Immersed in the passion and energy of the Absa Cape Epic, we’re reminded of the key values that create high-performance partnerships and high-performance networks.

The Absa Cape Epic is globally regarded as the toughest mountain biking race in the world, with two-person teams covering over 700km and 16 650m of climbing across the Western Cape’s toughest terrain. In cycling circles, it’s gained a fearsome reputation as the “Tour de France of mountain biking”, as 1 300 of the world’s elite riders converge in South Africa.

As this year’s event wraps up, we congratulate Saicom’s David Cooke, who competed in this year’s event alongside partner Brennan Anderson.

Cooke and Anderson recorded a total time of 31:48:27, placing them 48th in the General Classification. This race time was not without its own mental, physical & mechanical issues, with the team conceding at least 30 minutes.

At Comsol, we were proud to provide kit sponsorship and support to Cooke and Andersen, reinforcing the strong partnership between Comsol and Saicom (as one of our valued channel partners).

“There are great synergies between the worlds of technology and cycling,” notes Cooke. “You could say that cycling has become the ‘new form of golf’ for the industry.

Cycling is about preparation and hard work, to deliver one’s very best performance, speed and efficiency on the day. These are similar to the principles of creating great networks for our clients.

‘Very best’

“Comsol’s dedication to designing and deploying the very best wireless infrastructure and network across South Africa has ensured that they became Saicom’s preferred wireless provider, and we’ve forged a strategic partnership on that simple principal.

“On the trails, Cooke and Anderson implicitly trust each other to play their respective roles in the team — supporting each other at every turn, climb and descent. For our clients and partners, Saicom trusts Comsol to provide resilient underlying network and infrastructure, just as Comsol trusts Saicom to develop innovative, competitive solutions that ensure clients get maximum value from their network.

“This spirit of partnership is essential to our combined success,” notes Cooke. “We rely on Comsol to provide us with the highest performing wireless network in South Africa and ensure quick turnaround times for new installations or maintenance needs.”

He explains that business clients today have an insatiable demand for bandwidth, delivery and service, as the likes of data, voice, Office 365 and video calling lead businesses into a new era where every application, service or interaction is born in the cloud.

“Even in metro areas where business fibre is readily available, we generally recommend that our customers deploy Comsol wireless solutions based on Comsol’s network — from flexibility, scaleability, redundancy and a pure performance perspective.”

He adds that the many cloud platforms available in today’s technology landscape are perhaps the other key driver for advanced enterprise-grade networks, as the focus shifts to last-mile access to the cloud services and data centres.

“Comsol’s network is architected to perfectly meet this need, with fully licensed spectrum and clear service-level agreements. It gives us the confidence to extend those performance promises down to our consumers.”

From our perspective, congratulations once again to Dave and Brendan for a phenomenal performance at this year’s Epic! We’re certainly looking forward to many more years of close partnership.