![\"ccs-62657-0-69505800-1449067392.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-62657-0-69505800-1449067392.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Multiple marathon mountain biking world champion Christoph Sauser will take part in the Bestmed Tour of Good Hope from February 29 to March 4. Photo: Full Stop Communications<\/span><\/p>\nThe five-time Cape Epic winner will lead an Investec-Songo-Specialized team of international mountain bikers for the tour, covering 522km and 6 168m of climbing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve signed up for the elite category. As mountain bikers we can climb but have no idea about higher road tactics, so we\u2019ll go flat out on the climbs and sit up on the flats,\u201d he smiled.<\/p>\n
Sauser said the tour had always been excellent preparation for his Cape Epic title defences.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very hard at some points and it gave me great speed.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s also much more about having a good time with my teammates, racing on the beautiful Boland roads, the action and speed, and seeing new towns and areas.\u201d<\/p>\n
That focus is truer than ever for Sauser, who retired from competitive cycling this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow that I don\u2019t race for winning any more, and my desk chair hours have increased and the bike saddle hours decreased, I have to look for the most draft during the race.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he would still be motivated to ride hard as his new Cape Epic partner Sipho Madolo would be in good shape come February.<\/p>\n
Sauser said he was also looking forward to the new cloverleaf racing format, with Paarl at the centre, which would make things logistically easier than the previous point-to-point route.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can stay at home in Stellenbosch and it is only a short drive over Helshoogte to go to the start and back.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will enjoy racing on the roads I have been training on for many years. Basically every kilometre tells an old story.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tour of Good Hope organiser Wynand de Villiers of ASG Events said it would be a privilege to welcome the former cross-country world champion and Olympic bronze medallist back to the tour.<\/p>\n
\u201cChristoph is a wonderful ambassador of the sport and we are humbled that he makes an effort to come and participate in the event,\u201d said De Villiers.<\/p>\n
He said only a handful of entries for the tour, which can accommodate a field of a thousand riders, were still available. The event is presented in association with the City of Drakenstein and Rudy Project.<\/p>\n
Visit www.tourofgoodhope.co.za. Get live updates on Facebook and Twitter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Three-time marathon mountain biking world champion Christoph Sauser will return to South Africa to ride the Bestmed Tour of Good Hope from February 29. Swiss-born Sauser has been a long-time supporter of the five-day Western Cape road tour, which was previously known as the Tour de Boland. \u201cI am not sure how many in total […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":45367,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1622,1515,450],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-18962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-bestmed-tour-of-good-hope","tag-christoph-sauser","tag-tour-of-good-hope"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18962","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=18962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18962"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=18962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}