Becking and Alleman sprint to stage 1 Epic victory

Hans Becking and Wout Alleman won stage one of the Absa Cape Epic on Monday, while Anne Terpstra and Nicole Koller were the first women home.

The route was a gruelling 88km with 2,450m of climbing in the mountains surrounding Tulbagh where the stage started and finished the Saronsberg Cellar.

The men’s and the women’s races both went down to the wire to produce thrilling finishes after attempted breakaways in the last few kilometres.

Beckin, from the Netherlands, and Belgian Alleman (Team BUFF-MEGAMO) are flying high at this year’s Epic, with Alleman in thrilling form.

Alleman was in command of the stage from start to finish, coolly guiding the team home in 3hr 38min 48sec, 2sec ahead of Nino Schurter and Sebestian Fini (World Bicycle Relief).

As the four riders entered the home stretch, Alleman surged to the line with Schurter in hot pursuit. But Fini’s chain snapped, allowing BUFF-MEGAMO to race over for the stage win.

“I’m super happy with the stage win,” said Becking. “Yesterday [Sunday] we started on a high with the podium and then after about 30km today I told Wout it was going to be a very good day for us. We paced it well and it worked out perfectly — Nino and Sebastian were just too strong to drop though. Still, six days to go and I’m thrilled to already have two podiums in the pocket.”

Alleman added, “I always tried to stay out in front of the racing today and managed that pretty well. In the beginning, the Speed Company guys went really hard up until the big climbs. We didn’t try to race them but rather just managed our pace. It takes me a bit longer to get going these days, but today I felt good all the way.”

Schurter and Fini remain in the overall leaders’ yellow jersey, 1:10 ahead of second-placed Matt Beers and Howard Grotts and 90sec ahead of third-placed Becking and Alleman.

In the women’s category, there was little to separate the Terpstra-Koller duo and Candice Lill and Mona Mitterwallner until the final few metres, though earlier in the day it appeared a blockbuster finish was on the cards.

Up until the 50km mark, it was neck and neck between the GHOST, Cannondale pair of Sofia Gomez Villafañe and Samara Sheppard and the Efficient Infiniti SCB SRAM team of Vera Looser and Alexis Skarda.

At one stage ahead of the climbing, Villafañe put in an attack, but Lill and Looser both responded, with Lill charging to the front and staying there until the end.

With the finish at Saronsberg in sight, a two-team sprint finish loomed; Lill powered ahead, but Terpstra and Koller were again the stronger team on the day, claiming their second stage win in as many days.

They retain the overall orange leaders jersey in the women’s category, with Lill and Mitterwallner only a minute behind in the general classification.

“We weren’t too sure what to expect today!” said Terpstra “It was very different being in Orange, but I think we did a really good job. We were on a very similar level with Cannondale — we did some more work in the beginning, and they did some more work in the end. We rode at our own pace in the beginning, then Cannondale were quite strong, but we made a bit of a gap at the end and had a very exciting finish.”

GHOST teammate Koller added, “It’s very cool to wear the Orange jersey. Everybody wants to wear it and it gives us motivation and confidence going into the rest of the week!”

Villafañe and Sheppard are third 6min behind the leaders.

Tuesday's second stage will again start and finish at the Saronsberg Cellar and riders can look forward 97km and 2,200m of climbing mostly in the Witzenberg Valley.