VISION FROM THE CAPE EPIC
There is no doubt that real mountain biking has come to stay at the Absa Cape Epic although the route might not suite everyone the excitement has been phenomenal.
The standard of the professional racing has gone up another bar and it was great to see Lakata and Evans take the first stage and the leader’s jersey. With Burry Stander bringing up virtually every movable object in his body over the first 2 days, the favourite Specialized Team was not firing on all guns. As they finished day 2, it seemed that Burry would be retiring from the race prematurely.
In fact team manager Bobby Behan came up early on Day 3 to withdraw Burry from the race as he felt that permanent damage might be done to his young star should he continue.
But miracles do happen in Africa from a very apprehensive Burry Stander in the start shoot on day 3 to a couple of hours later when he and now smiling Christoph Sauser came across the line in first place to announce that they were back in the race again.
Needles to say Burry is going to stay in the race and when I last saw him he was onto his 5th bowl of food, something he hadn’t been able to do, is eat over the last 3 days. As luck swung in the direction of Specialized it deserted the MTN Qhubeka Team of Evans and Lakata as Alban demolished his rear rim and run in the last kilometre. And Kevin was plagued by a slow puncture.
The lead has changed and the defending champions of Stephan Sahn and Karl Platt have taken over the lead after consistently finishing to the top each day. That’s great because you could never have to meet 2 nicer men in any sport, never complaining, never protesting but always looking on the bright side of life. It is a just reward for the defending champions.
Obviously the great media shows have taken their toll on managing Director Mark Le Roux as he is forced to take medicinal medicine every night, thank god for Red wine.
PAUL VALSTAR signing out
