in
4 different countries. But this time, I got to fast-track all that by bringing back the people I
already know and trust. It’s a joy to recreate that team and to work with folks who have been
in the trenches with me before.
In total, we have over 500 crew registered to work next week. More than 60 have been on
sites already for the past 10 days. So here is a huge shout out to the awesome team behind the
Nedbank Gravel Burn – thanks for the hard work in the lead up to this week! A special
mention to Kati Csak and Richard McMartin who were employees # 2 and # 3 at Cape Epic
20 years ago and who pretty much defined the race. And then also to the contractors and crew
that have been behind the scenes since the very first Cape Epic in 2004, including Jerome
Smith, Power Pete, Fanie Jones, Steve Thomas – it’s incredible to have you on this journey
again. Thank you.
