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Mixed Team Extends Lead, Schurter 2nd

Mar 22, 2017 | News | 0 comments

Jenny Rissveds and Thomas Frischknecht celebrate their third win at this year`s Cape Epic, while Nino Schurter and Matthias Stirnemann got beaten at the Finish line.
Caledon, South Africa. As the temperature climbed in the high 30s at the Absa Cape Epic for the third day in a row, any grumbles about shortening today`s Stage 2 to 62km instead of 102km from Hermanus to Elandskloof near Greyton melted away and was replaced by chatter about the hot racing up front.

Nino Schurter speeding with team mate Matthias Stirnemann on the shortened stage 2 from Hermanus to Caledon, South Africa.
Photography: Michal Cerveny & Jochen Haar

The shortened distance of today`s stage meant nothing to the elite men’s field as they cranked up the heat on what essentially became a long, fast cross-country course. No surprise, you`ll find almost all of the World Cup Cross-Country Elite Riders in the lead group at this year`s Cape Epic. “It was indeed like a XC race today, very fast and with quite a few attacks. We were some of the first ones who sped up in the first climb and got away with Manuel Fumic and his partner, and distanced the others even more after the long, nice singletrack downhill”, Nino Schurter of SCOTT-SRAM MTB Racing says.

The second half of the race turned out to be a speedy roller coaster on dusty fire roads. Jaroslav Kulhavy and Christoph Sauser were first in a sprint over the line, with Schurter and Matthias Stirnemann just behind in second. Overall leaders, Manual Fumic and Henrique Avancini finished third on the day, but hold an almost three-minute lead over Sauser and Kulhavy in the race for the 2017 title.

Jenny Rissveds and Thomas Frischknecht managed to extend their lead today in the Mixed Category to 3mins 30secs. Jenny was also the first woman who arrived at today`s stage, even before the first UCI Elite women’s teams. “Yesterday was extremely tough, but today Jenny had fresh legs again. We managed to get away in the singletrack sections and caught up with a bunch of fast rolling guys just after. Let`s hope tomorrow`s stage won`t be too brutal”, Team Manager Thomas Frischknecht says.

Stage 3 is a 78km / 1650m climbing circular route of the area surrounding Greyton and Genadendal that starts and finishes at Elandskloof.