CAPE EPIC 2017 DAY 7 – TREAD NOTES & OBSERVATIONS

Day 7, Stage 6. The Queen Stage of the 14^th edition of the Absa Cape Epic on the penultimate day. Some would say that’s cruel. We say, that’s the Cape Epic – deal with it. And it was a truly epic Epic stage with a climb up the monstrous Groenlandberg after 20km, a total distance of 103km and a 2750 metres of accumulated ascent. It challenged everyone including all the podium contenders and it shook up the general classification podiums in the men and women’s categories.

Compiled by Sean Badenhorst

Photos by Dino Lloyd

SCOTT seal the deal. Pretty much…

Nino Schurter and Matthias Stirnemann (SCOTT SRAM Racing) all but wrapped up the overall win by winning the stage and extending a slim 50 second lead to a more comfortable one of 6:49 with just one stage remaining. They started off more cautiously than the previous two days but then drove hard once their main rivals, Jaroslav Kulhavy and Chistoph Sauser suffered a puncture on a descent at around 35km.

The SCOTT SRAM Young Guns pair of Michiel van der Heijden and Andri Frischknecht, who were with Schurter and Stirnemann also suffered a puncture, leaving their senior stablemates alone up front. Fortunately they never needed their back-up team and Schurter and Stirnemann kept the pace high enough to first despatch the Centurion Vaude 2 pair Nicola Rohrbach and Daniel Geismeyr with 15km remaining and then Kansai Plascon’s Max Knox and Leo Paez with 4km to go.

Tomorrow’s final stage will be fast with a lot of gravel roads and a tarred road over the Franschhoek Pass. Failing any major drama, Schurter and Stirnemann should win their first Cape Epic.

Another flat crushes Sauser’s record hopes

With a 50-second deficit, a longer stage that suited him and a real shot at becoming the first rider to win six Cape Epics, Christoph Sauser had it all to fight for today. But fate stepped in and left him with a punctured tyre just 35km into the 103km stage.

It was a day that Sauser and his Investec-Songo-Specialized teammate, Jaroslav Kulhavy were expected to put their chief rivals, SCOTT SRAM Racing’s, Nino Schurter and Matthias Stirnemann under pressure, but instead the pressure was on them.

Sauser flatted on the rough descent down Die Nek just before the second water point. He was able to get a wheel from a Specialized stablemate, Howard Grotts, minimising his time loss.

But the puncture was one problem too many for the Swiss star and he and Kulhavy spent the rest of the stage riding alone and trying to ensure their second place overall.

Sauser’s Cape Epic career, which only excludes the first edition in 2004, has been punctuated by tyre issues, most of which he’s been able to overcome, but some of which have cost him dearly.

Excluding their first tyre issue on Stage 1, where something snapped Kulhavy’s valve off, causing him to crash, the pair suffered two more punctures – Stage 4 and today’s. They probably lost around 10 minutes in total with puncture issues and are currently 6:49 off the leaders.

Master’s race is a humdinger

What was a tight podium tussle before Stage 6 became even tighter as the top three teams in the Masters (40-49 years) division are separated by 2:48. The Spanish duo of Tomi Misser and Ibon Zugasti (Orbea Factory) retain the lead in the large category (a total of 214 teams started the 2017 edition). But a third successive stage win by former road cycling pros, Cadel Evans and George Hincapie (BMC Absa) on Stage 6, see them sitting second just 2:43 back. They took 3:00 out of the Spaniards today and will be looking for a similar advantage on the final stage.

But just five seconds behind them in third is the highly experienced defending champion pairing of Bart Brentjens and Abraao Azevedo (CST Sandd American Eagle). Brentjens and Abraao have each won four Master’s titles (three as a team) and have experience on their side ahead of Sunday’s final haul to the finish in Paarl.

Any delays (crash or mechanical) will be a disaster so risk management levels will be at their maximum for all six men.

Who do we think will take the title? Much as it pains us, we have to pick the BMC Absa pair for the stage win and the overall win. Regardless of who wins though, it’s going to be a humdinger. 

De Groot’s Cape Epic curse

Robyn de Groot is one of the nicest people you will ever meet. But in a previous life she must have been quite the opposite because a karma of the highest level has plagued the South African champion’s Cape Epic victory quest once again.

In her first Cape Epic in 2015, De Groot struggled with illness and she and then teammate, Jennie Stenerhag finished a distant second. This despite gaining a one-hour advantage and the race lead after it was discovered that leaders, Ariane Lüthi and Annika Langvad, had missed turn and ridden a shorter route on one of the stages.

Then last year, while challenging Lüthi and Langvad for the lead, Stenerhag collapsed at the finish of Stage 3 and was ordered to withdraw on medical grounds with a suspected dangerous heart condition. This left De Groot to finish on her own.

Then this year, teamed up with one of the most successful female mountain bikers in history, Sabine Spitz, De Groot looked certain to be heading for her first Cape Epic win.

But it was not to be. Spitz crashed about 15km from the end of today’s stage, breaking her carbon fibre handlebar. The time lost in eventually fitting a new handlebar at the tech zone saw them drop from second to third in the General Classification.

Spitz also crashed on Stage 1 damaging her bike and cutting her face badly and cut her tyre on Stage 4. A calamitous week for the Ascendis Health pair, who we tipped as our pre-race favourites. Maybe next year Robyn?

Knox finally gets a podium spot

South African champion, Max Knox and his Kansai Plascon teammate, Leo Paez, finally had a trouble-free stage to finish second and move up to third overall in the General Classification.

“I suffered all stage,” said Knox. “I got dropped on the big climbs in the first half and just took all kinds of risks on the descents to get back on. I’m glad I did because it was special to finish on the podium again. Even better was moving into third overall against pretty much all of the world’s best mountain bike racers.”

It was Knox’s fifth Cape Epic stage podium. He has had four second places and third since his first Cape Epic in 2007.

Knox and Paez were leading Stage 4 with 20km remaining when Knox suffered a mechanical that scuppered their hopes of a stage win.

“Now we just have to make sure we have a smooth final stage to ensure we try and defend our third place,” said Knox.

TREAD is carrying extensive coverage of the 2017 Absa Cape Epic, brought to you by Momsen Bikes. Follow us on twitter: @TreadMTBmag, Facebook: Tread – Mountain Biking with Soul and Instagram:@treadmtb