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 13th 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.
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