{"id":17124,"date":"2017-02-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-02-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/2017\/02\/08\/2017-field-includes-the-best-marathon-racers-in-the-world-r6112\/"},"modified":"2023-02-08T07:13:20","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T07:13:20","slug":"2017-field-includes-the-best-marathon-racers-in-the-world-r6112","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/2017-field-includes-the-best-marathon-racers-in-the-world-r6112\/","title":{"rendered":"2017 field includes \u201cthe best marathon racers in the world\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s going to be the strongest Absa Cape Epic field yet and the racing should be thrilling.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image\" href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-58780-0-69160000-1486558796.jpg\" data-fileid=\"894531\" data-fileext=\"jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-fileid=\"894531\" class=\"ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed\" alt=\"ccs-58780-0-69160000-1486558796.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-58780-0-69160000-1486558796.jpg\" title=\"\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the word from the world\u2019s top marathon riders as they prepare for March\u2019s eight-day challenge. Speaking at a Cape Town press conference Wednesday several of the race favourites were looking forward to a mighty battle.<\/p>\n<p>Defending champion and five-time winner Karl Platt of Team Bulls predicted that the racing would be \u201ceven more exciting than previous years\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have the best marathon racers in the world coming to the race,\u201d commented American Jeremiah Bishop of Topeak Ergon.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"w-full aspect-video\">\n<div><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"200\" height=\"113\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YMxLyvSrA34?feature=oembed\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Austrian strongman Alban Lakata and his Topeak Ergon teammate Kristian Hynek of the Czech Republic will be among the favourites. Lakata pointed to several possible contenders for the title: \u201cJaro (Kulhavy) and Susi (Christoph Sauser) are super strong. The Bulls guys know how to win it. The Scott guys are very good at descending and Nino (Schurter) has a lot of experience.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut it is best to win a race against this sort of competition,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Hynek said he was looking forward to racing in such a quality field: \u201cI like it. Having Christoph coming back will give the race another dynamic. We\u2019ll have to be stronger than ever before.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Five-time Epic winner Sauser\u2019s return from retirement with Kulhavy (Investec Songo Specialized) of the Czech Republic has been the major talking point of the pre-Cape Epic season. The Swiss rider said he was \u201cvery happy with my comeback\u2026 I\u2019ve been surprised how well I\u2019ve done and I am super motivated\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image\" href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-58780-0-55091300-1486558779.jpg\" data-fileid=\"894528\" data-fileext=\"jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-fileid=\"894528\" class=\"ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed\" alt=\"ccs-58780-0-55091300-1486558779.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-58780-0-55091300-1486558779.jpg\" title=\"\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>An indication of the level of competition as that seven of the men\u2019s teams will bring support or back up teams \u2013 more than ever before in the 14 years of the Absa Cape Epic. They will be on hand to assist the big guns with mechanical or other issues on the trails and sometimes to even hand over parts off their bikes.<\/p>\n<p>Sauser and Kulhavy, Platt and Urs Huber (Bulls), Lakata and Hynek, world and Olympic champion Schurter and Matthias Stirnemann (Scott-SRAM), Damiano Ferraro and Samuele Porro (Trek Selle San Marco), Jochen Kaess and Markus Kaufmann (Centurion Vaude) and Max Knox and H\u00e9ctor Leonardo P\u00e1ez (Kansai Plascon) will all have backup teams in the race.<\/p>\n<p>Asked about the role of support teams in the Absa Cape Epic, Hynek said: \u201cThey are super important. I would say having a backup team is crucial.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This year will also see the debut of a support team in the women\u2019s category, where defending champion Ariane L\u00fcthi of Switzerland and her new partner, German Adelheid Morath, (Team Spur) will bank on backup from Frenchwoman Sabrina Enaux and Belgian Alice Pirard.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"w-full aspect-video\">\n<div><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"200\" height=\"113\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RhqZEgVJ5QY?feature=oembed\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>L\u00fcthi will have her work cut out making it a fourth successive win (all three previous race she won with Dane Annika Langvad). She and Morath will have to see off challenges from mountain bike legend and former Olympic gold medallist Sabine Spitz of Germany and her South African partner Robyn de Groot (Ascendis Health) as well as the formidable Swiss\/Swedish combination of Esther S\u00fcss and Jennie Stenerhag (Meerendal CBC).<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image\" href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-58780-0-44569900-1486558781.jpg\" data-fileid=\"894529\" data-fileext=\"jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-fileid=\"894529\" class=\"ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed\" alt=\"ccs-58780-0-44569900-1486558781.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-58780-0-44569900-1486558781.jpg\" title=\"\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe racing is going to be very competitive and I think it is going to a good category to watch,\u201d said De Groot.<\/p>\n<p>L\u00fcthi said: \u201cWe are pleased to have two very strong backup riders \u2026 they are very, very strong riders. It\u2019s going to be a really exciting race.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s going to be the strongest Absa Cape Epic field yet and the racing should be thrilling. That\u2019s the word from the world\u2019s top marathon riders as they prepare for March\u2019s eight-day challenge. Speaking at a Cape Town press conference Wednesday several of the race favourites were looking forward to a mighty battle. Defending champion [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":37780,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[76,24],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-17124","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\/17124","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=17124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17124"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=17124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}