More than 500 km to go. Still a world to reach Val de Vie, the Champs Elysees of mountain biking, but the first stage of the Cape Epic 2023 It has already served to make a remarkable first selection in the general classification. It was not a day to win the race, but it was to lose it. After completing the 98 km and 2,550 meters that made up this Monday’s route, two pairs came out especially reinforced. The first, the one formed by Fabian Rabensteiner and Wout Alleman, who got the stage win to recover some of the time they gave up in the opening prologue. His conquest of the Andalucía Bike Race overall, a touch test for the South African round, was no coincidence. The second, very special, in the case of the greatest legend of this sport: Nino Schurter. The Swiss, along with his compatriot Andri Frischknecht, rose to the overall lead thanks to his second place on the stage. Only the explosiveness of the winners could with them in the final meters.
The day started with the leaders, Matt Beers and Christopher Blevins, marking the step Both opened up a gap, but after km 60, Blevins began to collapse. Let’s not forget, here the real performance is always marked by the theoretical ‘number 2’ of the couple. The wind, with gusts of up to 90 km/h, added even more hardness and epic to a route that did not let up, full of ups, downs and singletracks. “It was very hard, the wind made it very difficult. The wind made us fall two or three times, but we kept fighting. In fact, the whole race was a fight today. When we felt like we had a chance, we gassed up to the end. It was a great way to win the stage”, explained Rabensteiner at the end of the stage.
The resolution of it was vibrant. With about 20 km to go, Egger, reigning champion along with Baum, began to have cramps, which left the great favorites eliminated for the battle for the stage. On the final descent, the Scott-SRAM team and Wilier Pirelli took the lead over Andreas Seewald and Martin Stosek, other of the great candidates for the final triumph, but it was Rabensteiner and Alleman who were the most skilful in the final turn that led to the finish line. The differences, minimal between the first four couples in the general, but from there, all are more than 6 ‘. In the top-10 they remain, as best Spanish couple, David Valero and Pablo Rodríguez: ninth, at 9:37 from the leaders. In the female category, double prize for the local couple formed by Amy Wakefield and Candice Lill: victory and lead. Second were the current champions, Sofía Gómez and Katerina Nash, although they are more than 5′ behind.
General Cape Epic (M) | Stage 1
1st Schurter / Frischknecht (Scott-SRAM MTB Racing) – 5h 04:55
2nd Egger / Baum (Orbea x Leatt x Speed Company) – at 57″
3rd Seewald / Stosek (Canyon Northwave MTB) – 1:27
General Cape Epic (F) | Stage 1
1st Wakefield / Lill (e-FORT.net) – 4h 57:46
2nd Gómez / Nash (NinetyOne-Songo-Specialized) – at 5:24
3rd Le Court / Looser (e-FORT) – 10:45
