Blown along by the warm breeze that brushes the sandstone cliffs far above the South Atlantic surf, Alice formed some of her fondest family memories while cycling the city’s coastal roads with her brother, Lucas, who is also a pro racer, and her father, Jonny, who raced motorbikes.

From its sophisticated restaurants and wine bars nestled between skyscrapers to coffees by the beach in little surf cafés, rides to Noordhoek over Chapman’s Peak or out to the winelands around Stellenbosch and Franschhoek, Cape Town buzzes with its own laid-back energy, with Table Mountain’s steady presence basking in the beauty of it all.

“It is a city like no other,” Alice said. “And it is the city that I know best out of anywhere in the world. I'm from a small village in the U.K. where we don't even have a shop, but I know my way around Cape Town super well. I know which turnoffs to take to get around the city. I know that there's a shortcut under the motorway and you can go hop over the roundabout and go through the underground parking to come up somewhere else. It’s somewhere that just makes sense to me. Connecting the beaches to the city and the mountains as well — it's just got everything you need.”

Alice grew up in Derbyshire, England, but spent the holidays in South Africa, where her dad was raised and where her aunts, uncles, and grandparents still live. Every year, when the cycling season winds down in Europe, Alice looks forward to Cape Town – the generous warmth of the wind and the city’s people, the tang of salt in the air, the blue sea and ochre earth. It is the city Alice knows and loves best.

December is the height of the Southern Hemisphere’s summer and the time of year when Cape Town is at its busiest. Alice loves escaping cold, dreary England to spend time with her family in vivid, sunny South Africa.

“The vibe in Cape Town in December – it's chaos, it's crazy, but it's super fun, and it's vibrant,” Alice said. “I've had Christmas here my whole life, so the first festive period with the build up to Christmas is something that I really love. It's really special to me. You have to just embrace the chaos and not see it as something that's pushing against you, but work with it. It’s quite freeing when you're chopping through traffic, weaving through cars, in a safe way. You've got to embrace it and become part of it.
But when you have a perfect blue sky day around the coast roads, it just wipes out every con there is about Cape Town. It is one of my favorite places to ride a bike because of that.”

Alice took us on a ride from her family home in Blaauwberg along the waterfront through Sea Point to the quieter coastal roads that rise out and over Suikerbossie, before plummeting into Hout Bay. We then ascenced the famous road up and over Chapman’s Peak to Noordhoek for a coffee in the farm village.

“I chose this route because I literally do it almost every single day I am here,” Alice said. “It's got one of the most iconic roads in South Africa, which is Chapman's Peak Drive. People come from all over the world to drive along that road to see the views. I've done it so many times now. I could probably close my eyes and make my way down there. 
You can descend both sides, and when you're not stuck behind a tour bus, it's really nice. There's the sweeping corners, and the surface of the road's really nice. Nothing's too tight, so it flows really nicely and you’ve got gorgeous views to the left or to the right, depending on which way you're going down. It is definitely one of the most iconic road descents in cycling."

Join Alice, beyond your universe, in Cape Town, South Africa.