Crashes don’t faze Epic leaders

Crashes in both the leading teams at the Absa Cape Epic could not unseat either from the top of the overall standings, but the top men did have their lead more than halved during Thursday’s 43km time trial stage at Oak Valley.

Minor crashes for Annika Langvad from Investec-songoSpecialized, the leading women’s category team, and Manuel Fumic from Cannondale Factory Racing, did not result in any physical injuries, although Fumic damaged his bike and now he and partner Henrique Avancini are likely to face a tough battle to hold their lead in Friday’s 100km Queen Stage.

Langvad and Anna van der Breggen collected their fifth win from five stages despite Langvad sliding off the trail at one point when she lost concentration.

The pair of World Champions added another 1:44 to their lead over Candice Lill and Adelheid Morath (Summit Fin) and now lead the women’s category by more than 25 minutes while Ariane Lüthi and Maja Wloszczowska (Kross-Spur Racing) are 33 minutes off the leaders in third.

While the women’s race is turning into a fight for second, the battle for the men’s category overall lead is building to an exciting grand finale and the two leading teams are sure to be looking for every second they can find on Friday’s ride from Oak Valley to Stellenbosch.

Fumic crashed within 3km of the start and damaged his suspension lockout system, leaving the German with no rear suspension for the remainder of the 43km race against the clock.

The Cannondale Factory Racing pair still ended second on the day, but lost 88 seconds to the Stage 4 winners, the Scott-SRAM MTB-Racing pair of Nino Schurter and Lars Forster.

Fumic and Avancini held on to their overall lead but now only have a tenuous advantage of just 73 seconds with three stages and 259km of tough racing remaining.

There was a change in the minor placings with Damiano Ferraro and Samuele Porro (Trek Selle San Marco) moving into third, nine minutes and 50 seconds behind the leaders, but just 13 seconds ahead of fourth-placed Urs Huber and Simon Stiebjahn (BULLS Heroes).

Competitors face a tough 100km with 2,850m of climbing on Friday.