On a day when a backmarker had his bike chewed by a lion, Philip Buys and Matthys Beukes put in a lion-hearted performance to become the first South Africans to win a stage in the 2015 Absa Cape Epic.
Buys and Beukes (Scott Factory Racing) attacked early on yesterday’s 111km fourth stage of the Cape Epic, staying away to the end to claim a rare victory in what is turning out to be one of the toughest Epics yet.
The stage began and ended in Worcester, the capital of the Breede River Valley, once a land that was a hunter’s paradise.
A rider near the back of the field found there was still wild game about after he left his bicycle beside a fenced lion enclosure. One took a liking to his bike, bit the handlebars and ripped half the left grip off.
Buys and Beukes took the African jersey for the first riders from the continent home on the day. Part-time Stellenbosch resident Christoph Sauser, of Switzerland, and his Czech teammate, Jaroslav Kulhavy, held on to the overall lead of the race for team Investec-Songo-Specialized.
“We went hard from the start,” said Buys. “I said to Matthys that I couldn’t hold the pace for another three hours, so we backed off. But then I started feeling better and the gap just kept growing.”
The South Africans built up their lead to a convincing six minutes before the general classification riders began to hunt them down over the final three climbs.
Kristian Hynek, who won the Epic last year with partner Robert Mennen, has teamed up with Austrian Alban Lakata (Team Topeak-Ergon), and took second place, riding in at the same time as Sauser and Kulhavy, three-and-a-half minutes down. They remain in second place, seven minutes and 21.8 seconds behind the leading pair.
As with the third stage, yesterday was tough on bikes and riders, with long sandy stretches, thorns and tyre-slicing rocks, which worried Sauser. ”At one stage I could see more thorns in my tyre than tyre,” he said.
The Spanish-Dutch combination of former world champ Jose Hermida and Rudi van Houts (Multivan Merida) is third overall, while German Karl Platt and Switzerland’s Urs Huber of Team Bulls, are now fourth after struggling on Wednesday’s transition stage.
Defending women champions Ariane Kleinhans and Annika Langvad (Team RECM Specialized) dominated the fourth stage, coming home over 20 minutes ahead of Jennie Stenerhag and Robyn de Groot (Team Ascendis Health). Esther Suss and Alice Pirard (Meerendal Wheeler) were third, with South Africans Jeannie Dreyer and Theresa Ralph (RBS) third.
The fifth stage is a 117km romp from Worcester to Wellington, with 2 500m of climbing. - The Star