![\"ccs-62657-0-51645400-1458052343.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-62657-0-51645400-1458052343.jpg\")
<\/a>Annika Langvad & Ariane Kleinhans of Spur-Specialized win stage 2 of the 2016 Absa Cape Epic Mountain Bike stage race from Saronsberg Wine Estate in Tulbagh, South Africa on the 15th March 2016. Photo by Gary Perkin\/Cape Epic\/SPORTZPICS<\/span><\/p>\nFor much of the stage, the 100th in the race\u2019s history, the Spur-Specialized pair bided their time in third place behind the Sport for Good\u2019s Sabine Spitz and Yana Belomoina and Sally Bigham and Adel Morath of Topeak Ergon. Significantly, Kleinhans and Langvad remained ahead of the erstwhile race leaders, Robyn de Groot and Jennie Stenerhag of Ascendis Health and by the time the South African-Swedish pair arrived back in Tulbagh, their 58 seconds lead had turned into a three minute, 17 second defecit.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels amazing to be back in the orange jersey,\u201d said a beaming Kleinhans. \u201cThis morning I was confident we could do something but when Sabine and Yana went ahead on the first climb I thought it was going to be a long day. I knew I couldn\u2019t go at the pace that they went up so we decided to keep it really consistent and I remembered from 2011 that the last climb goes into a long descent and is quite technical \u2013 I thought that\u2019s where we could decide it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spitz and Belomoina were the protagonists in establishing the pecking order for the day, by laying down a marker that only Bigham and Morath initially followed, up the wagon trail out of Tulbagh onto the Witzenberg mountains. Spitz revealed that their tactics were formulated because of their experience on Monday\u2019s Stage 1.<\/p>\n