Robert Engelbrecht and Antoinette Harding are the Absa Cape Epic\u2019s heartbreakers in chief \u2013 although they prefer to think of themselves as the people working behind the scenes to make sure all\u2019s fair in dirt and singletrack. They are the race commissaires; the rule enforcers.<\/p>\n
\u201cRules are rules,\u201d said Engelbrecht, who was stationed at Water Point 2 on the 92km Stage 2 of the race on Tuesday, keeping a beady eye on the pros as they whizzed past. <\/p>\n
He said being a commissaire may not be as tough as riding the eight-day stage race, which is weaving its way through the Western Cape, but it was \u201ca highly stressful job\u201d. At 5.30pm on Monday\u2019s tough and muddy 113km Stage 1 route, they had the unenviable task of cutting the number boards of 10 riders who failed to meet the 10-hour maximum stage time. One of the riders, Hein Venter missed it by 10 seconds. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe media descended like vultures on the poor guy,\u201d said Engelbrecht. It was Harding who did the dirty deed \u2013 her first ever board cutting. <\/p>\n
\u201cAny cyclist racing in an event goes at his or her fastest and if they aren\u2019t fast enough to reach the finish by the maximum stage time it\u2019s really heart-breaking. I know how much that board means to them,\u201d said Harding. <\/p>\n
Venter surrendered his board reluctantly, giving it a kiss before handing it over to Harding. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t too nice \u2013 not at all,\u201d she said, \u201cbut unfortunately it\u2019s a job you have to do.\u201d <\/p>\n
According to Engelbrecht, when riders begin each stage they know what the maximum riding time allowed is and have to plan accordingly. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe riders have to pace themselves and if they have a mechanical, well, that\u2019s part of the Epic, that\u2019s mountain biking.\u201d <\/p>\n
Both commissiares are keen mountain bikers but haven\u2019t taken on the Absa Cape Epic challenge. \u201cThe Epic is tough. They climb 16 000m over the week, and what makes it extra tough is the enforced maximum stage time. If you don\u2019t make it you get a blue number board. You can ride again but you don\u2019t get a medal and that\u2019s mind shattering. If you don\u2019t make the maximum stage time a second time your blue number board is taken away \u2013 and you can\u2019t ride anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
Engelbrecht said that just one bad day could see six months of Cape Epic training being washed away.<\/p>\n
He said they are passionate about their jobs as commissiares and are only appointed after writing exams and many years of experience. \u201cPeople think it\u2019s a glamorous job but it\u2019s highly stressful. We are up at 5am and only go to bed after all the protests, debriefing and planning for the next day. Our job is to ensure that the event runs smoothly. We keep a low profile; we\u2019re like the third umpire.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Robert Engelbrecht and Antoinette Harding are the Absa Cape Epic\u2019s heartbreakers in chief \u2013 although they prefer to think of themselves as the people working behind the scenes to make sure all\u2019s fair in dirt and singletrack. They are the race commissaires; the rule enforcers. \u201cRules are rules,\u201d said Engelbrecht, who was stationed at Water […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[76,24,3462],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-20332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events","tag-absa-cape-epic","tag-cape-epic","tag-commissaire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20332","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=20332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20332\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20332"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=20332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}