With Jenny Rissveds/Thomas Frischknecht winning the Mixed Category and Nino Schurter/Matthias Stirnemann finishing 2nd in the Men`s Elite, the World’s No. 1 XC MTB Team proved to be a dominating outfit at this year`s Cape Epic prologue.
Meerendal, South Africa. The 2017 Absa Cape Epic got off to a blistering start in hot and dusty conditions at Meerendal Wine Estate. SCOTT-SRAM MTB Racing finished in 2nd place behind Manuel Fumic and Henrique Avancini with a 1.36 min gap. “That was a pretty good kick-off for my partner Matthias Stirnemann and me. It was freaking hot out there at the Prologue, no wind, dry and dusty. However, we managed to finish in second place”, says Olympic Champion Nino Schurter.
Nino Schurter and Matthias Stirnemann arriving in the finish at Meerendal in 2nd position.
Photography: Jochen Haar & Michal Cerveny
“We are here for stage wins and today just didn’t work out. Looking ahead to the rest of the week, we will target a few more stages and hopefully stick in the top three or four of the overall race. Our focus is not the overall win, but the podium is definitely a target”, Nino continues.
SCOTT-SRAM Young Guns with Michiel van der Heijden and Andri Frischknecht finished in 12th.
Rissveds and Frischknecht take the Lead in the Mixed Category
Olympic Champion Jenny Rissveds and her partner Thomas Frischknecht (SCOTT-SRAM Nextlevel) claimed the early lead and take a 1.44 min lead into the second day in Hermanus on Monday.
“We are used to ride together since we always ride the WC courses together and we know each other’s riding qualities well. We had a good strategy while passing people. I was leading in the descents and Jenny took the lead in the climbs. Super fun to be out there racing again!” says Thomas Frischknecht.
Thomas Frischknecht
Team Director, SCOTT-SRAM MTB Racing
“This was unexpected. We had some great fun out there, extremely hot but still fun. The track was tough but we enjoyed it. We had a great pace through the whole stage, feels super cool to get the win!”
Jenny Rissveds, Olympic Champion
Tomorrow the riders will tackle a 101km circular route, as the event moves to Hermanus for the first time since 2008. Stage 1 features 2300m of climbing.
The 2017 Absa Cape Epic mountain bike stage race is taking place until Sunday 26 March. A live-stream is provided at www.cape-epic.com
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