Through strong winds and heavy rains, the Absa Cape Epic remains connected

NOTE: This blog was originally published on the Dimension Data website. Dimension Data rebranded as NTT DATA in 2024.

This year’s Absa Cape Epic in South Africa’s Western Cape province proved why it’s the only eight-day mountain-bike stage race classified as hors catégorie (beyond categorization) by Union Cycliste Internationale, the world governing body. 

Not only did the local and international riders have to push themselves through physical, mental and emotional battles along the 658km of the race, but adverse weather conditions also played havoc with both the race itself and the supporting infrastructure.

Erratic elements put our abilities to the test

As the Official Technology Partner of the Absa Cape Epic since 2015, Dimension Data is responsible for connecting the race to the world, including supporting the successful live streaming of the event. As we know that most of the route lacks infrastructure for connectivity (even mobile signal for calls isn’t guaranteed), we put our own infrastructure in place before every year’s race. This ensures that riders’ and officials’ devices can connect to the network, allowing people to engage with each other and the outside world.

We also know that the elements can be unpredictable, at best, but this year’s unexpectedly wild weather posed new challenges for us as much as for the riders. The first test of our abilities arose during stage one, around the town of Hermanus, when strong winds snapped some of the fiber cables installed at the race village. The windstorm also ripped apart the canvas-walled riders’ diner and damaged our network cabinet in the riders’ lounge.

We quickly implemented our backup plans and were able to restore the damaged equipment as our team provided round-the-clock support on the ground.

High winds damaged the riders’ diner and our fiber connections

Then, just a few days on, the rains came. Rainfall was so heavy that tractors were rescuing stranded vehicles from the mud. The riders, however, had to push through unaided. As Ashley Oldfield wrote about stage six of the race, which runs through the Helderberg basin to Lourensford Wine Estate: “Heavy overnight rain, which kept falling throughout the stage, made riding nearly impossible … stage 6 was a true nightmare. It was the most demanding day I’ve ever had on a mountain bike.”

The downpours affected some of our network access points, but we kept the village connected without interruption.