Schurter/Frischknecht fight back for leader’s jersey

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What a relentless downpour at Cape Epic. The infamous mountain bike stage race in South Africa was so determined by rain and wind on the penultimate of eight days of competition that the section had to be shortened from 78 to 73 kilometers for safety reasons.

But these 73 km have it all. The German team Lukas Baum and Georg Egger have already been released from the yellow leader’s jerseys after a day in yellow. Switzerland’s Nino Schurter (36) and Andri Frischknecht (28) fought back for the lead in the mud.

And that despite Schurter having to pull out in the early stages of the race to support his ailing teammate. The Cape Epic is known to be raced in teams of two.

Defect stops German leader in the standings

But then Baum/Egger stops – faulty. The Germans lose a lot of time and are now suddenly 5:32.2 minutes behind Schurter/Frischknecht in the overall standings.

On the final Sunday, South African Matthew Beers (29) and American Christopher Blevins (25) are the closest Swiss rivals.

Beers and Blevins are actually the dominators with five stage wins in seven days, but have been chasing time loss from the first stage all week. Now they are only 1:32.4 minutes behind the Swiss.

At the finish on the Cape Epic channels, Frischknecht says, “Wow, that was super tough. In the beginning I had trouble keeping up the pace. When we overtook Lukas and Georg, the motivation to take back the yellow jerseys was there.”

Source : Blick