Hans Becking and Wout Alleman (Buff-Megamo) won stage one in the men’s elite race at the Absa Cape Epic and Anne Terpstra and Nicole Koller (Ghost Factory Racing) were winners in the Aramex Women’s category at Saronsberg Cellar in Tulbagh on Monday.
Both the men’s and the women’s races concluded with thrilling sprint finishes after a fair amount of cat-and-mouse in the closing kilometres.
Becking and Alleman, Low Country riders from the Netherlands and Belgium, respectively, are flying high at this year’s Cape Epic, with Alleman in thrilling form.
He was in complete command from start to finish, coolly guiding the team home in 3:38:48, two seconds ahead of Nino Schurter and Sebestian Fini (World Bicycle Relief).
As the four riders entered the home stretch, Alleman surged to the line with Schurter in hot pursuit.
Unfortunately for the World Bicycle Relief pair, Fini’s chain snapped, allowing Buff-Megamo to race over for a well-deserved stage win.
Schurter and Fini remain in the overall leaders’ yellow jersey, one minute and 10 seconds ahead of second-placed Toyota-Specialized-NinetyOne (Matt Beers and Howard Grotts) and 90 seconds ahead of third-placed Buff-Megamo.
“I’m super-happy with the stage win,” Becking said.
“Yesterday we started on a high with the podium and then after about 30km today I told Wout it was going to be a very good day for us
“We paced it well and it worked out perfectly. Nino and Sebastian were just too strong to drop though.
“Still, six days to go and I’m thrilled to already have two podiums in the pocket,” Alleman said.
In the women’s category, there was little to separate Ghost Factory Racing (Terpstra and Koller) and Cannondale Factory Racing (Candice Lill and Mona Mitterwallner) until the final few metres, though earlier in the day it appeared that a blockbuster finish was on the cards.
Until the 50km mark, it was neck-and-neck between the Ghost, Cannondale, Toyota-Specialized-NinetyOne (Sofia Gomez Villafane and Samara Sheppard) and Efficient Infiniti SCB SRAM (Vera Looser and Alexis Skarda) teams.
At one stage before the climbing, Villafane put in an attack, but Ghost and Cannondale both responded, with Lill charging into the front and staying there until the very end (even with a slight wrong turn in the closing kilometres).
With the finish at Saronsberg in sight, a two-team sprint finish loomed; Lill powered ahead, but Terpstra and Koller were again the stronger team on the day, claiming their second stage win in as many days.
They retain the overall orange leaders’ jersey in the Aramex Women’s category, with Lill and Mitterwallner only a minute behind.
Toyota-Specialized-NinetyOne, third-placed, now sit six minutes behind the leaders.
“We weren’t too sure what to expect today,” Terpstra said.
“It was very different being in orange, but I think all in all we did a really good job.
“We were on a very similar level with Cannondale. We did some more work in the beginning, and they did some more work in the end.
“We rode at our own pace in the beginning, then Cannondale were quite strong, but we made a bit of a gap at the end and had a very exciting finish.”
Ghost teammate Nicole Koller said: “It’s very cool to wear the orange jersey.
“Everybody wants to wear it and it gives us motivation and confidence going into the rest of the week.”
Stage two on Tuesday is another Saronsberg Cellar start and finish day, where participants tackle 97km and 2,200m of climbing.
The bulk of the stage will take place in the Witzenberg Valley, where the sandy and rocky terrain will test the abilities of the entire field. — Absa Cape Epic Team