Ghosting into

the Absa Cape Epic

Anne Terpstra and her Ghost Factory Racing teammate, Nicole Koller, are no strangers to South Africa. The pair, and the rest of their squad, are frequent visitors to the country for warm weather training camps. In fact, they have often even lined up in early season local races, with Terpstra taking on a solo stage race in 2020, before the full Ghost outfit raced a four-day stage race last year. This year the team steps up their stage racing taking on the Absa Cape Epic for the first time.

Despite their status as relative novices, it has been recently proven that experience is not everything in the Untamed. In 2021 Sina Frei and Laura Stigger won the event on debut, while Lukas Baum and Georg Egger did the same a year later. Familiarity with the African conditions and the Ghost Factory Racing outfit’s professionalism, on and off the bike, leads one to believe that they will be competitive at the first time of asking.

“I have spent quite a lot of time in South Africa every year, indeed, and I think this is one of the reasons I got motivated to compete in the Absa Cape Epic,” Terpstra smiled. “I have always been keen to race this race, but somehow it never fitted properly in our programme. It was also important to me to race with a partner whom I feel comfortable with, not with '’just someone’. Because Nicole [Koller] wants to join me now, this turned out to be the year that I can, finally, be on the start line.”

“We've only raced one stage race as a team before,” she confessed. “But that worked out really well for us. There it helped that, we’ve been teammates since 2021, we know each other very well. “I’m not only looking forward to the race but more so to it a go with Nicole.”

“Competing at least once in the Absa Cape Epic has been on my bucket list as a professional mountain bike rider from the beginning,” Koller confirmed. “I’m looking forward to some hard, but I guess, also nice hours on the bike in the beautiful nature of South Africa. Last year Anne [Terpstra] and I raced the Tankwa Trek together and I think we matched pretty well as a team. There we were able to be honest about our current feeling on the bike, energy level and also our skills. Thereafter it was just a logical step to ride the Absa Cape Epic together as well.”

Koller has the physical characteristics of a rider who should thrive at the Absa Cape Epic. “I guess I’m a rider who can handle long days on the bike, but I’ve never raced so many days after each other, so that will be a new experience,” Koller noted. “I anticipate that there could be different difficulties during one week of racing. That said, I’m really looking forward to this adventure!”

Like many of the cross-country specialists in the elite men’s and women’s fields the Ghost Factory Racing team will take part in the Absa Cape Epic with an eye on the Paris Olympics, on 28 and 29 July 2024. “We must be fair and say that both Nicole and I have different goals this year and that the Absa Cape Epic therefore is more part of our preparation than a season goal itself,” Terpstra stated. “But I don't think that makes us much less competitive! I’m sure with our strengths we will be a team to take into account throughout the race, when it comes to stage wins and a possible overall victory.”

Terpstra and Koller will certainly be a combination to watch for their rivals for the orange CIOVITA jerseys. Mountain biking fans should thus not be surprised if they ghost their way onto the top step of the podium.