Three-time participant falls victim to extreme heat at the Cape Epic
Mountain Bike
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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- agreed. flanders is a beast. i like tadej, but i’m full on rooting for mathieu next sunday.OCexile29-03-2025
- Indeed, strong as ever on the flat, maybe stronger on climbs. There are very few records within reach for contemporary riders (Cabendish had to extend his career to get his and took twice as long as Merckx to equality), this would be one that would be very hard to take away.Mistermaumau29-03-2025
- I thought newspeak was condensing any statement into the smallest number of pertinent words.Mistermaumau29-03-2025
- flanders is mvdp’s favorite race and he’s one win away from being the lone record holder with 4 wins. i’d be very surprised if the gap that pogačar opened in him there 2 years ago wasn’t THE major focus of all his training. and when mathieu has a goal, he turns himself inside out to achieve it. we’ll see next week if he got there, but i’d agree with van avermat’s assessment of van der poel’s fitness.OCexile29-03-2025
- It’s almost like newspeak. It’s classics season, Pogacar’s main rival has always been van der Poel. Then grand tour season will begin, and we will pivot mid sentence and Pogacar’s main rival will have always been Vingegaard. What a season this promises to be. Let’s hope they stay healthy (and Vingegaard gets past the concussion).RidesHills29-03-2025
- Great that he’s decided to do Flanders though his weight remark is irrelevant, Mads is proportionately heavier and MVDP has the same weight but is around 10cm shorter.Mistermaumau29-03-2025
- Yeah, looks slow up there.Jumpyjohn28-03-2025
- lol His aim was well off! MVP was well past him before the guy decided to spit.Cyclingsbestfan28-03-2025
- But you know that’s what makes this website live ;-)Mistermaumau28-03-2025
- I hope he stays upright too and I hope that in this years Paris Roubaix we get a proper good old fashioned man against man race. Can't wait!Cyclingsbestfan28-03-2025