There was a changing of the guard and a re-investment of an old king at the Absa Cape Epic after the windy, dusty opening prologue at the Meerendal Wine Estate yesterday.
Karl Platt, a four-time champion, and his partner Urs Huber won the first prologue stage of his long history with the race, while Robyn de Groot and Jennie Stenerhag, the South African and Swedish combination, were quicker than defending champions, Ariane Kleinhans and Annika Langvad.
Platt and Huber, the German-Swiss pairing, set up their attempt at Platt’s record-equalling fifth win and Huber’s first, with a storming ride on the 26km opening sprint of the 654km route. They were a minute and two seconds quicker than Swiss Nicola Rohrbach and German Matthias Pfrommer and a further eight seconds ahead of Italians Samuele Porro and Damiano Ferraro. James Reid and Gert Heyns were the quickest South Africans in fourth at 1:34 behind.
Men's podium: @Selle_San_Marco third, @centurionvaude @meerendalwine in second + @TeamBulls first #8DaysOfCourage pic.twitter.com/CYlFopWOJq
— Cape Epic (@CapeEpic) March 13, 2016
“I have never started better like that, I have never won the prologue,” said Platt. “We rode really well, the conditions were very hard out there, there was a lot of wind and no shadows to hide in. We had decided before not to to go big on some climbs. We didn’t go crazy, and it worked out for us. We had something left at the end. The real Epic starts (today). The prologue was just a bit of show off.
“For sure, I want a first win with Urs. Together, we have tried for three years together and have had bad luck. This year we want to make it our year.”
“It was crazy windy out there,” said Huber. “It was from the side, so we can’t relax behind the others, but we didn’t go hard from the start. We didn’t have too much time to speak to each other or to think.”
De Groot and Stenerhag have just 18 seconds on Kleinhans and Langvad, with Sabine Spitz and Yana Belomoina 1:17 behind the leaders. Today’s first stage could tell just how strong the South Africans are.
“I didn’t think we were going that well, actually. I was quite surprised when we came in so strongly,” said De Groot. She and Stenerhag finished second behind Kleinhans and Langvad last year. “We just rode within ourselves.”
“We didn’t plan anything, we just wanted to do our best. We both had some patches of suffering and some patches of feeling really good, and they didn’t happen at the same time which was a really good thing,” said Stenerhag.
“I’m really pleased for Jennie and Robyn,” said Kleinhans. “It’s good to see how far they have come.” - The Star