{"id":16956,"date":"2017-03-19T18:10:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-19T18:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/2017\/03\/19\/bust-boks-and-borrowed-bikes-at-absa-cape-epic-r6303\/"},"modified":"2023-02-08T07:05:00","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T07:05:00","slug":"bust-boks-and-borrowed-bikes-at-absa-cape-epic-r6303","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/bust-boks-and-borrowed-bikes-at-absa-cape-epic-r6303\/","title":{"rendered":"Bust Boks and borrowed bikes at Absa Cape Epic"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is probably no surprise to find some of the biggest names in cycling at the Absa Cape Epic mountain bike event this week, but there are also a host of other stars of the sporting world trying their hand at conquering the grueling eight-day event.<\/p>\n

\"ccs-62657-0-46595500-1489946730.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Jenny Rissveds & Thomas Frischknecht takes the mix win during the Prologue of the 2017 Absa Cape Epic Mountain Bike stage race held at Meerendal Wine Estate in Durbanville, South Africa on the 19th March 2017. Photo by Dominic Barnardt\/Cape Epic\/SPORTZPICS<\/span><\/p>\n

Both the men\u2019s and women\u2019s Olympic mountain bike champions, a Tour de France champion, a winner of 14 Grand Tour stages and cycling world champions are joined at the event by World Rugby Cup winners, record-breaking cricket and canoeing stars and a member of the crew that completed the fastest row across the Atlantic.<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly Olympic men\u2019s champion Nino Schurter and partner Matthias Stirnemann are lying second overall after the opening Prologue on Sunday, and the women\u2019s gold medal winner in Rio, Jenny Rissveds, is leading the mixed category with mountain biking legend Thomas Frischknecht.<\/p>\n

\"ccs-62657-0-88870600-1489946842.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

George Hincapie and Cadel Evans of BMC ABSA Racing during the Prologue of the 2017 Absa Cape Epic Mountain Bike stage race held at Meerendal Wine Estate in Durbanville, South Africa on the 19th March 2017. Photo by Nick Muzik\/Cape Epic\/SPORTZPICS<\/span><\/p>\n

Also predictable was the fact 2011 Tour de France winner Cadel Evans and his partner, Tour de France stage winner George Hincapie, finished without too much drama as third team in the Dimension Data Masters Category.<\/p>\n

And after 14 Grand Tour stage winner Joaquim \u201cPurito\u201d Rodriquez and his Spanish teammate, former World mountain biking champion Jose Hermida cruised home, Rodriquez said it was great to do something new.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am looking forward to the adventure of it, and most looking forward to discovering a new type of cycling. I am excited to see how it is here because I have never been to South Africa.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a totally new adventure for me. I haven\u2019t done anything like this in the last 20 years. Living in a motorhome, always talking, always talking with friends and even talking on the trails\u201d — and with Hermida there is sure to be lots of good-natured banter.<\/p>\n

But the non-cycling sports stars did not always have things their own way on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The kicker of the 1995 Rugby World Cup-winning drop goal, Joel Stransky, crashed heavily and is out the race.<\/p>\n

\"ccs-62657-0-56834500-1489947037.jpg\"<\/a>Shane Chorley and John Smit during the Prologue of the 2017 Absa Cape Epic Mountain Bike stage race held at Meerendal Wine Estate in Durbanville, South Africa on the 19th March 2017. Photo by Dominic Barnardt\/Cape Epic\/SPORTZPICS<\/span><\/p>\n

2007 RWC winning captain John Smit, said he \u201chad no issues\u201d on Sunday, a relief after he \u201chad all his issues\u201d on Saturday when he crashed in a pre-race warm-up ride and rode the opening stage with a few roasties on his right leg.<\/p>\n

Seven-time Dusi winner Martin Dreyer had some personal issues of his own to deal with thanks to his early start time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI Just want to thank the Epic for putting me in a whole world of pain by sending my wife off two minutes behind me,\u201d he said with his tongue firmly in his cheek after finishing a couple of minutes behind his wife, Jeannie, and her partner Sam Sanders.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was horrible waiting for her to pass me. It was much better once she gave me the smug look she always does when she passes me”.<\/p>\n

For Martin Dreyer and his partner Adam Foster the night before the Prologue was also far from the ideal, relaxed evening resting that he wanted before eight days of intense mountain biking.<\/p>\n

\"ccs-62657-0-91497200-1489946955.jpg\"<\/a>Adam Foster and Martin Dreyer during the Prologue of the 2017 Absa Cape Epic Mountain Bike stage race held at Meerendal Wine Estate in Durbanville, South Africa on the 19th March 2017. Photo by Greg Beadle\/Cape Epic\/SPORTZPICS<\/span><\/p>\n

Foster, to use Dreyer\u2019s canoeing terminology, \u201cwrapped his bike\u201d shortly after registering on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was completely my own fault,\u201d said Foster after finishing the prologue. \u201cAt the hotel I was driving the camper van with a bike trailer at the back. I could not see the trailer and as I turned to get out of the parking lot, my bike\u2019s wheel scraped against a small wall and broke the bike almost in two.\u201d<\/p>\n

After putting out calls and pleas on social media to everybody they could think of to try and find a replacement bike, \u201cWe ended up borrowing a bike from George Todd, the CEO of Merchant. He luckily had just had it serviced.\u201d<\/p>\n

Obviously there was nothing wrong with the bike — Forster\u2019s time was 21 minutes faster than last year for the Prologue.<\/p>\n

Riaan Manser, best known for his extreme adventures, including a record-breaking row across the Atlantic with his wife Vasti, cycled with a stranger after a competition to find him a partner and was relieved that all went \u201cwith no problems\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was worried. You always worry when you have never ridden with your partner and you don\u2019t know how it will go. But it was perfect and we got on well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is probably no surprise to find some of the biggest names in cycling at the Absa Cape Epic mountain bike event this week, but there are also a host of other stars of the sporting world trying their hand at conquering the grueling eight-day event. Jenny Rissveds & Thomas Frischknecht takes the mix win […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":37046,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[76,24],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-16956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-absa-cape-epic","tag-cape-epic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16956","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=16956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16956"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=16956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}