Bart Brentjens and Abraao Azevedo (CST Sandd A. Eagle AAZ) made full use of the misfortune of leaders Massimo Debertolis and Ondrej Fojtik (Wilier Force 7C 2) to claim the blue jersey as leaders in the Dimension Data Masters category at the Absa Cape Epic on Thursday.
Starting the day, Brentjens and Azevedo – who have won this category three times as a team and once more each with other partners – were a massive 18 minutes off the pace in third position in the category.
At the end of the 113km stage from Worcester to Wellington they had overturned that deficit and go into Friday’s 39km time-trial with a solid eight minute lead over Debertolis and Fojtik, with the Australian pair of Brad Clarke and Rohin Adams (Mornington Cycles / TRush ) just 24 seconds further back.
Massimo Debertolis and Ondrej Fojtik of team Wilier Force 7C 2 during stage 4 of the 2018 Absa Cape Epic Mountain Bike stage race from HTS Drostdy in Worcester to Huguenot High School in Wellington, South Africa on the 22nd March 2018. Photo by Andrew McFadden/Cape Epic/SPORTZPICS
While Brentjens and Azevedo enjoyed a near-perfect ride into Wellington, Debertolis and Fojtik had to struggle with punctures throughout the stage. Debertolis eventually finished with his tyre cable-tied to the rim after they were finally unable to re-inflate the tyre.
“When Massimo had the first puncture, normally I would think it was just another flat tyre,” said Fojtik. “But I think the hole was in the wrong place and it was not easy to repair.
“We put air in again and again using gas canisters, and then we used the pump also but it was just a bad day for us.
“There are three more stages and we will fight for the blue jersey again.”
The overnight leaders were not the only ones who struggled with punctures. Nic Lamond from team Podium-Today’s Plan also suffered and he and partner Paris Basson had to work extra hard to catch their rivals.
“We ripped a tyre to pieces and had to stop at one of the Scott tech zones and fully change the tyre. We had just caught (George) Hincapie and (Christian) Vande Velde and then had to make up about five minutes on them again.”
The professional road stars Hincapie and Vande Velde are lying fourth in the Dimension Data Masters category with Lamond and Basson four minutes behind them in fifth.
Lamond said Brentjens and Azevedo broke away from the rest of the group in some tricky sections within the first few kilometres of the stage.
“They got away in the sand. It was so hard to get a rhythm with guys falling all over the place and putting their feet in your spokes … it was total chaos. There is no momentum to riding like that and so in a group if one team can get away and get some momentum then they can go away and get a nice lead.”
In the Grand Masters category, Rob Sim and Udo Boelts (Robert Daniel) were pleased to reassert their authority after losing a huge chunk of time with mechanical issues on Stage 3 on Wednesday.
“That was a hell of a lot better than yesterday,” said Sim with a smile on his face after crossing the line almost ten minutes ahead of second placed Barti Bucher and Hans Juerg Gerber (Meerendal CBC 2), who won Wednesday’s stage. “Yesterday, about 500m from the start Udo went through a string of thorns and we used all our bombs trying to reinflate his tyre but too much of the sealant must have also leaked out. We then had to push really hard at the end of yesterday.”
“Today I was worried my legs would be sore from yesterday but it was fine and we had a great stage today.”
Sim and Boelts are now 19 minutes ahead of Bucher and Gerber with Andrew Mclean and Joel Stransky (Cycle Lab KTM) third, 37 minutes further behind.
