SA’s Pritzen and Swiss Stehli power to win on longest stage

On a day that many believed would end in a sprint finish, South African champion Marc Pritzen and his Swiss partner Felix Stehli (Honeycomb 226ers) pulled off an audacious victory on Stage 3 of the Absa Cape Epic over a fast 140km route from Montagu to Greyton on Wednesday.

The two pulled clear of the leading bunch of contenders on a rainy and muddy day to win in 4 hours, 19 minutes, 52 seconds - an average speed of 32.33km/h - over a course dotted with tar sections, single track and long gravel roads but with relatively little climbing of 1750m.

The Buff-BH team of Wout Alleman and Martin Stosek (Buff-BH) led home the chase group that included Luca Braidot and Simone Avondetto (Wilier-Vittoria), 1:10 behind the ecstatic winners.

Overnight leaders Matt Beers and Tristan Nortje (Toyota Specialized Imbuko) fought back from an early puncture to finish 2:26 behind the winners but relinquished their zebra-striped, yellow jersey to Braidot and Avondetto. The two are now 1 minute 14 seconds ahead of the South Africans.

In the women’s race, world marathon champion Kate Courtney of the US and her Italian teammate Greta Seiwald (She Sends Foundation) fought hard to try and open a gap over GC leaders Candice Lill and Alessandra Keller (Thömus Maxon Sabi Sabi).

But the South African Dutch team managed to bring back all their accelerations before eventually pulling clear to win their fourth stage in a row. As they have all week, the plucky She Sends outfit finished second and now trails by 4:53 in the overall.

In other notable results, current World XC champion Jenny Rissveds of Sweden and husband, Denmark’s Simon Andreassen, continued their domination of the Mixed category having won every stage of the race. They lead the GC by 23:27 ahead of Scott Brasil team, Gabriela Ferolla and Huge Neto.

Men’s Race

Over one of the longest stages in Absa Cape Epic history, the combination of tar roads, single track and gravel tracks made for a fast pace at the front of the men’s elite race. By halfway, the group included almost all the elite teams, and, with few climbs to break it up, the stage looked as if it would be decided by a sprint.

But Pritzen and Stehli were eager to upset the party.

With 40km to go the plucky Honeycomb 226ers team saw a lull in the pace and decided to attack the lead group that included almost all the favourites. The only notable exceptions were Beers and Nortje who were forced to chase for the second time in the week after a puncture to Nortje’s wheel at the 70km mark.

Pritzen and Stehli quickly opened up a lead of over a minute, which yo-yo’d as the chasing pack - which included the second-placed overall team of Braidot & Avondetto (Wilier-Vittoria) - tried to work together to bring the escapees back.

But with a strong tail wind pushing the riders towards the finish near Greyton, the gap never closed sufficiently, and they held on to win by an impressive 1:10. It was a first Epic stage win for both of them.

“It’s an incredible feeling to get a result here. It’s all we could have asked for,” said the 26-year-old. Pritzen. “We didn’t plan anything and were just racing instinctively. When we noticed hesitation in the group, with a split behind, we thought it would give us a chance to open up a quick 10 seconds. And it did.

“And then we had to time trail which and I knew that with the wattage I was putting out, the group behind was going to struggle to close it.”

Stehli, 25, made history by winning the stage on a bigger 32-inch wheeled bike. Standard mountain bikes have a 29-inch wheel, but Stehli believed that his bigger wheel size contributed to their victory.

“It’s ideal for these types of conditions. It just rolls well and helped me a lot today,” said the Swiss.

For the new yellow jersey holders, caution was key, despite the fast pace, and it reaped them the biggest reward.

“We didn’t really have a plan, but we are happy the way it turned out,” said Avondetto. “We always want to just stay with the front group and not have any mechanicals. It feels good to be in yellow now.”

Women’s Race

The women’s elite race, over 108km with 1450m of climbing, was tightly bunched for most of the first half before Courtney and Seiwald took the fight to the leaders and, at one stage, managed to open up a gap. But the overall leaders were able to pull back the accelerations every time, and like they did on Tuesday, finally pulled away with 10km to go.

“It was a pretty crazy day out there today,” said Lill. “It started off as a nice dry track but then it turned into a complete mud fest. Kate and Greta threw in some nice attacks, and we had to chase a few times. But we had the legs to pull it back.”

The She Sends Foundation team are now 4:53 behind the lead but was still upbeat about their performance.

“Conditions were formidable, but this is the Cape Epic,” said Courtney, pointing to her muddied legs. “But we were sending it out there and giving it everything.”

On Thursday, riders take on Stage 4 over 87km with 1750m of climbing. The women’s elite race is over 61km with 1450m of climbing.

RESULTS

Elite Men Stage

1. HONEYCOMB 226ERS: Marc PRITZEN & Felix STEHLI (4:19.53)

2. BUFF-BH Wout ALLEMAN Martin STOSEK (4:21.03 | 1:10)

3. WILIER-VITTORIA: Luca BRAIDOT & Simone AVONDETTO (4:21.03 | +1:10)

4. CANYON Luca SCHWARZBAUER & Sam GAZE (4:21.21 | +1:29)

5. TOYOTA SPECIALIZED IMBUKO: Matt BEERS & Tristan NORTJE (4:22.19 | 2:26)

Elite Men GC

1. WILIER-VITTORIA: Luca BRAIDOT & Simone AVONDETTO (12:39.28)

2. TOYOTA SPECIALIZED IMBUKO: Matthew BEERS & Tristan NORTJE (12:40.41 | +1:14)

3. KLIMATIZA ORBEA: David VALERO SERRANO & Marc STUTZMANN (12:41.57 | +2:29)