{"id":15606,"date":"2019-01-23T13:25:00","date_gmt":"2019-01-23T13:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/2019\/01\/23\/luthi-joins-kross-to-race-alongside-wloszczowska-in-2019-cape-epic-r7683\/"},"modified":"2023-02-08T05:31:08","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T05:31:08","slug":"luthi-joins-kross-to-race-alongside-wloszczowska-in-2019-cape-epic-r7683","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/luthi-joins-kross-to-race-alongside-wloszczowska-in-2019-cape-epic-r7683\/","title":{"rendered":"L\u00fcthi joins Kross to race alongside W\u0142oszczowska in 2019 Cape Epic"},"content":{"rendered":"

The three-time UCI Women\u2019s category and two-time Virgin Active Mixed category Absa Cape Epic winner, Ariane L\u00fcthi has joined Kross Racing<\/a> for the 2019 season. At the untamed African mountain bike race she will partner, two-time Olympic Silver Medallist, 2010 XCO and 2003 XCM World Champion, Maja W\u0142oszczowska; as the pair go in search of victory for Kross-Spur Racing.<\/p>\n

\"ccs-62657-0-48946700-1548249827.jpg\"<\/a>Ariane L\u00fcthi.<\/span><\/p>\n

L\u00fcthi\u2019s palmar\u00e8s makes her one of the leading women\u2019s marathon and stage racers in the world. With eight Absa Cape Epic starts to her name \u2013 to go with the five titles, won in consecutive years across two categories \u2013 there is nobody with more experience to guide W\u0142oszczowska through her first attempt at the race. Not that the Polish former Cross Country World Champion will need much guidance. She did, after all, finish third at the 2018 XCM World Championships and second at the 2018 European XCM Championships adding to the marathon world title she won as a twenty-year-old in Lugano, Switzerland, in 2003.<\/p>\n

How the untested team will fare at the Absa Cape Epic remains to be seen. Both L\u00fcthi and W\u0142oszczowska are exceptionally positive as they embark on the new partnership. \u201cWell, when I saw that Jolanda Neff was leaving the team, I took a leap of faith and asked Maja [W\u0142oszczowska] if she would be keen to race the Absa Cape Epic with me\u201d L\u00fcthi explained, as to how the team came about. \u201cMaja responded very positively to my message and that\u2019s when the wheel started turning. I\u2019m incredibly honoured to be racing with such an accomplished rider, as Maja is, and to have the world class support of Kross Racing Team at this demanding race.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pair, despite racing each other a number of times over the years, only met recently. \u201cI\u2019ve met Maja and the team during my training camp in Spain. I am now capable of pronouncing Maja\u2019s surname right but otherwise my Polish hasn\u2019t improved much yet, unfortunately. Team Manager, Kornel Osicki, made it easy for me to feel comfortable in the new set up. I like his sense of humour already\u201d says the Swiss XCM Champion.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\"ccs-62657-0-74046200-1548249821.jpg\"<\/a>Maja W\u0142oszczowska<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
\n\"ccs-62657-0-82140600-1548249825.jpg\"<\/a>Ariane L\u00fcthi<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

For W\u0142oszczowska the Absa Cape Epic is a prestigious event and having an experienced teammate alongside her was key to her decision to make her debut in the race. \u201cIt is the race you need to do at least once in a lifetime,\u201d W\u0142oszczowska stated. \u201cDuring last year\u2019s Absa Cape Epic it became something like the Tour de France for road cycling or IRONMAN for triathletes in my eyes. If you win it you are a hero. Actually\u2026 once you finish it you become a hero\u201d she smiled.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course I heard also that it\u2019s the hardest race you can do. But about that I try to forget\u201d the Polish XCO Champion laughed. She then elaborated: \u201cAs I like challenges I decided to pick up this one; especially when I got the opportunity to ride together with three-time winner, Ariane L\u00fcthi. I believe that thanks to her I can avoid many \u2018beginners\u2019 mistakes. The biggest challenge is to race through eight days, without health of technical problems and to get the best possible recovery in between the stages. Ariane [L\u00fcthi\u2019s] experience will be priceless. I also find her as the best partner according to the pace. We raced against each other last year at Marathon World Champs and European Champs. On both races I was just slightly in front of Ariane. I hope I can help her a lot in first part of the race and then she can help me survive the second. But of course not only surviving is what we aim for\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"ccs-62657-0-19511300-1548249828.jpg\"<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Maja W\u0142oszczowska<\/span><\/div>\n

Along with Kross Racing the team will have the support of Spur Steak Ranches for the 2019 Absa Cape Epic. After three years representing Team Spur L\u00fcthi will continue as an ambassador for the Spur School\u2019s Mountain Bike League, despite the team dissolving at the end of 2018. L\u00fcthi and, former teammate, Alan Hatherly will seek to inspire the next generation of South African mountain biking stars to chase their dreams by attending Spur Schools League events.<\/p>\n

Though L\u00fcthi is Swiss she spends roughly six months of the year training and racing in South Africa, and has become a mainstay of the Stellenbosch mountain biking community. The Kross-Spur Racing rider is thus thrilled by the opportunity to race on a particular section of the 2019 route: \u201cI am especially excited that we\u2019ll ride in Jonkershoek – I do a lot of my training in this beautiful nature reserve and know the trails from the back of my hand.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The three-time UCI Women\u2019s category and two-time Virgin Active Mixed category Absa Cape Epic winner, Ariane L\u00fcthi has joined Kross Racing for the 2019 season. At the untamed African mountain bike race she will partner, two-time Olympic Silver Medallist, 2010 XCO and 2003 XCM World Champion, Maja W\u0142oszczowska; as the pair go in search of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":28336,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[304,24,466],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-15606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-ariane-luthi","tag-cape-epic","tag-maja-wloszczowska"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15606"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=15606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}