{"id":18573,"date":"2016-03-10T12:35:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-10T12:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/2016\/03\/10\/hungry-challengers-set-sights-on-absa-cape-epic-favourites-r4309\/"},"modified":"2023-02-08T08:34:49","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T08:34:49","slug":"hungry-challengers-set-sights-on-absa-cape-epic-favourites-r4309","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/hungry-challengers-set-sights-on-absa-cape-epic-favourites-r4309\/","title":{"rendered":"Hungry challengers set sights on Absa Cape Epic favourites"},"content":{"rendered":"

Will the 2016 Absa Cape Epic be the year of the long shot?<\/p>\n

There are obvious favourites in the elite Men\u2019s and Women\u2019s categories, but it was evident at a Cape Town press conference today (Thursday) that some outsiders will be eyeing the overall podium when the race starts on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\"ccs-62657-0-57120600-1457613246.jpeg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Among these are Absa Cape Epic novices but world-class marathon riders Periklis Ilias of Greece and Portuguese teammate Tiago Ferreira (Team Dolomiti Superbike). Ilias is a former Marathon World Champion and Olympian while Ferreira is the reigning Portuguese marathon champion.<\/p>\n

They have just come off a win in the Spain\u2019s six-day Andalucia Bike Race and Ilias revealed that he had been planning to race the Absa Cape Epic of some time but now he had \u201cfound Tiago, who is the right partner for me\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow is the moment,\u201d said the determined looking Greek mountain biker.<\/p>\n

Then there is the last-minute super pairing of young South Africans James Reid and Gert Heyns (Team Spur), thrown together after their scheduled teammates had to pull out. \u201cWe\u2019re outsiders \u2026 but we\u2019re going to roll the dice,\u201d said Reid, the current African and South African cross country champion.<\/p>\n

They will be among the many teams hoping to topple the established order at the top of marathon mountain biking. To do so they will have to beat the two favourite combinations, Topeak Ergon Racing\u2019s Alban Lakata (Austria) and Kristian Hynek (Czech Republic) and Team Bulls\u2019s Karl Platt (Germany) and Urs Huber (Switzerland).<\/p>\n

Lakata has finished 6th, 5th, 4th, 3rd and 2nd in the Absa Cape Epic while Platt has won the world\u2019s premier mountain bike stage race four times. Platt is seeking a record-equalling fifth win and Lakata a first success to add to his array of championships and successes.<\/p>\n

\"ccs-62657-0-22313300-1457613258.jpeg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Both riders indicated at the press conference that they were in perfect condition as the big event approaches at Meerendal on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m fresh and feeling good and looking for another good year,\u201d said Lakata. \u201cHopefully we have less mechanicals this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year I have been training a lot in South Africa and think my shape is getting better and better,\u201d said Platt.<\/p>\n

It was up to their partners to spell out their ambitions for the race: Huber said he was \u201cholding thumbs for him (Platt) to win his 5th time \u2026 and my first\u201d. Hynek, a former winner himself, said \u201cmy goal is to win again with Alban\u201d. <\/p>\n

Sadly, one of the favourite teams, Centurion Vaude by Meerendal\u2019s German pairing of Markus Kaufmann and Jochen Kaess, has had to withdraw after the former broke a collarbone. It was announced at the press conference that they would be replaced by Austrian youngsters Daniel Geismayr and Hermann Pernsteiner.<\/p>\n

In the Women\u2019s category it is also clear that several teams have set their sights on the favourite combination of Switzerland\u2019s Ariane Kleinhans and Denmark\u2019s Annika Langvad (Team Spur-Specialized), winners for the past two years.<\/p>\n

\"ccs-62657-0-51994200-1457613251.jpeg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Among them will be former winner Sally Bigham of England, who told the press conference that \u201cI have had two years of bad luck and I\u2019m hoping to put that to bed \u2026 we\u2019re here to try to win the race\u201d. Bigham described her German teammate Adel Morath (Topeak Ergon) as \u201cthe perfect partner: we both have similar strengths and we\u2019re both good climbers \u2026 I\u2019m really excited\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked about their tactics, the German Olympian laughed: \u201cFull gas every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also in the field will be mountain biking legend Sabine Spitz of Germany and her young Ukranian partner Yana Belomoina. Spitz has won gold, silver and bronze at the Olympics but this will be her first Absa Cape Epic. She was cautious about making a prediction, but did say that \u201cwe don\u2019t want to make it too easy for the other girls\u201d.<\/p>\n

Langvad said she was looking forward to the new race arrangements in terms of which the elite women would have a category start of their own, a move designed to make the competition between the women more equal and exciting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Will the 2016 Absa Cape Epic be the year of the long shot? There are obvious favourites in the elite Men\u2019s and Women\u2019s categories, but it was evident at a Cape Town press conference today (Thursday) that some outsiders will be eyeing the overall podium when the race starts on Sunday. Among these are Absa […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":43998,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[76,24],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-18573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-absa-cape-epic","tag-cape-epic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18573","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=18573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18573"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=18573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}