With four days to go until the start of the world’s toughest mountain bike race, CPUT’s Wellington campus is a hive of buzz and excitement. Voted the best host village last year, the beautiful Winelands town will host not just riders, spectators and media, but our very own multi-disciplinary team of students from various departments, who are pitching in to make the event a success.

The Sports Management Department has been instrumental in the trials, selection, training and support of the four riders who will race in CPUT colours. 75 people applied to race. Only 11 applicants eventually completed a battery of physiological tests at the Human Performance Lab at the Mowbray Campus.

Participants also took part in psychometric testing conducted by Student Counselling on the Bellville Campus. This was done to ensure riders have the mental toughness to stay the course. Students from our Journalism Department have been on hand to photograph and document the riders’ journeys, while the hardworking technicians from Student Affairs’ Student Media Department have provided video and sound support and made promotional videos for CPUT’s teams and Beat the Best competition.

CPUT’s Marketing and Communications Department (MCD) have championed the event, spearheading coordination, logistics, clothing, as well as online and social media support.

Our Advancement Department has been instrumental in raising the sponsorships and financial support necessary to enter our two teams. Truly a collaborative effort, that is sure to bring massive positive exposure to CPUT.

Etnard Louw, who works at CPUT’s F’SATI, is an excited man. He’s about to tackle his first Absa Cape Epic, which begins Sunday 13^th March. Etnard graduated with an MTech in Electrical Engineering in 2015 (and is currently awaiting the results of his M.Sc.) He works as part of the development and design team of the next Cubesat, ZACUBE 2, which should be finished at the end of 2016 and launched in 2017. He also manages the production of one of the satellite telecommunications radios that was developed by F’SATI and turned into a commercial product.

Etnard is also part of a “racing family” – wife Sarita Louw, part of Team CPUT entered in the Epic, is a brilliant competitive cyclist who often achieves podium finishes.

“It’s great to both be involved in the sport, especially when it comes to the serious training and spending long hours on the bike. Non-cyclists don’t understand that it takes so much time. Sarita usually competes for podium so it’s difficult to equal her outstanding results but she’s a good training partner and we often have a good laugh about things while we are out training.”

Etnard says his training for the big race is going very well.

“I have never trained this hard before. This is my first Epic and I’m super excited, but also nervous as so many things could go wrong. Mentally I am ready, I have found that I get stronger as the racing gets longer so I’m counting on that to pull me through.”

Etnard is pictured here with Brenda Joubert. Etnard’s wife Sarita is racing the Absa Cape Epic with Etienne Joubert, Brenda’s husband. 

To take part in the Absa Cape Epic, you have to be the best of the best. And so, when CPUT set out to choose team members for Team CPUT and Team CPUT PPS, we were looking for the very best.

The teams were chosen from individuals who are part of the CPUT community; staff, students, and alumni were invited to apply to participate in the process to choose the team. All in all, 75 people applied and 11 eventually went on to complete a battery of physiological tests at the High Performance Lab at the Mowbray Campus, and a 2-month training programme. After the training programme, participants were retested to measure their improvement.

Participants also took part in psychometric testing conducted by Student Counselling on the Bellville Campus.

From the start, it was decided that CPUT would enter a mixed team and a development team.

The team was chosen based on the outcome of the two rounds of testing to ensure the best possible outcome for the two teams at the Absa Cape Epic, which is labelled as the toughest mountain bike stage race in Africa.

It’s not just the riders in the Absa Cape Epic who put their blood, sweat and tears into the race. Indeed, the event wouldn’t be a success at all without the many behind-the-scenes players involved.

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