{"id":17189,"date":"2017-01-24T08:25:00","date_gmt":"2017-01-24T08:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/2017\/01\/24\/team-bulls-ready-to-give-it-horns-r6040\/"},"modified":"2023-02-08T07:16:54","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T07:16:54","slug":"team-bulls-ready-to-give-it-horns-r6040","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/team-bulls-ready-to-give-it-horns-r6040\/","title":{"rendered":"Team Bulls ready to give it horns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Winning the 2016 Absa Cape Epic was the \u201cbiggest feeling\u201d ever on mountain bike for Urs Huber, and now he and Team Bulls partner Karl Platt are determined to defend their title.<\/p>\n

\"ccs-62657-0-32670900-1485246296.jpg\"<\/a>Sam Clark. Cape Epic. Sportzpics.<\/span><\/p>\n

But if the pressure of going for a historic sixth Absa Cape Epic win is getting to Platt he is doing an excellent job of disguising it.<\/p>\n

As always, the German is full of laughs and says that \u201cwinning is always nice and that\u2019s why we race \u2026 but I\u2019m not putting myself under pressure because its number six\u201d.<\/p>\n

Instead he and Swiss teammate Huber are getting on with the sort of training that swept them to victory in 2016: \u201cWe are 100% on course and highly motivated to defend our title,\u201d Platt says. \u201cWe\u2019ve had no issues so far and looking forward to the last important prep during January and February.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPreparation is going well up to now and I’m doing it like last year,\u201d added Huber.<\/p>\n

And what do they think of the amazingly strong field that will be racing this year? \u201cWhich rivals? Are there any?\u201d laughs the Swiss strongman. \u201cNo I’m joking: for sure it’s an incredibly strong field but I am training hard and will do my preparation as well as I can. As a bonus, last year\u2019s race will give us big confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many new pairings and it is going to be very exciting,\u201d says Platt<\/p>\n

\"ccs-62657-0-16878600-1485246295.jpg\"<\/a>Nick Muzik. Cape Epic. Sportzpics.<\/span><\/p>\n

Platt and Huber make for a very effective partnership. The former has years of experience and has won the race five times, while the latter is exceptionally strong over marathon distances. They will also have the benefit of an excellent support team in Simon Stiebjahn and Tim B\u00f6hme, who have played this role for the past three years.<\/p>\n

Besides that experience, Stiebjahn and B\u00f6hme have the ability to stay with the front runners: in 2014 they finished third overall after Platt pulled out with a knee injury.<\/p>\n

This will be the fifth time Platt and Huber take on the Cape Epic and they are looking forward to riding in some different areas this year. \u201cIt’s interesting having some changes to the route for this year and by the time the race starts we will have been doing a lot of training in the region of Hermanus,\u201d Huber says.<\/p>\n

\"ccs-62657-0-83953000-1485246295.jpg\"<\/a>Nick Muzik. Cape Epic. Sportzpics.<\/span><\/p>\n

The race goes to Hermanus, Greyton and Elgin this year and Platt adds: \u201cI know Elgin very well \u2026 the other two places I will discover soon\u201d.<\/p>\n

They will both be on new Bulls dual-suspension bikes this year and are clearly relishing the prospect of a getting back on the start line.<\/p>\n

\u2018This race is a must on the list of every pro,\u201d Huber says. \u201cLast year\u2019s win was the biggest feeling I ever had in mountain biking and I’m still thinking about it every day,\u201d Huber says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like being in South Africa, doing all my preparation and the build up \u2026 enjoying the weather, the people, the trails, the food, the wine,\u201d Platt says.<\/p>\n

\"ccs-62657-0-47751100-1485246294.jpg\"<\/a>Nick Muzik. Cape Epic. Sportzpics.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Winning the 2016 Absa Cape Epic was the \u201cbiggest feeling\u201d ever on mountain bike for Urs Huber, and now he and Team Bulls partner Karl Platt are determined to defend their title. Sam Clark. Cape Epic. Sportzpics. But if the pressure of going for a historic sixth Absa Cape Epic win is getting to Platt […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":38111,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[76,24,481,87,752],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-17189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-absa-cape-epic","tag-cape-epic","tag-karl-platt","tag-team-bulls","tag-urs-huber"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17189","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=17189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17189"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=17189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}