ABSA Cape Epic video courtesy of TDA Boulder
Stander and Sauser dominate Time Trial
36One Songo – Specialized’s almost complete domination of the 2011 ABSA Cape Epic presented by Adidas continued today, with a world class display of mountain biking from Christoph Sauser and Burry Stander in the 30km Time trial at Worcester. The duo now have 4 wins from 5 stages and extend their lead in the overall classification to almost 8 minutes.
Rolling out of the start shoot as the last of the ‘pro’ riders, Songo’s ‘minute men’ were yesterday’s stage winners Hannes Genze and Jchen Kaess (Multivan Merida Biking). By the time the riders were sighted just after the 8 km mark, Songo had past and caught the Merida boys and were making the brutally steep climb that seemed to drag for miles, look like a sunday ride! By 18 km, Songo had passed their 2 minute team, Bulls (Platt / Sahm) and put nearly 40 seconds into them. It was clear the Songo team meant business and were not using today as a recovery day before tomorrows 143 km stage, which must certainly have crossed the minds of many other teams.
On the line, Songo recorded a time of 1:10.1, with Mulitvan Merida 2nd (1:11.34), and Wild Wolf Trek Pro racing (Gutierrez / Coloma) 3rd in 1:12:08. Not a great day for either Bulls team today – Bulls 1 (Platt / Sahm) struggled to find rhythm today, finishing over 3 minutes down (but still enough to retain 3rd on GC), whilst Bulls 2 (Dietsch / Boehme) limped in with a flat tyre to finish 12th, seven and a half minuted down.
The Rockstar boys conserved their top 15 place in the overall category, but surely lost time in the last 5 km. Both Shaun Lewis and Peter Hatton met the same fate as Bulls 2, but also chose to ‘ride it in’, finishing 18th (1:19.03) and on about 15 psi!
In the women’s event, Colnago (Nathalie Schneitter /Eva Lechner) return to the top of the podium (1:27.16), completing the course 10 minutes faster than race leaders USN (Bigham /van Jaarsveld) (1:37:04), with Adidas (Willet / Hansen) in third (1:37.54). No change to the women’s overall standings as yet, but with 3 tough days remaining, Colnago are still in contention for a podium spot and snapping on the heels of Adidas.
Tomorrow’s 143 km stage is the longest in Epic history and the day the riders have been dreading from the onset. 2,800 m of climbing in 3 distinct sections separated by open roads await the riders. Let’s hope the rain from the past few days makes for some ‘smoother’ riding terrain to lessen the load……