Mountain biking is for (white, wealthy, middle-aged) men: the Cape Epic mountain bike race

ABSTRACT

The Cape Epic (an eight-day mountain biking stage race in South Africa) exemplifies the most difficult mountain bike race on the African continent and attracts a relatively homogenous group of participants who, in order to prepare for such an extreme event, must engage in serious leisure. Until quite recently, academics considered lifestyle sports, like mountain biking, as playful and more relaxed than traditional sports. However, most hobbies or leisure activities can become ‘serious leisure’ when the time and energy spent participating and preparing for them begin to resemble work. Despite stereotypes surrounding lifestyle sport participants as young, white, middle-class males, a preliminary analysis of data collected on the 2017 Cape Epic revealed that although ninety per cent of riders were indeed white males, sixty per cent fell into high-income brackets and the average rider age was 44 years. Using demographic information from Cape Epic participants and responses given in a series of in-depth interviews with riders involved in serious leisure, this study contributes to a better understanding of serious leisure and team participation in lifestyle sports by addressing social and business motivations, subcultures, and meaning for participants in this ‘grey-area’ where serious leisure meets lifestyle sports. Furthermore, contrary to changing demographics across many lifestyle sports to include women, children and the elderly, Cape Epic participants are not diverse; this is explored through the gendered experience of the Cape Epic and the socio-cultural environment of lifestyle sports within the context of post-apartheid South Africa.

KEYWORDS:

• Mountain biking
• lifestyle sports
• Cape Epic
• gender
• serious leisure

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Sanette L. A. Ferreira http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6789-4243

Notes

1 Lifestyle sports are also referred to as alternative, action, adventure or extreme sports. In this case, after Wheaton (2010), we use ‘lifestyle sports’ because many participants refer to their activities as ‘lifestyles’ rather than ‘sports’.

2 Amateur riders are paying entrants who are not currently full-time, professional, mountain bikers ranked by the UCI. Although amateurs may be sponsored or supported, they are not paid a salary or wage to participate in the race.

3 Under the system of apartheid, South Africans of different races were geographically and socially separated and non-white South Africans were denied access to equal educational, employment and other services. Although steps have been taken to remediate the effects of the system, a large majority of the ‘previously disadvantaged’ non-white population continues to live in poverty.

4 We expand upon this in the analysis, but our assessment of participant wealth (aside from their ability to afford the cost of the Cape Epic) was based on their physical possessions, occupations and verbal cues (for example one participant’s reference to his helicopter).

5 Typically applied to a rider’s bottom to prevent saddle sores and rashes.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from Stellenbosch University and the National Research Foundation of South Africa.