For just over a year, I was able to prepare the Swiss amateur bike team «Alilililililili» with Patric Tinner and Simeon Niederer for their participation in the Cape Epic, an MTB stage race in South Africa. In addition to nutritional advice and support during preparation and at the competition, my job also included the entire training planning and organization in the 12 months before the race. Patric and Simeon were aiming for a podium finish in the amateur category and wanted to have a serious say in the category win.
In the preparation year, we were able to complete 2 training camps in Stellenbosch (Western Cape, South Africa). In everyday life, it was important to find the optimal balance between work, family and training. With between ten and 18 hours per week for bike training, strength and the usually neglected regeneration, it was often a hot dance on the edge of the volcano.
At the 20th edition of the race, a prologue time trial (approx. 70′ race duration) and seven daily stages (between 3.5 and 5 hours race duration) had to be completed in 8 days. The course of the race is rarely very technical, which makes the race all the faster and often leads to defects in the rough terrain. In addition to the heat of the South African late summer, the cumulative stress of 8 days of racing is a particular hurdle for the non-professionals, which often manifests itself in the second half of the race: digestive problems, infections, a drop in performance or an increasing number of crashes because concentration is no longer as high take their toll.
Team «Alilililililili» has chosen a very professional set up, where the drivers could focus on racing and recovering thanks to their own mechanic, driver and me as cook/soigneur/performance manager and coach.
You can write a book about a week like that, and not just as a driver. We, the staff, also experience highs, lows, curiosities and intense passionate moments that make up the appeal of such a competition. The outstanding consistency of Patric and Simeon and how they were able to call up and exceed their potential day after day allows a concise summary: from the first day onwards, the two of them took second place overall and on 5 days also confident second stage places. The winners, two professional athletes from Latvia, were untouchable. However, the view of our performance, their perfect execution, no mechanicals, illnesses or ailments make me proud of the two athletes and the entire campaign.
It was a great experience – not just the one week of racing, but the entire project over 15 months. For me, it was once again proven how invaluable it is to accompany athletes during training and competition, to see how concepts work or fail and to make the necessary decisions quickly.
Many thanks for your trust Simeon Niederer & Patric Tinner. Extremely well done, lads, great performance!!! Thanks also to Ben Lerch (Chief Mechanic & Race Photographer) and Hermann Röthenmund (Driver & team anchorman) for a great time.
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Pictures: ©Ben Lerch
