March 20/18 20:50 pm - Cape Epic Stage 2

Posted by Editoress on 03/20/18
 

Annika Langvad and Kate Courtney collected their third win in three days in the Women's category of the Absa Cape Epic over the 106km out-and-back Stage 2 from Robertson. The pair won by over four minutes, extending their lead to a daunting six and a half minutes over Team Spur's Ariane Lüthi and Githa Michiels.

While the leaders are turning this into a one-team procession, the dice roll for second remains undecided with the Spur pair edging out Mariske Strauss and Annie Last (Silverback-KMC) by the narrowest of margins after a tense sprint on Tuesday's stage. Their tussle for podium places left Michiels lying prone on the finish line at the end of the stage and glassy-eyed as she prepared for the podium presentation.

Cannondale Factory Racing's Manuel Fumic and Henrique Avancini took Stage 2 by a narrow margin of just 2 seconds.

Their winniing effort was not without drama however… The pair experienced a mechanical early in the stage but the back-up team of Markus Kaufmann and Jodok Salzmann were on hand to assist with a rear-wheel change – a move that would ultimately keep them in third position on the general classification.

After putting in a serious effort to get back to the leading pack, Jaroslav Kulhavy and Howard Grotts looked poised for their first stage victory after breaking away on a technical section about 15km from the finish. Kulhavy would unfortunately suffer a second puncture and with it, surrender all hopes of snatching the yellow jersey away from Cannondale Factory Racing.

"Today we were let down by mechanicals," said Grotts." We were set for a good stage and did everything right. It was just so frustrating to be in the front and then lose time. I was riding over my limit when we chased back – now I just need to recover well."

Raphael Gagne and partner Martin Gluth (Silverback OMX) finished 11th on the stage at 4:46 back and sit 16th overall at 23:38 back.




Results

Previous

Prologue and Stage 1