Hi everyone.
Well, it’s been a busy time since my last blog. Among the many developments two things stand out:
Trial Burn
Several of the Gravel Burn team and friends from around the world rode the first “Trial Burn”. Perhaps the best-known of the route testers was five-times and inaugural Cape Epic winner Karl Platt. I have been friends with Karl for more than 20 years and had been in touch with him about the Gravel Burn, asking him for advice about various things, including the date for the inaugural event next year. So when I got a call in early-September from Karl asking ‘what’s the date?’, I told him that it would be held from October 26 to November 1 next year. ‘No, I mean what’s the date for the trial ride?’ he explained. It was just a week away, but Karl said he would be there – and within a few days he had flown to South Africa and joined us in Knysna as we set off to ride some of the stages into the Karoo and then across to the finish at the Shamwari Private Game Reserve in the Eastern Cape. Karl is a fun guy and his years of experience as a top cyclist were, of course, great value to us. We were also joined by social media influencer Kim Gintrand (or Gravel Kim as she’s known as on Instagram) from France and some friends from New Zealand and a group of riders from South Africa’s Exxaro Academy – an initiative that is very dear to me since I helped launch it 12 years ago to get historically disadvantaged South Africans on to bikes. Now it is a flourishing project and my friend Andy and Gerard at Open Cycles supplied them with their superb gravel bikes for the Trial Burn. In the evenings during the ride, we would all sit around the campfire and shoot the breeze in the beautiful Karoo countryside we had been riding through. It was while doing this that we came up with two Gravel Burn concepts that are themselves worthy of a blog each. But for now, I will tell you that we have evolved a ‘lapa’ concept (the word lapa can be translated as ‘yard’, or as ‘family’) for the Burn Camps which I am sure riders will love, and we are planning to introduce night racing on some stages for some lucky riders: in my mind’s eye I see some of the world’s top gravel racers speeding along Karoo gravel lit by fires lining the roadside. One other observation: we did the ride in September and would wake up to layers of ice on whatever water was around… an experience that validated our decision to hold the event in late October, when it is quite a bit warmer.
The area we are going to ride through is steeped in fascinating history and I have been reading Commando by Deneys Reitz and the Plains of Camdeboo by Eve Palmer to freshen my memory. I highly recommend both for their insights into a stunning but sometimes neglected part of South Africa.
Karl leads our route testing crew through the Great Karoo
Tsholo and Bontle making short work of testing stage 4’s route
Night riding: a hint at what’s to come…
The Launch
The second big development since my last blog was the formal launch of the Gravel Burn with a press conference at our Cape Town offices at WeWork, the launch of our website and a series of Firestarter events around the country, where we give cyclists some more detail about what we are planning. The press conference was, I think, a great success and has given rise to lots of media coverage and a real surge in interest. The Minister of Sport, Gayton McKenzie, was kind enough to spend time with us and speak at the press conference. He is sometimes described as controversial and at other times as colourful, but it was all the latter on the day as he entertained us to his unique humour. As one journalist said to me afterwards: ‘That might be the first time I have ever wished a politician would carry on talking when he came to the end of his speech.’ Another friend suggested the minister might have a future in stand-up comedy! Talking of politics, I – like all of you, I am sure – have been watching developments in South Africa quite anxiously over the years. Right now, though, I am feeling pretty upbeat about the country in general, and needless to say, I’m bullish about the sports event category. I think this also reflects the general mood of the country.
As I said, we have held our Firestarter events in Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Knysna, Pretoria and Johannesburg and in November we’ll host our international Firestarters in Windhoek and Zurich. There seems to be a genuine enthusiasm about the event and I have received many personal messages – from professionals with years of racing behind them to amateurs who have never competed in stage races – expressing an interest. As I expected, the concept seems to be attracting quite a few road riders too. I am now super excited myself and feel sure we are on the right track. I hope you will be joining us on our adventure in October next year!
Kevin
