Durangoan Christopher Blevins is competing in the Cape Epic, which is often referred to as the Tour de France of mountain biking. The eight-stage mountain bike race in South Africa features multiple world, Olympic and national champions racing over 423 miles while climbing roughly 55,000 feet along the way.
The race must be ridden in pairs, so Blevins joined forces with one of the defending champions, South Africa’s Matthew Beers, on team Toyota-NinetyOne-Specialized.
“Really couldn’t ask for a better teammate or support crew at the (Cape Epic),” Blevins said on Instagram. “Throughout the years, (Specialized) has put together a thick book of stories and success, and (Matthew Beers) is the defending champ and hometown hero. I’m grateful for this team and the chance to add my own stories from this 8 day adventure!”
Blevins joined the Specialized Factory Racing team in January; He also rode on Specialized bikes with Trinity Racing during the 2021 season.
The Cape Epic began with a shorter, 24-kilometer prologue on Sunday, which counts toward the teams’ overall times.
Blevins and Beers started strong and won the prologue in 58 minutes, 6.7 seconds, giving them a roughly 40-second lead and the leaders’ yellow zebra jerseys heading into Stage 1.
The duo was unable to build on their prologue performance on the 92-kilometer Stage 1, finishing 9:21 behind the stage’s winner, Andreas Seewald and Martin Stosek of Canyon Northwave MTB and moving into seventh in the general classification.
On the 118-kilometer Stage 2 on Tuesday, however, Blevins and Beers reached the podium again to move back into third in the general classification. The top four teams sprinted to the finish after five hours of tough racing, and Blevins outsprinted everyone to cross first. The second team member’s time, however, is what counts, and Beers finished 0.5 seconds behind SCOTT-SRAM’s Nino Schurter and Lars Forster to give Toyota-NinetyOne-Specilaized a second-place stage finish on the day in 5:17:05.
After the second stage, Seewald and Stosek lead the general classification on 10:14:51. Hans Becking and Jose Dias of Buff-MEGAMO are second 4:56 back, and Blevins and Beers are third 8:05 back.
Stages 3 and 4 will be on some raw mountain bike trails in the Greyton area, but at 96 and 74-kilometers, are two of the easier days in the 2022 Cape Epic.
Stage 5 is 109 kilometers long with over 2,400 meters of climbing. Stage 6 will be 76 kilometers with 2,700 meters of climbing, while the seventh and final stage will be the shortest at 68 kilometers.
More than 500 teams representing 48 countries are competing in the Cape Epic. The route also changes every year in the off-road stage race.
