When young Pieter Bezuidenhout left school and got involved in the restaurant and nightclub scene, his father Johan thought that he would lose his son to a life of parties, smoking and drinking.

Despite being a keen cyclist at school Pieter gave up a healthy lifestyle for late nights and a night owl existence and his father, owner of the Muffin Mate business, was worried that it would take him down the wrong path.

“I was really concerned about him so I told him to join for one week and doing everything I do. Don’t smoke or drink, and live healthily,” Johan says. “It was a turning point.”

Pieter was later roped into finishing the second half of the Joberg2C stage race when Johan’s partner fell out and admits that ‘I bled for the eyeballs for the entire time.”

But slowly Pieter started riding more and gave up the nightclub scene to join the family business. Johan had already completed nine Absa Cape Epics before Pieter eventually partnered with him in 2014. In 2019 they will be aiming to finish their fifth event together.

“I was worried I was either killing him or building character,” 67-year-old Johan says of their first Absa Cape Epic. “But I was interested to see how he would handle being completely down and out. I was keen to see how he would handle the pressure.”

Secretly Johan says he was testing his son’s ability to become a partner in their Johannesburg-based muffin business, Muffin Mate, which Pieter eventually joined to run the business in Johannesburg while Johan is based in Cape Town.

“Doing an event like the Epic is what keeps my Dad young,” Pieter says. “I think if he didn’t do this he would slow down and get old.”

When they first started riding together dad, Johan, was the stronger of the two but nowadays it is Pieter that often offers the ‘hand of love’ to push his dad up the hills. In their business, Pieter is now a full partner and Johan admits that, although he will always be involved, he believes that his son will eventually run their business.

What is Absa #ConquerAsOne?

Absa will once again be recognising and rewarding teamwork and perseverance at the 2019 Absa Cape Epic with the #ConquerAsOne campaign. At each stage of the race, an extraordinary #ConquerAsOne moment will be identified and recognised, where a team showed immense human spirit to overcome their own personal challenges to conquer that stage together.

During this year’s race, a panel of judges will select one #ConquerAsOne moment on each day of the race. The winning pair will be announced in the dining marquee where they will receive a unique #ConquerAsOne jersey to wear proudly during the next day’s stage. At the end of the week, the judges will then select the overall #ConquerAsOne moment, with the winning team walking away with an Absa Pride entry for the 2020 Absa Cape Epic.

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