Cape Epic Stage 5 – Leaders stay strong to take time trial wins, barely

The winners look familiar, but the stage was far from straight forward in South Africa

Terry McKall March 23, 2018

Jaroslav Kulhavy and Howard Grotts of Investec Songo Specialized celebrate winning stage 5 of the 2018 Absa Cape Epic Mountain Bike stage race Photo by Shaun Roy/Cape Epic/SPORTZPICS

In the context of the Cape Epic, Friday’s 39km team time trial sounds like a short day out. What the stage lacked in length it more than made up for with 1430m of elevation gain sandwiched in and around some of the weeks most technical single track sections so far. Combined with GC races that are anything but settled, and the 39km time trial starts to sound more like a sprint than an easy day between the Epic’s longer stages.

Men’s Race

Just over five minutes separated the top three men’s teams on the general classification at the start of the day, but that was set to change. After surviving pressure over the previous two stages, but not yet coming out with a win, the Investec Songo Specialized duo were looking to take a stage win. Cannondale Factory racing, on the other hand, were in for a day of suffering after their failed attack a day earlier.

Reigning marathon world champion Alban Lakata and his partner Kristian Hynek (Canyon Topeak) were the beneficiaries of Cannondale’s struggle, leapfrogging the struggling duo into second. “We did not expect to have such a good day after yesterday’s suffering,” said Lakata. Not satisfied to move up a step on the podium, Lakata stated the duo still have their sights set higher: “We are still in it to win it and the next two stages suit us – more climbing, less flats.”

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South Africa, before and after another demanding day, 40k TT with 1450m climbing ???. Strong ride 17th and holding onto 13 in overall. Best singletrack day so far. Avant et après le contre la montre de 40km et 1450m d'ascencion, outch. 17e et toujours 13e au cumulatif. Encore 2 étapes devant nous. @prologo.official @silverbackbikes @omxproteam #omxproteam #silverbackbikes #silverbackomxproteam

A post shared by Raphaël Gagné (@raphaelgagne) on Mar 23, 2018 at 5:21am PDT

Canada’s Raphaël Gangé and his race partner Martin Gluth had another consistent day, finishing 18th on the stage and maintaining their overall position in 13th. The Silverback OMX Pro Team duo are now just 1 minute 30 seconds back of KMC-Ekoi-SR Suntour’s Jordan Sarrou and Victor Koretzky in 12th.

Kate Courtney & Annika Langvad during stage 5 of the 2018 Absa Cape Epic Photo by Ewald Sadie/Cape Epic/SPORTZPICS

Women’s Race

On the Women’s side, Investec Songo Specialized pair continued their dominance, but not without a reminder from Ascendis Health that the race is a long way in, but still far from over. A resurgent Sabine Spitz and Robyn de Groot pushed to finish within 12.5 seconds of the leading pair, after being up over 30 seconds at the half way point.

Undefeated in her previous three Cape Epic appearances, Langvad admitted that her and Kate Courtney were confident with their lead going into the last two stages, but echoed Lakata’s sentiment that the race is far from over. “One of the proper challenges of this race is to concentrate all the time,” said Langvad. “Eight days is a long, long time and just the tiniest little mishap and everything can be gone in the blink of an eye.”

Langvad and Courtney head into the seventh of eight stages, a 76 km stage with another 2000m of climbing, with a healthy margin over Spitz and de Groot in third, and the Silverback-KMC duo in second.