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Stage 1 of the Cape Epic noticed the chief’s jersey change palms in each the boys’s and ladies’s elite races.
Within the girls’s race, NinetyOne-songo-Specialised’s Haley Batten and Sofia Gomez Villafañe received the stage and took over the GC. Within the males’s race, Andreas Seewald and Martin Stošek of the Canyon Northwave MTB workforce lead the GC after successful the stage.
Who to look at at this yr’s Cape Epic
The winners of Stage 1 within the @CMcom_ Ladies’s Class. Sturdy end! @WOOLWORTHS_SA #epicwomen pic.twitter.com/zm4I82ksOP
— capeepic (@CapeEpic) March 21, 2022
Stage 1 was the primary marathon stage of the 2022 Cape Epic. The 92 kilometer stage took in 2,850 meters of climbing. The day started with an enormous climb from Lourensford Wine Property to the heights of the Helderberg Mountains. Then, riders ripped across the Helderberg Trails singletrack earlier than essentially the most difficult climb of the day, Die Nek, which got here at round kilometer 45. Crossing Die Nek took the groups again into the Lourensford Trails, the place a last brutal climb and more difficult singletrack led to the stage end.
Warmth. Mud. Climbing. And extra climbing.
Immediately’s stage was nothing wanting brutal and it noticed the Ciovita chief jerseys change palms in each the Males’s and @CMcom_ Ladies’s class. Canyon Northwave MTB in yellow and NinetyOne-songo-Specialised is in orange. pic.twitter.com/5WLEdTA1Lx— capeepic (@CapeEpic) March 21, 2022
The second day of racing noticed each groups who received the prologue stage fall within the rankings, resulting from sickness. South African Matt Beers was tormented by abdomen sickness; he and accomplice Christopher Blevins completed twelfth on the stage, pushing them to seventh within the GC. Nino Schurter and Lars Forster had one other difficult day, as effectively, with Schurter puncturing once more and having to interchange his wheel.
Seewald and Stošek maintained a managed tempo by means of your entire day and have been capable of push back mechanicals and sickness.
On the ladies’s facet, Pauline Ferrand Prévot was additionally beset by sickness because of the warmth through the stage. The Frenchwoman mentioned on social media that she suffered “goosebumps, headache, small hallucinations” and that she had “by no means had a day like that in my complete profession.” She and accomplice Robyn de Groot completed fourth on the stage and are at present fourth general.
Within the girls’s subject, the day was characterised by tight racing between the highest three groups. Though Batten and Gomez Villafañe maintained an early lead, Gomez Villafañe began to falter going up the Die Nek climb. Right here, eventual second place finishers Ariane Lüthi and Amy Wakefield (Symbtech ZA) have been capable of get a niche of practically two minutes. Sadly, a late puncture for Lüthi allowed the Specialised riders to reclaim the stage. South African duo Candice Lill and Mariske Strauss completed third.
For a lot of groups, stage 1 offered a possibility to rise within the GC rankings. Santa Cruz riders Keegan Swenson and Maxime Marotte completed fourth on the day, bumping their general rank to 3rd. Schurter and Forster managed to climb to fifth place regardless of their two days of mechanicals.
On the ladies’s facet, Liv Manufacturing facility Racing’s Kaysee Armstrong and Sarah Hill jumped from ninth to seventh general.
Tuesday’s stage 2 will take riders on one other marathon day of driving — with 123 kilometers with 2,350 meters of climbing.
Full outcomes right here.
