{"id":18533,"date":"2016-03-15T12:45:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-15T12:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/2016\/03\/15\/centurion-vaude-take-absa-cape-epic-century-stage-r4355\/"},"modified":"2023-02-08T08:33:29","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T08:33:29","slug":"centurion-vaude-take-absa-cape-epic-century-stage-r4355","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/centurion-vaude-take-absa-cape-epic-century-stage-r4355\/","title":{"rendered":"Centurion Vaude take Absa Cape Epic century stage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stage 2 of the 2016 Absa Cape Epic, the 100th stage in the history of the event, was held in another hot, windless day in Tulbagh. The racing was fiery too, with the Team Bulls pair of Karl Platt and Urs Huber determined to scorch a path through the Witzenberg Valley.<\/p>\n

\"ccs-62657-0-70053500-1458045873.jpg\"<\/a>Nicola Rohrbach and Matthias Pfrommer of Centurion Vaude by Meerendal 2 celebrate winning stage 2 during 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 Shaun Roy\/Cape Epic\/SPORTZPICS<\/span><\/p>\n

For most of the day, everything went according to plan, but on a technical descent just 10km from the finish Huber punctured, allowing the unheralded newbies Nicola Rohrbach and Matthias Pfrommer of Team Centurion Vaude by Meerendal 2 to take the stage win in a time of 4:16.48,3.<\/p>\n

Third place for the stage went to the young Italian pair of Samuele Porro and Damiano Ferraro (Trek-Selle San Marco A).<\/p>\n

The winners on the day only came together as a team about a week before the event started, and even then they are participating here in support of Team Centurion Vaude by Meerendal\u2019s Hermann Pernsteiner and Daniel Geismayr. Pernsteiner, though, had a fall on Stage 1, which opened the door for Pfommer and Rohrbach to win a highly-coveted stage at the Absa Cape Epic.<\/p>\n

\u201cHermann had a crash yesterday,\u201d said Pfommer, \u201cso the plan was for him to start and then tell us that they would go on or if we must go on.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the stage\u2019s first serious climb, a near 20km trek up an old wagon trail over the Witzenberg mountain range, Pernsteiner realised he was in trouble, and so instructed the \u201cback-up\u201d team to race on. \u201cHermann and Daniel told us to go, so we did and we hit it full gas,\u201d said Pfommer.<\/p>\n

For much of the race there were four teams in the lead bunch, with South African pair Darren Lill and Waylon Woolcock (USN Purefit) mixing it up in the front for a while too, until a broken chain for Lill halted their momentum.<\/p>\n

\"ccs-62657-0-42833200-1458045952.jpg\"<\/a>Urs Huber during 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 Emma Hill\/Cape Epic\/SPORTZPICS<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAll day it was very tough and very technical, especially the middle part,\u201d said Rohrbach. \u201cBut eventually we caught the Bulls and the lead bunch. I think we were about 10 seconds behind the Bulls, but the plan was always to then push hard because Matthias and I are both very fast on the downhill. We passed them on the last descent, but also because they had a flat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crossing the line first, Pfommer and Rohrbach were ecstatic, punching the air and whooping with delight. \u201cWe are totally destroyed after that ride. But very happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the overall leaders, it was another successful, if slightly irritating day. \u201cIt was another hot stage, the weather and the racing,\u201d said Huber. \u201cThe long climb after 10km definitely woke us up, but then we were on to the trails that we knew quite well after riding in the Tankwa Trek recently. We were riding along very comfortably all day. Even though the puncture was annoying, it was a good day. But like always in racing, it could be better.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the pre-race favourites, Team Topeak Ergon Racing, endured another bout of bad luck, something of a recurring theme for Alban Lakata. After a good Stage 1, Lakata and Hynek would have expected to put more pressure on Team Bulls today.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for them, Hynek\u2019s shoe broke early in the racing. After trying, and failing, to fix it, they eventually had to wait for their back up team so Hynek could take Erik Kleinhans\u2019 shoe. Finishing in one red and one black shoe, the replacement also too small, Hynek said: \u201cMy foot is on fire, it\u2019s burning. When these things happen you always think the race is over, but we have to get over it because we don\u2019t know what will happen from here.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the race for the red Absa African special jersey, Lill and Woolcock remain in front, approximately five minutes ahead of Gawie Combrinck and Nico Bell (Team NAD Pro MTB). Bell and Combrinck finished eighth overall on Stage 2, with Lill and Woolcock finishing 12th.<\/p>\n

\"ccs-62657-0-79559900-1458045883.jpg\"<\/a>Photo by Shaun Roy\/Cape Epic\/SPORTZPICS<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stage 2 of the 2016 Absa Cape Epic, the 100th stage in the history of the event, was held in another hot, windless day in Tulbagh. The racing was fiery too, with the Team Bulls pair of Karl Platt and Urs Huber determined to scorch a path through the Witzenberg Valley. Nicola Rohrbach and Matthias […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":43914,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[76,24,2990,1600,738],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-18533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-absa-cape-epic","tag-cape-epic","tag-matthias-pfrommer","tag-nicola-rohrbach","tag-team-centurion-vaude"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18533","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=18533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18533"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=18533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}