Cape Epic duo bag hat-trick

Oak Valley Estate in Elgin is an icon of the Absa Cape Epic and Tuesday’s racing will once again be immortalised in the annals of the race’s history as Nino Schurter and Lars Forster completed a hat-trick of stage wins.

While this is not the first time this feat has been accomplished, it is a first for the decorated Schurter.

The Scott-SRAM MTB-Racing team won in a time of 3:37.41 to extend their overall lead over Cannondale Factory Racing to more than four minutes.

“I thought I could do well, but not this well,” Forster said at the finish. “This is amazing.” The 25-year-old was visibly ecstatic with his debut Absa Cape Epic performance to date.

“He will just get better,” his senior partner Schurter said.

“This [stage win] was not planned, but we are very happy with the hat-trick.”

However, the team did not have it all their own way.

As is tradition, by this point in the race the general classification contenders have started to settle and tend to watch each other, leaving teams who have already lost time on GC to make moves for stage honours.

KROSS-SPUR – who finished second – clearly had that goal on Tuesday.

Sergio Mantecon Gutierrez of KROSS-SPUR said: “Yesterday, we had some mechanical troubles, but now we will try for stage wins.

“Today, we were very close and will keep fighting for that because we felt good.” Indeed, they were good. Going to the front early into the 90km stage from Hermanus to Oak Valley, at the top of Rotary Drive, the first climb of the day, the early pressure meant gaps appeared in the front bunch.

At 20km the lead bunch was reduced to 10 teams.

This group featured all the main protagonists, but by the top of The Machine climb it had been blown apart, with both Schurter and Cannondale Factory Racing’s Henrique Avancini revving their engines to put the heat on.

At the old Houw Hoek pass climb, some 65km in, it was clear the winner would come from the front group of ScottSRAM MTB-Racing, Cannondale Factory Racing, KROSSSPUR or Trek Selle San Marco.

The lead changed hands a few times as the teams felt each other out, but then Schurter and Forster’s decisive move came on a steep climb into Oak Valley.

KROSS-SPUR fought valiantly to close the gap but were unable to do so.