Photo credit: Mark Sampson.Absa Cape Epic. Sportzpics.<\/span><\/p>\nHe is fired up by joining Team Bulls and riding a new bike this year: \u201cIt\u2019s a big motivation. Changes like new equipment, new teammates and support can give you an extra boost. Especially for an older \u2013 or let\u2019s say more experienced \u2013 guy like me,\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n
Team Bulls will this year also have a second team that has the potential to reach the top step of the podium and a third riding as support (to hand over, say, wheels if one of the leaders gets a puncture). Former winner Urs Huber of Switzerland \u2013 he won with Platt in 2016 \u2013 will be teaming up with the talented Simon Stiebjahn, who has finished third in the Absa Cape Epic.<\/p>\n
The support team will be Martin Frey and Simon Schneller, both from Germany.<\/p>\n
Steibjahn has ridden support for Platt and Huber for several years but will be hoping for at least a top three finish this year. Stiebjahn is renowned for his technical riding abilities and Huber is extremely powerful over marathon distances.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be wrong to come to the Epic with such a strong team \u2013 not only us riders but also the staff that work backstage \u2013 and not believe we can win the race,\u201d says Stiebjahn. \u201cBut we also know from our experience over the last years that a lot can happen during the eight days. So our goal is to fight for stage wins and at least stand on the podium in GC. For more, we also need that extra bit of luck.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m happy to have such a strong rider on my side,\u201d says Stiebjahn of Huber. \u201cWe raced for the very first time as a team together at this years TransAlp and it worked out perfectly. Winning five out of seven stages and finishing second overall was a good first race.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Lakata and Stiebjahn said their training was going well and they were aiming to arrive at the Absa Cape Epic start line in March in peak form.<\/p>\n
Stiebjahn is enthusiastic about the 2019 route: \u201cLike always the route looks hard because you have long stages with a lot of climbing and some short stages including a lot of technical singletrack. So yes, it will suit our riding styles, because we both like these combinations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lakata adds that \u201cthe route is similar as last year. In terms of profile and distance of the stages \u2026 and that will also suit us\u201d.<\/p>\n
Team Bulls have made it clear \u2013 they are arriving at the 2019 Absa Cape Epic with serious intent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Germany\u2019s Karl Platt has started every Absa Cape Epic since its inception in 2004 and won five times \u2013 a record of victories he shares with Swiss legend Christoph Sauser. Austrian powerhouse Alban Lakata has twice finished second \u2013 including in 2018 \u2013 and also bagged third, fourth, fifth and sixth over his 10 years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":28480,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[482,24,481],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-15629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-alban-lakata","tag-cape-epic","tag-karl-platt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15629","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=15629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15629"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=15629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"ccs-62657-0-66234500-1546535911.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-62657-0-66234500-1546535911.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Alban Lakata joins Team Bulls and will ride will Karl Platt at the 2019 Absa Cape Epic. Image from Bulls Bikes Facebook Page<\/span><\/p>\n