When I founded the Cape Epic, I was aware that we’d be doing two things at once in the coming years: building the event itself and driving rider participation from around the world AND creating a premium sports event brand that would transcend the riders’ participation. With Gravel Burn, we’re aiming to do the same and to do it way faster.
On the brand-building side, it’s no secret I subscribe to the widely-known strategy of standing on the shoulders of giants. Partnering with strong established brands earns trust, credibility and reinforces the same qualities we’re building into our own brand. That’s one of the many reasons our friendship with Open Cycles is so exciting to me.
Andy and Gerard from Open supported us even before we’d actually launched the event. They helped us with a fleet of Open WIDE gravel bikes for our test riders to try out our proposed routes – our Trial Burn. We all agreed unanimously – they handled the rigours of the Karoo superbly. Recently, Open launched the new WIDE 2.0 and we’ve collaborated on a very special Nedbank Gravel Burn Limited Edition.
Open is widely regarded as the future-facing brand that pioneered the modern day gravel bike – their UP in 2016 won all the prestigious Eurobike Awards possible in this (at the time) fledgling category. This is the kind of brand building initiative I could only have dreamed of in the early days of the Cape Epic. I owe a big thank-you to Andy and Gerard for their belief in us!
Nedbank Gravel Burn is a frontier-gravel racing adventure experience. It’s true South African gravel i.e. a little rougher than champagne Euro-gravel. A frame with a wider tyre-clearance with aero features and race geometry is ideal equipment for the Burn and that’s exactly what the WIDE 2.0 offers. It takes up to 65mm tyres and with such high volume rubber, this will make for plush ride over 7 days on Karoo gravel. That’s key – over 7 days, a little bit of comfort has a big impact on performance.
My personal experience backs this up. For as long as I can remember, we’ve had a weekly off-road ride around Table Mountain – a beautiful showcase of the Cape Peninsula. Originally this was a mountain bike ride and included sections of gnarly single-track. When we switched to gravel bikes we cut out the gnarliest sections, but I still loved the feeling of ‘underbiking’ on the singletrack. As the tyre volumes of progressive gravel bikes have increased, culminating in my new Open WIDE that I ride with 55mm tyres, we now do the entire original mountain bike route, including the gnarly sections! As gravel bikes have become better at handling technical terrain, I’ve got better too!
To me, the Open WIDE 2.0 seems to be the perfect bike to take on Nedbank Gravel Burn, so it was only fitting that we designed a very special edition. This livery features hand painted details showing the textures of the Karoo, the hues of the gravel we ride on and the luminescence of the fires we sit beside – all reflecting on this unique journey we embark on each year.
This limited edition NGB Open WIDE 2.0 is available to all as a complete package (including a NGB x Open special edition Assos cycling kit and an entry into the Nedbank Gravel Burn that can be used any time in the next 3 years). Spec options on the WIDE vary, and Open’s founder Andy Kessler will put together a package specific to your preferences. Visit opencycle.com, then reach out directly to andy@opencycle.com to enquire. Pricing from $11900 (US) and €11500.