HEAVEN & BACK
TO EARTH
STAGE 1
START & FINISH
Hermanus High School,
Hermanus
112
KM 2 700 M
DISTANCE
CLIMBING
RATING
The beautiful seaside town of Hermanus offers the best
shore-based whale watching in the world: the magnificent
creatures flock to Walker Bay every year and can be
observed only metres away from the cliffs and paths lining
the shore. The town has its own unique “whale crier”,
whose blasts on a kelp horn signal the presence of whales.
Besides its natural beauty and crisp coastal air, the area is
renowned for its quality wines with leading estates lining
the flanks of the Hemel en Aarde Valley. In recent years
Hermanus has become a mountain biking mecca, with trails
being developed on the nearby hills and valleys.
THE ROUTE
Relentless. Attritional. A return to the Absa Cape Epic Stage 1s of old, and the Hemel en Aarde Valley. Rotary Drive, the
La Vierge stairs and The Paddocks set the tone for a day of relentless ascents before the stage’s first spectator point at
Creation Wines. Then it is onwards and upwards towards the Dimension Data Hotspot near the summit of the Katkloof
Climb. Baked by the summer sun it will be littered with loose pebbles, clinging precariously to a shifting sand surface.
In the wheat fields of the Overberg, rolling roads provide momentary respite before the war of attrition resumes on the
slopes of the Babilonstoring Mountains, then descending into the Tesselaarsdal Valley – where in 2017 many an Absa Cape
Epic dream was dashed. Turning for Hermanus and home it is downhill in theory – but reality and Charlie’s Babe have
other ideas. The Gorge, in the final 15km, provides the day’s Land Rover Technical Terrain and one of the most exhilarating
approaches to an Absa Cape Epic finish line yet. There is still one final sting in the tail though; the Water Works climb,
designed to bring a tear to the eyes of those who failed to prepare.
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