ABSA Cape Epic video courtesy of TDA Boulder
Sauser and Stander make it two from two; 360 Life dream shattered
The Absa Cape Epic has been described as the Mountain bike equivalent of the Tour de France. If that’s the case, and we compress 3 weeks into 8 days, we can consider ourselves in the ‘first week’ of racing and draw many comparisons to the dreaded first week of the Tour when many dreams are shattered.
Yesterday’s prologue had its fair share of ups and downs, much like we have seen on the road, but today’s stage claimed its first casualty on GC, and one Frank Schelck could relate to. Kevin Evans (360Life) crashed early in the stage and is out with a broken collarbone. The South African dream of an overall win is again shattered and we aren’t even out of the ‘first week.’
Riders rose for the first day of real racing to a beautiful cool, still morning, with the surrounding valley walls providing plenty of shade for the early hours of the race. This was a good thing too, as both the racing and the temperature didn’t take long to heat up. The pace was high from the gun with 36One Songo Specialized (Sauser / Stander) controlling the pace and leaving carnage in their wake.
Within 45 mins, the field was already in splinters with the lead group down to the main players – Stöckli, Songo, 2 Bulls teams, and 2 Merida teams with 360Life hanging on. The first 20 km of the 89 km stage was brutal and Stockli pro (Huber / Looser) looked like the only team willing to play Songo’s game.
After numerous attempts, the elastic band holding the Bulls team in the race was eventually snapped. Songo, Stockli and Merida 3 (Hermida / Naef) built up a lead of 2 minutes, forcing the Bulls to bring in reinforcements (Bulls 2) in the hope of being dragged back up. Not even a missed marker and a wrong turn could provide the life line needed for the defending champs though, as Songo turned up the heat even further at the base of the big climb.
Hermida and Naef’s chase was plagued with drama – a crash and a flat in the space of one descent, dashing all hopes of a stage win. They would eventually roll in for 13th, fifteen minutes down.
Stockli rose to the occasion, but didn’t quite have the legs to challenge on the line. Songo crossed the line nicely under the four hour mark, with Stockli 61 s behind on the stage and moving up to 2nd overall at 3.5 minutes. Bulls 2 rounded out the top 3, with Stander and Sauser losing a further 3 min 48, putting them 5th overall and now over 6 minutes off the leaders. This would not have been the start they were hoping for.
Best African team was Garmin Adidas MTN, finishing 12th and moving up to the same spot on GC from yesterday’s 18th. Rockstar Racing (Aus) had their share of punctures too, slipping down the rankings slightly, sitting just outside the top 20.
Elite Women
In the women’s race, Colnago again take line honours ((Lechner/Schneitter ) in 5:11.16 but chasing close behind are USN (Bigham/van Jaarsveld), less than 2 minutes back. The British / South African combo are not going to give up without a fight! Rounding out the top three are ABSA aBreast (Booyens/Stopforth), with Australians Fisher and King (Swell Giant) putting yesterday’s mechanicals behind them to stamp a mark on the leader board in 4th (5:24.14). Fortune did not favour yesterday’s podium girls of Adidas (Hansen / Willet). Willet was off her bike at water point 1, plagued by sickness, but struggled on to get to the finish in under 6 hours, placing 7th for the day.
Full results can be found at http://live.cape-epic.com/