Leading international sports supplement brand, USN, has announced it will back top South African marathon racers Waylon Woolcock and Darren Lill in their quest for success at the 2016 ABSA Cape Epic, the world’s most prestigious international mountain bike stage race.
Riding as Team USN Purefit, Woolcock and Lill will primarily aim to win the African team title, but will also be in the hunt for stage wins and an outside shot at an overall podium.
USN recently signed a five-year deal to be the official sports supplement partner to the Cape Epic. USN is also the supplement partner of the three of South Africa’s largest mountain bike series an the Sani2c, with 4500 entrants, the world’s largest mountain bike stage race. It also supports a number of mountain bike teams, both in South Africa and internationally.
“USN been involved as a sponsor of events and talented individuals in South African mountain biking for a number of years. It’s always been our objective to add value and help the sport grow and individuals achieve their potential. For USN it’s important to have a strong team in the Cape Epic and we’re very pleased to be able to back Waylon and Darren as Team USN Purefit for the 2016 event,” said Albe Geldenhuys, USN CEO.
Woolcock (33) and Lill (33) will be racing in USN Purefit colours already this week when they tackle the FNB Wines2Whales three-day stage race in the Western Cape.
“Preparing properly for the Cape Epic starts from months out. We want to ensure Waylon and Darren have the right support from now. They’ll do all their Cape Epic build-up racing and training for USN Purefit and obviously using our Purefit range of supplements, which have been specifically formulated for the demands of endurance racing and stage racing,” added Geldenhuys.
Woolcock and Lill raced the 2015 Cape Epic for Cannondale Blend, but their team sponsorship came to an en and they raced the remainder of 2015 with partial sponsorship. The pair finished seventh overall at the 2015 Cape Epic and third in the very competitive African team competition, which they led for two days.
“Next year will be the third year that Darren and I are teammates and our third Cape Epic together. In 2014 I got very ill and had to withdraw and this year we had more than our fair share of mechanicals. Both years we were leading the African team competition when we hit a snag. Hopefully it’s a case of third time lucky in 2016,” smiled Woolcock.
“With USN’s backing for the 2016 Cape Epic, we will go into the race highly prepared. We’ll have a back-up team for support during the race, which has become essential if you’re aiming for a category podium in the Open men’s division. We’ll also have support staff, such as a dedicated mechanic, masseuse and manager, all of which helps you to focus fully on the racing and less on the peripheral elements, which can be quite draining,” added Woolcock.
For their 2015 Cape Epic build-up, Lill and Woolcock contested Rounds 1 (Meerendal) and 2 (Sabie) of the Ashburton Investments National Marathon Series and the DUTOIT Tankwa Trek three-day stage race. For their 2016 Cape Epic preparation, they’ll stick with that race schedule, but add the Tour of Boland road stage race and the Cape Town Cycle Tour road race.
“We’ll probably spend two weeks at altitude before the Sabie race next February and get in some quality Cape Epic training. We’ve also learned from our mechanical problems at the 2015 Cape Epic and will choose our gear to be more suited to the terrain,” said Woolcock.
For more information on USN Purefit, visit www.usnpurefit.com
