The Cape Epic is cross-country mountain biking’s most severe endurance test. It is a week of riding in the mountainous Western Cape, where shade is rare and climbing gradients are plentiful and regular.
Many things make the Cape Epic unique: its location, the severity of its climbs, the duration of the event, animal encounters, but mostly it is the team aspect. You must roll over the line with your riding partner to finish and classify. The Cape Epic holds dear to its two-rider team concept.
At this year’s Cape Epic, one of the most unusual and popular teams was the Australian-Kenyan duo of Lachlan Morton and Kenneth Karaya.
When Lachlan’s scheduled partner could not start, a replacement was sourced. The team felt that an African rider with proven heat tolerance would be best, and in Kenya’s Kenneth Karaya, they found all that and more.
By the end of Cape Epic 2021, the two riders had bonded into a cohesive team and managed to finish 35th, from 247.
But the true value was in their shared experience and that has been expertly chronicled and presented in the latest episode of Rapha Gone Racing.
Kenneth, who has previously qualified to race in the Commonwealth Games, becomes a wonderful protagonist of the film and embodies the true spirit of EF Education-Nippo's 'alternative calendar'. That it's not just about breaking the mold to race these alternative events but about seeing what you are capable of and using that energy to inspire others.
Off the back of the 2021 Cape Epic, Kenneth and Lachlan have bought land in Kenya to develop the regions first cycling school to give riders the grassroots opportunity in cycling that would otherwise not exist.
