Oops - we did it again....
It's been a couple of weeks since the 22nd of March - the last day of the Cape Epic. And if you've been following this blog, you know that the last day wasn't exactly what we'd imagined when we started this whole adventure. I didn't finish. That still stings. But the Cape Epic has a way of staying under your skin, even - maybe especially - when it doesn't go to plan.
For Jeroen and me, the days after the race weren't exactly a return to normal life. We had our Trippz company off-site planned in South Africa, right off the back of the race, with the full team. And honestly, it was brilliant. The combination of coming out of an emotionally intense week and then spending time with the people we've been building the company with for five years — that was something special. A lot of laughs, a lot of good conversations, and exactly zero conversations about normalized power targets.
Once we were back home in the Netherlands, the post-race blues settled in for about a day and a half. And then something else took over: the urge to go back.
Jeroen and I spoke about it. The appetite was clearly there for both of us. But there was also some hesitation, and it would be dishonest not to mention where most of that hesitation came from. Discuss with our partners. Astrid and Marjolein were incredibly supportive throughout this entire journey - I wrote about that in the last post and I meant every word of it. But asking them to sign up for another year of early mornings, training weekends and a week away in South Africa is not something you do casually, nor naturally. The good news is that our baseline fitness is in a completely different place now. No more 3-hour 5AM Kickr sessions in November. Maintaining what we've built is a very different proposition than building it from scratch. Still work, absolutely, but a lot more manageable.
Long story short - it took a few serious conversations. But ultimately, we got the green light. Well, sort of. Let's call it a conditional green light with some fine print we'll navigate as we go 😉.
Cape Epic 2027 is happening!
And we're off to a strong start. Jeroen kicked things off by adding a new goal in JOIN, and his fresh training plan started immediately with an FTP test. The result: 353 watts over 20 minutes, setting his FTP at 336 watts. For context, his target going into this year's Cape Epic was around 320. So he's come out of it fitter than he went in, which says a lot about what eight days of racing at altitude and 35 degrees does for your body once you've recovered from it.
I did my own test today and came out at an FTP of 313 watts. That's a significant jump from the 290 I had going into the Cape Epic, and I'm genuinely pleased with that. It confirms what the training data has been suggesting — the months of structured work didn't just get me to the start line, they built a foundation that's still there. Oh, and I bought a Zwift Bike, so I now have a proper indoor setup instead of having to swap the rear wheel on the mountain bike every time I want to ride indoors. Small quality of life improvement. Big impact on motivation.
The plan for summer and autumn is straightforward: maintain. Keep the engine running, don't lose what we've gained, and enjoy the riding without the pressure of a structured build phase. That's so much easier than what we went through last year, where we were genuinely building from a much lower baseline. The hard yards are done. Now it's about staying in shape and having fun with it.
We'll keep you posted as things progress. Don't expect a flood of updates over the summer - maintenance training is not exactly riveting content, and I suspect "I did a Zone 2 ride and it was fine" won't keep anyone on the edge of their seat. But we'll check in when there's something worth sharing.
Jeroen got his Cape Epic finisher's medal. I didn't. That's the unfinished business, and it's the reason the Chase continues. Cape Epic 2027, 21-28th of March. See you in the Western Cape.
Until then, Keep Chasing!
