The Cape EPIC

24-04.-2006, 11:14 PM	#1
HowardSteele Registered User Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Tokai,CAPE TOWN,SA Posts: 511	The Cape EPIC The Cape EPIC endurance race Western Cape South Africa. Day one The 1 046 cyclists in the 2006 Cape Epic had a baptism of rain, mud and more mud on the first day of their eight-day mountain bike race that started in Knysna on Saturday. They were so dirty I'm sure even their mothers wouldn't have recognised them. It was raining when they started and raining when they finished and pretty much raining most of the time in between. As they pedalled across the finish line at Saasveld Agricultural College near George, after 129km, you couldn't even read race numbers on their bikes. The weather made the route so tough that the race organisers extended the cut-off time by an hour, which made it an 11-hour day for the slowest guys.

25-04.-2006, 04:27 PM	#2
HowardSteele Registered User Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Tokai,CAPE TOWN,SA Posts: 511	Re: The Cape EPIC Cape EPIC DAY 3 It was early in the third stage - 122km from Mossel Bay to Riversdale - of the eight-day 2006 Cape Epic mountain bike race and the riders were fresh and close together. Thomas Zahnd, who finished second yesterday with teammate Sandro Spaeth, explained that they don't need to take much food because they're riding "only for four and a half hours". "Just some energy bars, an inner tube and some spare parts. But for people who ride the whole day, they must take lunch and rainjackets and so on," Zahnd said. Karl Platt, of Germany, who finished first with teammate Carsten Bresser, described yesterday's race as "kind of relaxing, a day to recover", while Mannie Heymans of Namibia, who finished third with teammate Kevin Evans of South Africa, said having no rain and no headwind had made it a lot easier. Winning Masters team Gedden Ruddock of Franschhoek and Linus van Onselen of Stellenbosch had a tense moment close to the finish when they had to stop and tighten a crank just before the final sprint. Joerg Schneiderbauer and Anna Baylis-Schneiderbauer, who have won the mixed team every day, are an unusual couple. They are joined by a tow rope and are apparently well known for yelling at each other while racing, but never at home. Anna told one of the race organisers: "Yelling at him makes him stronger, I guess. But I hate to be yelled at, so I shout back. "But after we've crossed the finish line, all is forgotten." Published on the web by Cape Times on April 25, 2006.

26-04.-2006, 05:01 PM	#3
HowardSteele Registered User Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Tokai,CAPE TOWN,SA Posts: 511	Re: The Cape EPIC Stage 3 saw the tightest sprint finish in the history of The Cape Epic. In fact it was so tight that the race commissars had to analyze the television footage in order to determine the stage podium positions. Since the Absa Cape Epic is a team race, the time of the second rider in a team crossing the finish line is the time that determines the team’s performance. With a bunch of 20 riders sprinting down the finish chute and crossing the timing mats simultaneously it can get quite complex and the time keepers have to reconstruct the exact order of the finish line crossing to get accurate results. Today’s 122 kilometre long stage also saw some new faces on the podium. Karl Platt (GER) and Carsten Bresser (GER) celebrated their first stage win. Rocky Mountain was the first team to cross the time mats, followed by team Texner-Stoeckli with Sandro Spaeth (SUI) and Thomas Zahnd (SUI) and team adidas Raleigh with Mannie Heymans (NAM) and Kevin Evans (RSA). With wide gravel roads, rolling hills and ‘just’ 1800 metres of climbing the third stage of the Epic was fairly easy and more of a ‘road race’ in comparison to the two previous stages. It was fast and tactical and ensured the top pro riders all worked and rode together, changing pace and pushing each other on. All top teams defended their leader jerseys. “Today we started more relaxed and took an easy pace”, commented Karl Platt. “We were all riding in a big group. In fact we were going so slow that the group became bigger and bigger and we were joined by more and more amateur riders. That’s when we started to get a little bit nervous, because many of these guys are excellent mountain bikers but they don’t know how to move in a bunch. And that can actually be quite unfavourable. After all you don’t want to end a race because of a silly move resulting in a crash.” All top riders thought the same, thus they hit the gas in one of the climbs to get rid of the ‘dead weight’. “Not too long ago I was doing the same”, remembered Kevin Evans. “I was one of the amateurs who got excited if I could catch up with a top group. But I learned quickly that you must not ride all the way to the front if a few minutes later you get in the way and cannot keep up with the pace. You slow the others down, the riding is not consistent and doesn’t run smooth and it is also mentally frustrating if five or six guys have to do all the work and are dragging others along.”

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