{"id":18517,"date":"2016-03-16T15:25:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-16T15:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/2016\/03\/16\/homework-pays-off-for-lill-and-woolcock-r4370\/"},"modified":"2023-02-08T08:32:49","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T08:32:49","slug":"homework-pays-off-for-lill-and-woolcock-r4370","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/homework-pays-off-for-lill-and-woolcock-r4370\/","title":{"rendered":"Homework pays off for Lill and Woolcock"},"content":{"rendered":"

The USN Purefit outfit of Darren Lill and Waylon Woolcock confirmed on Stage 3 of the Absa Cape Epic that they are the African team to beat this year.<\/p>\n

\"ccs-62657-0-54212600-1458141624.jpg\"<\/a>Darren Lill of Team USN Purefit leads the chasing group during stage 3 of the 2016 Absa Cape Epic Mountain Bike stage race held from Saronsberg Wine Estate in Tulbagh to the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in Wellington, South Africa on the 16th March 2016. Photo by Nick Muzik\/Cape Epic\/SPORTZPICS.<\/span><\/p>\n

Coming home in an impressive seventh place on the 104km stage from Tulbagh to Wellington, Lill and Woolcock opened up a 15-minute gap on their nearest rivals for the Absa African Special Jersey. They now sit sixth in the overall standings after three stages of the 2016 Absa Cape Epic.<\/p>\n

With four stages to go, Gawie Combrinck and Nico Bell (NAD Pro MTB), 12th on Stage 3 and in 10th position in the overall standings for the race, will have to pull out all the stops to prevent Lill and Woolcock from finishing the race as the best African team at this year\u2019s Epic.<\/p>\n

For a third day running, Team USN Purefit looked calm and comfortable as they crossed the finish line. A small mechanical \u2013 a flat on the first climb of the day \u2013 forced them to lose sight of the leading group, but the pair remained unflustered and cruised home in another impressive display of controlled riding.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were going along nicely, just in touch with the lead group until we had to stop for a quick repair,\u201d said Lill. \u201cAfter that we pulled along with Team Topeak Ergon, who worked really hard on the day, and we made contact with the lead bunch at Bain\u2019s Kloof Pass.\u201d<\/p>\n

Woolcock says the Dolomiti Superbike team of Periklis Ilias and Tiago Ferreira pulled the bunch up Bain\u2019s Kloof, allowing a number of teams to enter into the forest together. \u201cAt this stage we decided not to push and just went at our own pace. It had been a good day up until that point, so we wanted to ride safely \u2013 as safely as you can at the Cape Epic \u2013 to the finish.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judging from their performance and smiles, Lill and Woolcock have a plan and it\u2019s working for them. Woolcock admits that going into this Cape Epic they put in a huge amount of groundwork in terms of preparation and research.<\/p>\n

\"ccs-62657-0-79088300-1458141915.jpg\"<\/a>Nico Bell and Gawie Combrinck of NAD Pro MTB during stage 3 of the 2016 Absa Cape Epic Mountain Bike stage race held from Saronsberg Wine Estate in Tulbagh to the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in Wellington, South Africa on the 16th March 2016. Photo by Nick Muzik\/Cape Epic\/SPORTZPICS<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe worked really hard before the race,\u201d said Woolcock. \u201cWe did more core work than we\u2019d ever done before and focussed a great deal on improving our skills and fitness. As former roadies we will never match the technical ability of the mountain bikers who have been riding since childhood, so we worked on our skills a lot this year.<\/p>\n

The pair also spent time researching the mechanical aspects of mountain biking. \u201cWe looked at what parts were the most durable and what best suited the racing for the Cape Epic. We made more informed choices about equipment and looked into what would best aid our race. Of course, nothing is unbreakable, but it was important spending the time to look into every aspect of the race.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a commanding lead and three confidence-building stages behind them, Lill and Woolcock appear to have found the recipe for success at the 2016 Absa Cape Epic.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll just keep going along,\u201d says Woolcock. \u201cAnything can happen here. But right now we are feeling good.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The USN Purefit outfit of Darren Lill and Waylon Woolcock confirmed on Stage 3 of the Absa Cape Epic that they are the African team to beat this year. Darren Lill of Team USN Purefit leads the chasing group during stage 3 of the 2016 Absa Cape Epic Mountain Bike stage race held from Saronsberg […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":43869,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[76,24,2641,2762,962],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-18517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-absa-cape-epic","tag-cape-epic","tag-darren-lill","tag-usn-purefit","tag-waylon-woolcock"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18517","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=18517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18517"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=18517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}