With less than two weeks to go until the start of the world’s toughest mountain bike race, the four riders who will sport CPUT colours in the Absa Cape Epic say they are all raring to go.
Etienne Joubert, Sarita Louw, Mteza Boya and Seraj Abrahams were all given hearty encouragement at last night’s event, particularly from keynote speaker, Vice-Chancellor Dr Prins Nevhutalu.
Speaking at last night’s event, the VC urged the athletes to do the university proud as the national and international spotlight is shone on the beautiful Wellington Campus in the Winelands.
“The magnificence of our campus, which was voted the best host village last year in this world-renowned event, will once again be on display.”
Riders are set to arrive in Wellington on Wednesday, 16 March; this marks the end of stage three of the race. The following day, riders compete in a 71 km stage, also ending at the Wellington Campus. On Friday, 18 March, riders will leave Wellington for Stellenbosch as they set out on stage five of the race.
This year, apart from just being a host village, CPUT has entered two teams. CPUT alumnus and lecturer in the School of Sport, Events, Tourism and Hospitality, Etienne Joubert, is heading up Team CPUT. He’ll be riding with CPUT alumnus, Sarita Louw, in the mixed category of the stage race.
And most excitingly, in what is considered a first for CPUT and the Absa Cape Epic itself, The Professional Provident Society (PPS) is sponsoring a so-called development team, Team CPUT PPS.
Riders Mteza Boya and Seraj Abrahams will race in the Exxarro category, which stipulates entrants must be under the age of 26 and from formerly disadvantaged backgrounds.
TEAM CPUT PPS: (from left) Gerhard Koekemoer (PPS Regional Manager, Western Cape), rider Mteza Boya, Linda Stanford (Branch Manager, Cape Town), rider Seraj Abrahams, Riana O’Neill (Branch Manager, Tygervalley)
PPS’s Riana O’Neill says “CPUT and PPS are making history with this sponsorship of a development team entered in the Epic. We see this partnership as an ideal vehicle to entrench our business in the growing recreational sport sector. This is a segment in which many of our current clients already participate and many more potential clients are expected to become involved.”
Support our teams on social media: #epicCPUT16 | #teamCPUT | #teamCPUT_PPS
For more photos of the launch event, visit our FlickR album.