The Cape Epic happens each year in South Africa, taking riders through 700Km of landscape with nearly 15,000 metres of climbing. We’ve been bombarded with some very long press releases from various sources today; here are podium results and some of the bits that stick out.
Overall Results Men:
1. SCOTT-SRAM MTB Racing 5-1 Nino Schurter (Switzerland) 5-2 Matthias Stirnemann (Switzerland) 26:35.06,5
2. Investec-Songo-Specialized 3-1 Christoph Sauser (Switzerland) 3-2 Jaroslav Kulhavy (Czech Republic) 26:43.13,9 +8.07,4
3. Centurion Vaude 2 16-1 Nicola Rohrbach (Switzerland) 16-2 Daniel Geismayr (Austria) 26:54.41,3 +19.34,8
Overall Results Women:
1. Meerendal CBC 52-1 Esther Suss (Switzerland) 52-2 Jennie Stenerhag (Sweden) 31:39.43,7
2. Hansgrohe Cadence OMX Pro 54-1 Mariske Strauss (South Africa) 54-2 Annie Last (England) 32:15.03,0 +35.19,3
3. Ascendis Health 51-1 Sabine Spitz (Germany) 51-2 Robyn de Groot (South Africa) 32:26.46,0 +47.02,3
Jennie Stenerhag reportedly wept after winning on Sunday, as almost exactly a year ago she was having heart surgery (We’d show you their victory picture, but unfortunately the press photo archive they sent us a link to has more watermarks than Gormenghast and doesn’t allow downloads without filling in a contact form for each photo. You can see one in this gallery on their site though).
(Photo by Shaun Roy/Sportzpics)
Each year since 2012, the Exaaro jersey has been presented to the fastest, historically disadvantaged South African team in which both riders are under 26. This year, Phillimon Sebona and William Mokgopo won and will be spending eight days training at an elite academy in Belgium. More details on the Cape Epic website.
Courtesy of World of Freesports, there are also a couple of videos, firstly in landscape flavour:
(Video not there? Follow this link).
And a winners montage:
(No video showing? Try this link).
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Worth mentioning that women’s winner Esther Süss is 43 years old. Incredible athlete.
Cape area is brilliant for cycling generally. For a couple of years I’ve taken my ‘cross bike there to ride the Cape Argus (109 km around the Cape Peninsula, closed roads, ocean on the left & mountains on the right, what’s not to like?) & done an MTB race on it the week before. Amazing riding – didn’t win of course but didn’t come last either. Last year I also did some big gravel loops around Greyton (about 100 miles east of Cape Town) for training & that was brilliant too. Apropos which, Vanilla Cafe in Greyton has best milkshakes on the planet, & a steak @ The Nelson’s Eye in Cape Town is the perfect pick-me-up after finishing the Cape Argus. Climbed Table Mountain 2 days later. Would recommend it to anyone, there’s something there for you whoever you are. Hash tag perfect holiday.