Three-time participant falls victim to extreme heat at the Cape Epic
Mountain BikeWednesday, 26 March 2025 at 06:00
The famous mountain bike stage race Cape Epic was shocked last week by the death of Ronny Raeymakers. The 51-year-old Belgian suffered a heat stroke during the third stage of the South African race. After medical intervention, he was rushed to the hospital, but help was of no avail.
In the Cape Epic – one of the toughest mountain bike races – participants complete eight stages in pairs. Ronny Raeymakers participated in the Cape Epic for the third time and formed a pair with Ben Elst. They were active in the 'Grand Masters' category, for men over fifty years old.
With scorching temperatures of up to 50 degrees, things went terribly wrong in the third stage on Wednesday 19 March. Ronny Raeymakers was struck by heat stroke on the way. After a difficult medical intervention, he was taken to the hospital in Paarl, near Cape Town, Het Nieuwsbladreports.
The organization then decided to stop the race for that day. Ronny fought for his life in the hospital, but died Monday morning from the consequences of heat stroke, in the presence of his family. He leaves behind a wife and two stepdaughters.
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- Sorry but that just sounds like post-race excuse seeking. Slowing down to let them catch up? Well, yes a good idea actually but, that’s not exactly what happened and if that was the plan it was executed really badly. Firstly there was at least one moment when the gap coming down grew again, considerably. And more importantly, why if you realise the headwind is killing your chance of holding out do you slow down only a little to make it so long for them to catch you? Slow down fast, let them catch you and conserve way more energy to be available for the expected sprint. You killed your own good chances more than once this time.Mistermaumau20-04-2025
- Well, as you’re ambiguous about it and refuse to clarify, yes, good idea.Mistermaumau20-04-2025
- You half still expect it from Remco but Tadej seems to have changed lately, some of his comments are just off compared to his previous nice guy style. I don’t know if he feels less strong or more vulnerable, if something around him has changed, the crashes have affected his thinking, he can’t deal well with losing or whether he is just worried his macrocycle from last year is coming to an end but something’s different about him at the moment. Also, I don’t think he and Remco will ever really be buddies and it won’t take much for respect between the two to die. The good news is, aren’t we spoiled lately, when is the last time there were so many top level competitors in both one day and stage races? And the list should continue growing a few more years coz’ there aren’t many about to stop or losing form yet.Mistermaumau20-04-2025
- Instead of giving credit to Skjelmose both Evenepoel and Pogacar whine about crash and headwind.. hopefully Mattias will take it to them again at Flèche and Liège..
UltimateOpportunist20-04-2025 - One of the most stupidest. If Tadej or MVDP have to win, he has to be dropped asap. They will not take him to the line.abstractengineer20-04-2025
- Great race, Remco did a lot of work to get back up there. He looks in great form, can't wait for the Tour!awp20-04-2025
- This will be the turning point in history when people will stop denying Remco is able to compete on Tadej’s level, regularly.Jumpyjohn20-04-2025
- Pretty much right, except, focusing so much on the big names that no other scenarios are envisaged.Mistermaumau20-04-2025
- What happened to Kopecky? What strategy did SD have today?Mistermaumau20-04-2025
- Yes, even though MS was warning in advance he was ready for taking him on.Mistermaumau20-04-2025