In a hotly anticipated pairing for the 2021 Absa Cape Epic Women’s category, five-time Swiss Marathon Champion Ariane Lüthi and six-time South African Marathon Champion, Robyn de Groot will be chasing victory together as Team Salusmed.
Ariane Lüthi is synonymous with the iconic eight-day event, having won the Cape Epic five times – three times in the Women’s category, and twice in the Mixed. Robyn de Groot is a pillar of South African cycling and has represented South Africa at World Championships, Commonwealth Games and the Olympics. Between them Lüthi and De Groot have 13 Epic starts and 10 podium finishes.
Their years of marathon racing experience and close friendship is a solid platform from which to reach for mountain bike stage racing’s premier prize – the Epic’s orange women’s leaders’ jersey. But it’s the pair’s sublime run of form lately that will have rival teams scrambling to cover Team Salusmed’s every move across the Western Cape’s rugged terrain.
In their first race as a team Lüthi and De Groot won the five-day Swiss Epic in August in dominating fashion (riding as Team Gabriel-Technologie, a sister brand to Salusmed). They executed a faultless race, taking victory across all five stages in the Alps.
Lüthi followed that up with a fifth Swiss Marathon Championship title in September and on Saturday 2 October, Lüthi and De Groot finished fifth and sixth, respectively, at the UCI Marathon World Championships on Elba Island in Italy.
The World Championships has seen some fierce rivalry between Lüthi and De Groot in recent years. In 2019 de Groot took the bronze medal in Lüthi’s backyard, at the Marathon World Championships in Switzerland, with Lüthi finishing 15th. At the 2020 World Championships in Turkey it was Lüthi’s turn to claim bronze, one place ahead of De Groot in fourth.
In 2021 in Italy, only 25 seconds separated the teammates in fifth and sixth after a brutal five-hour fight for the rainbow jersey. Lüthi swears their close finish wasn’t planned.
“It’s funny that Robyn and I again finished a place apart and within seconds of each other. I was hoping I would have to beat another rider for the line because she is such a good friend. I definitely prefer being her friend rather than her opponent,” Lüthi confessed.
“A close finish between the two of us at Worlds is a very good sign. It shows that we have both kept up and even improved since Swiss Epic,” de Groot reflected. “It’s never easy to race good friends. But with these one-day events that’s how it is.”
Their World Championships results provide a huge confidence boost for Team Salusmed just 10 days ahead of the Cape Epic, which starts with a Prologue on Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa on 17 October.
“We are both in shape and ready,” Lüthi said. “Worlds was a very good test for Epic: the terrain was very loose, bone dry and sandy. The weather was warm. It really felt like an Epic stage. It certainly felt as hard as one! It was proper mountain biking over five hours. And we did well. That really makes me confident for Epic. I’m really excited that the next time we’ll be battling on the bike it will be as a team and not as adversaries.”
“The Cape Epic is a big team event – it’s not just the two of us. We have an incredible team behind us. We have fantastic support. Ariane’s sponsors Salusmed were happy with our performance at the Swiss Epic and have backed us to carry their brand at the Cape Epic. It’s a big boost for the two of us. We have tried hard to race together as a team in the past and it has never worked out. Finally it happens on home soil for me and I’m really excited!”
Part of that support team comes in the form of German multiple World Champion and Olympic Champion Sabine Spitz. Spitz, who has three podium finishes at the Cape Epic herself, will manage Team Salusmed during the Cape Epic, lending her tactical skills and years of mountain bike experience to the team’s success.
Fans will be able to follow the exploits of Team Salusmed on Instagram with daily behind-the-scenes video stories, which will be posted to @salusmed_official and @hck_mikronaehrstoffe.
Source: Podium Sports
