Seewald and Stošek grab first leg of Cape Epic

On the day when battle for the title of the Absa Cape Epic was truly entered into after the early warning shots of the first-day prologue on Sunday, Monday’s first stage offered little certainty as to who would win this year. 

German Andreas Seewald and Czech Martin Stošek of Canyon Northwave looked controlled and composed to win the 92km first stage on what was a day that was far from composed and controlled in the field behind them.

So, too, was the women’s race, a topsy-turvy battle won by Sofia Gomez Villafane (Argentina) and American Haley Batten (NinetyOne-Songo-Specialized), who are now the overall leaders. 

In the men’s category, Canyon Northwave now lead by almost three-and-a-half-minutes from Hans Becking and Jose Dias (BUFF-MEGAMO) with Fabien Rabensteiner and Wout Alleman (Wilier-Pirelli) third. 

It was a day when multiple world champion and former Epic winner Nino Schurter and Lars Forster (Scott-SRAM) struggled with punctures for the second day in row.

Maxine Marotte and Keegan Swenson (Santa Cruz), Becking and Dias, Fabien Rabensteiner and Wout Alleman (Wilier-Pirelli) took their chances, putting time into prologue winners and defending champions Matt Beers of SA and Christopher Blevins (Toyota-NinetyOne-Specialized).

Beers struggled with illness and was just holding on: “I’m not sure what happened. My stomach was giving me issues all day and I couldn’t keep any food down. It was just one of those days. There was no option to quit; I just need to ride my way back into it from tomorrow.” 

Seewald, the mountain bike marathon world champion, and Stošek went hard up Saddle Climb and never looked back. “We had no real concrete plan to attack the big climb, it just worked out that way,” said Seewald. “We wanted to inflict some damage there, but we didn’t say we could get away from everyone. We said we would go hard and then the rest of the riders would catch us later.

“But things went our way with some of the teams struggling with mechanicals. We got a bit lucky, but once we were in front we just kept pushing on to the finish. It feels good to take the stage.” 

“It was super hot, dry and dusty out there,” said Becking. “We knew we needed to get in front on the descents so we could actually see. It was very technical; it was a brutal Cape Epic stage, not like last year where everything felt super smooth. Still, we had a good ride and we are very happy with second on the day and overall.” 

Gomez Villafane and Batten will know their lead on the orange jersey is tentative. They had to fight off SA’s Candice Lill and Mariske Strauss and also launched on the Saddle Climb. Ariane Lüthi and Amy Wakefield (Symbtech ZA) led for a spell, which some say is a sign of things to come.   

“Oh my gosh, that was such an intense race,” said Batten. “You want a tight race rather than winning too easily, but that was so close. We got a bit lucky with Symbtech ZA struggling with mechanicals. But that happens. That’s the kind of racing that makes an event exciting. Ariane and Amy really put on a great show; when they came past us on that steep climb I said to myself ‘it’s game on now’. I really had to mentally dig in to chase back.” 

“Today we went out with a clear strategy,” said Wakefield, who then struggled with a puncture to Lüthi’s tyre. “Ariane was in charge of the pacing; she said we must just watch the watts and focus on our own pace. It worked so well because soon we started catching and passing teams. On the Saddle Climb, we pulled away and just kept riding at our own rhythm.”