![\"ccs-62657-0-34140900-1458112515.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-62657-0-34140900-1458112515.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nReid has had an unfortunate run of luck at this year’s Cape Epic. Two weeks before the race his original partner, US National XCO Champ, Howard Grotts broke his ribs in training and was forced to withdraw.<\/p>\n
The eleventh-hour team of Reid and Heyns were quietly optimistic that they could shake things up, especially in the fierce competition for the Absa African Special Jersey. The young cross-country specialists had started the week off well with a powerful performance at the Prologue at Meerendal on Sunday, where they finished fourth overall to claim the red African jersey. <\/p>\n
\u201cOn Tuesday’s Stage 2 I started in C-batch and went hard from the start to try and get a good day\u2019s racing done,\u201d Reid commented afterward. \u201cHowever, you don\u2019t get the stimulus when you aren’t with the front guys and what actually struck me was how much longer five hours felt today over yesterday. I think it’s because I didn\u2019t have the \u2018racing\u2019 stimulus \u2013 the chatting, reading other riders’ body language, responding to attacks or carving singletrack together.\u2019<\/p>\n
Reid explained that riding back in the pack felt as though he was, \u201cplaying pac-man against himself.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, you can sort of get into it, but after a while there are only one or two Outcasts out there and it gets kind of lonely \u2013 sure, you are riding your bike in a beautiful setting, but because you\u2019re not racing, you\u2019re not as emotionally invested in the day as everyone else\u2026 The sense of accomplishment is not nearly as big,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Reid is philosophical about the situation, \u201cthis is bike racing and bike racing can be brutal, you do what you can with the cards that you\u2019re dealt,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Reid made the decision to withdraw from the race to start building toward 2016 African Continental Mountain Bike Championships on 2 April, at Afriski in Lesotho, where he hopes to gather valuable points toward Olympic qualification. With no UCI points on offer to Outcast riders at the Cape Epic, James needs to rejoin the hunt for selection.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand what a privilege it is to ride in the Cape Epic and I want to thank the organisers as well as my sponsors Spur and Specialized for all their support. But there are important races in the next two weeks that are crucial for Rio selection. So I will shift my attention to racing in circles really quickly for an-hour-and-a-half, as opposed to out in the mountains for five hours,\u201d the reigning South African XCO Champion joked.<\/p>\n
Reid is adamant he’ll return to the Absa Cape Epic to take care of unfinished business. \u201cThis event is incredible,\u201d he said. \u201cIt really is all that it is made out to be \u2013 the pace at the front is brutal and just judging by the [low] number of riders at the sharp end who speak English as a first language, it really is a multi-lingual, international, professional bike race.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLessons learned. A lot of lessons learned. There could be more [if he stayed in the race], but I feel the gains would be marginal,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m disappointed to leave, but I feel like I have enough knowledge loaded in my mind to take on this race properly, with a fighting chance, in a year\u2019s time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou really have to have a good strategy and a lot of experience; and you have to have the right partner and the best support \u2013 which I have had this year \u2013 to make a go of it, I\u2019m excited for next year already,\u201d Reid concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It was a case of until we meet again, rather than goodbye, as James Reid from Team Spur withdrew from the 2016 Absa Cape Epic on Tuesday, 15 March, to focus on his Olympic qualification. Reid started the 100th stage of the world\u2019s most prestigious mountain-bike stage race in the Outcast special jersey for UCI […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":43881,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[76,24,2157,483],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-18522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-absa-cape-epic","tag-cape-epic","tag-james-reid","tag-team-spur"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18522"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=18522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}