{"id":18506,"date":"2016-03-17T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-17T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/2016\/03\/17\/only-5-seconds-in-it-after-race-long-dual-among-top-women-r4386\/"},"modified":"2023-02-08T08:32:15","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T08:32:15","slug":"only-5-seconds-in-it-after-race-long-dual-among-top-women-r4386","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/only-5-seconds-in-it-after-race-long-dual-among-top-women-r4386\/","title":{"rendered":"Only 5 seconds in it after race-long dual among top women"},"content":{"rendered":"

Only five seconds separated Spur-Specialized and Sport for Good at the finish of Stage 4 of Absa Cape Epic, with the race leaders being on the right side of that difference \u2013 thanks to a superior finish.<\/p>\n

\"ccs-62657-0-13008600-1458219416.jpg\"<\/a>Team Spur Specialized’s Annika Langvad and Ariane Kleinhans during stage 4 of the 2016 Absa Cape Epic Mountain Bike stage race from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in Wellington, South Africa on the 17th March 2016. Photo by Ewald Sadie\/Cape Epic\/SPORTZPICS<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cToday was slightly less painful,\u201d exclaimed Kleinhans before revealing that Langvad was the main protagonist in the day\u2019s final act.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnnika is such a great partner. Today\u2019s stage was really about teamwork and she was really awesome and made the difference when we dropped Topeak Ergon. Then, it was really great racing with Sport for Good. Coming into the finish, which was a little bit different to yesterday, she was motor-pacing me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Langvad, for her part, wasn\u2019t going to let the Sport for Good pair of Sabine Spitz and Yana Belomoina take the stage win without a fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew they wanted to go for the stage win but it was in our interests too, so I asked Ariane that if she\u2019s up for a sprint finish then I am too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two teams rode within touching distance of each other for the majority of the 75km stage out and back from CPUT Wellington, during which positioning was important in and out of the famous Welvanpas trails.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust after Water Point 2 they got away from us,\u201d said Kleinhans. \u201cWe weren\u2019t worried, but we didn\u2019t know whether we would be able to close the gap\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ccs-62657-0-82993000-1458219654.jpg\"<\/a>Annika Langvad & Ariane Kleinhans of Spur-Specialized leads Sabine Spitz & Yana Belomoina of Sport for Good during stage 4 of the 2016 Absa Cape Epic Mountain Bike stage race from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in Wellington, South Africa on the 17th March 2016. Photo by Gary Perkin\/Cape Epic\/SPORTZPICS<\/span><\/p>\n

Former Olympic gold medallist Spitz said she had enjoyed today\u2019s stage: \u201cIt was cross-country style so it was a nice fast one. We tried to make some nice moves, especially when we left the water point before Ariane and Annika. There was a flat section after that and they closed the gap and caught us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spitz and Belomoina continued racing close to Kleinhans and Langvad thereafter, but the Swiss-Danish pair proved unbeatable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are both strong, so we are very satisfied with second place today. In the closing stages I said to Yana that it\u2019s better to stay behind them because they know the route. It was going to be easier to follow their path through the corners and save energy by not having to concentrate as hard,\u201d said Spitz.<\/p>\n

Asked about her first experience of the Absa Cape Epic, Spitz said there had been moments on the first stage when she couldn\u2019t see too well because of all the dust, \u201cbut I\u2019ve loved the last three stages\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked if she would like to come back and win the race, Spitz laughed: \u201cMaybe \u2026 why not?\u201d.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, after two days of suffering in the searing heat, Spitz\u2019s Ukrainian partner felt much more in her comfort zone in the mild conditions riders were greeted with on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday was a very good day for me \u2013 all stage I still had energy and my legs felt good so it was fun racing with everybody. It was good weather for me, not so hot, so it was much better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite matching Spur-Specialized blow-for-blow, Spitz and Belomoina remain in third place overall, behind Topeak Ergon\u2019s Sally Bigham and Adel Morath. The English-German pair came home third on the day, but over five minutes behind the leading pair and are now 12.49 behind Kleinhans and Langvad overall.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were some nice trails out there but we were pretty much on our own the whole day after losing contact with the first two teams on the first climb. At times we closed the gap, but not enough to be in contention so we saved ourselves a little bit,\u201d said Bigham.<\/p>\n

\"ccs-62657-0-12701800-1458219776.jpg\"<\/a>Sally Bigham [R] Adel Morath [L] during stage 4 of the 2016 Absa Cape Epic Mountain Bike stage race from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in Wellington, South Africa on the 17th March 2016. Photo by Sam Clark\/Cape Epic\/SPORTZPICS<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was nice to have a shorter stage today as it gave us a bit more time to eat, stretch and look after ourselves; especially because tomorrow is a long stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morath, for her part, arrived back at CPUT Wellington in far better spirits than she had the previous day.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy knee was sore again today but I enjoyed my time on the bike, it was a very nice stage but it\u2019s frustrating losing time to the other teams.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friday is a transition stage that will see the riders cover 93km from Wellington to Boschendal Wine Estate in Stellenbosch but with 2 500m of climbing, it is billed as the toughest stage of this year\u2019s Absa Cape Epic \u2013 the Queen stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur main focus is the the orange jersey, not stage wins, so we might take it safe tomorrow,\u201d concluded Kleinhans.<\/p>\n

Stage Results<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Spur-Specialized 50-1 Annika Langvad (Denmark) 50-2 Ariane Kleinhans (Switzerland) 3:41.16,8
2. Sport for Good 54-2 Yana Belomoina (Ukraine) 54-1 Sabine Spitz (Germany) 3:41.22,3 +5,5
3. Topeak Ergon 53-1 Sally Bigham (England) 53-2 Adel Morath (Germany) 3:46.38,8 +5.22,0<\/p>\n

Overall Results<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Spur-Specialized 50-1 Annika Langvad (Denmark) 50-2 Ariane Kleinhans (Switzerland) 20:46.56,2
2. Topeak Ergon 53-1 Sally Bigham (England) 53-2 Adel Morath (Germany) 20:59.45,7 +12.49,5
3. Sport for Good 54-2 Yana Belomoina (Ukraine) 54-1 Sabine Spitz (Germany) 21:07.33,9 +20.37,7
4. Meerendal Wheeler 52-1 Esther Suss (Switzerland) 52-2 Catherine Williamson (England) 21:48.48,8 +1:01.52,6
5. Galileo Risk 55-1 Theresa Ralph (South Africa) 55-2 Yolandi du Toit (South Africa) 22:54.55,3 +2:07.59,1
6. Meerendal Rocky EBE 56-1 Hielke Elferink (Netherlands) 56-2 Elisabeth Brandau (Germany) 23:00.35,8 +2:13.39,6
7. Energade Racing 202-1 Dalene van der Leek (South Africa) 202-2 Sharon Laws (England) 23:09.34,6 +2:22.38,4
8. Asrin Cycling 71-1 Janka Keseg Stevkova (Slovakia) 71-2 Sandra Santanyes Murillo (Spain) 23:16.58,6 +2:30.02,4
9. Liv – MTB Pro 59-1 Muriel Bouhet (France) 59-2 Merce Pacios Pujado (Spain) 26:00.29,3 +5:13.33,1
10. Speed Structures 68-1 Marleen Lourens (South Africa) 68-2 Nicky Giliomee (South Africa) 27:16.14,3 +6:29.18,1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Only five seconds separated Spur-Specialized and Sport for Good at the finish of Stage 4 of Absa Cape Epic, with the race leaders being on the right side of that difference \u2013 thanks to a superior finish. Team Spur Specialized’s Annika Langvad and Ariane Kleinhans during stage 4 of the 2016 Absa Cape Epic Mountain […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":43828,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[76,24,2985,2997],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-18506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-absa-cape-epic","tag-cape-epic","tag-sport-for-good","tag-spur-specialized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18506","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=18506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18506"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=18506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}