Epic day to celebrate for prologue winners Beers and Blevins

As he stood on the podium waiting for the official presentation after the prologue of the Absa Cape Epic at the Meerendal Wine Estate on Sunday, Nino Schurter, had his hands on his hips, his lips tweezer thin, his thoughts on what might have been and what is to come.

Schurter and his Scott-SRAM teammate, a fellow Swiss in Andri Frischknecht, had finished second on the opening day of the 19th Cape Epic by just 7sec behind South African Matt Beers and his American partner Chris Blevins (Toyota-Specialized-NinetyOne). Perhaps they could have pushed a little more on the long vineyard climb? Perhaps a few less tail whips as Schurter flew over jumps could have made up the time? No matter. They will be second and only just going into Monday's first stage in Hermanus.

For Beers and Blevins, however, it was a day to celebrate leading the Epic from the front. They were power and precision as they emulated their prologue win from 2022 on the 27km course. They finished third overall in 2022. Beers, who won in 2021, and Blevins know that it will not take much for the tweezer lips of Schurter, the 10-time cross country world champion and two-time winner of the Epic, to morph into a smile once the race proper is engaged.

“It’s a long race,” said Blevins when asked about the importance of starting the first stage in the leader’s yellow jersey. “We’re not taking anything for granted. We’re going to race like we have something to prove and not like we are defending. We’re going to stay resilient. There’s a lot of racing left.”

Blevins was full of praise for his tall partner, in a roundabout way: “He belongs in a barn with those other farm animals because he’s a horse. He was ripping the flats and then I think we recovered really well on the Toyota Tough descent and were able to keep it strong towards the second half.”

“We keep it between the limit and safety [on the downhill sections],” said Beers. “I think we did a great job. Chris really knows how to manage me. He perhaps knows how to manage me better than I know myself. It’s amazing in a partner.”

Beers is, as the SA marathon champion, naturally a local favourite. Describing himself as a “basic dude who just likes riding a bike”, Beers was cheered up the first climb by children from the Songo social development programme in Kayamandi, for whom the team rides to raise awareness and funding. “Those were the best cheers,” said Blevins. “That was incredible.”

On Monday, around Hermanus, they will expect to be challenged by defending champions Georg Egger and Lukas Baum (Orbea-Leatt), who were third on Sunday, 45sec back. However, he will be keeping a close eye out for Vincenzo Nibali, winner of the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana, and Samuele Porro, who was third in the 2019 Epic. The pair, riding as “Italian Friends” finished ninth on Sunday and, despite Nibali’s lack of mountain bike experience, could surprise a few teams.

Seven seconds also separated the leading teams in the women’s category on Sunday. Argentinian Sofia Gomez Villafane, the defending champion, and her new partner, Katerina Nash (NinetyOne-songo-Specialized) took the win ahead of the Mauritia-Namibia team of Kim le Court and Vera Looser (Efficient Infiniti Insure). South Africans Amy Wakefield and Candice Lill were third, 30sec back.

“I think that start [of the prologue] is pretty savage,” said Gomez Villafane. “You can burn a lot of matches and I got really excited because we started to pass the first team on the first climb. Katerina had to tell me: ‘Hey, back off a bit.’ On the first descent, she started leading and I was following her. The amount of dust there was incredible. She put easily about 20sec on me. Had I gone on the line next to her we could maybe have had a bit more of an advantage.”

Stage one of the Epic could see a swing in fortunes for the leading teams. With 2,500m of climbing over 98km, much of which is on single-track limestone trails around Hermanus, it could set up the leader board for the rest of the week. Schurter’s tweezer lips may be smiling come Monday.