Robert Sim and Hannes Hanekom just ahead of their riding partners as they are about to enter the water point at Eagles Cliff. \/\/ Photo by Emma Hill\/Cape Epic\/SPORTZPICS.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cIt was a good day for us,\u201d said Sim. It is a real ding-dong-battle at the moment between us and Bart and Abraao. The whole day we were battling it out. It was only in the last kilometer that we got a gap of some 10 seconds.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that the two teams are \u201cvery well matched and that is why the battle is so intense \u2026 it is a struggle to get a gap and there is lots of racing still to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although he looked drained at the end, the apparently ageless Barti Bucher of Switzerland and his Austrian partner Heinz Zoerweg (Meerendal BIXS KTM) have increased their lead in the Grand Masters category to more than 40 minutes. Ascendis Health\u2019s South African pairing of Greg Andersen and Andrew Mclean now lie second.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Slovenian Peter Vesel and German partner Ivonne Kraft took a grip on the Mixed category by winning by three minutes from second-placed Germans Carsten Bresser and Hanka Kupfernagel (Dietrich\/Rocky Mountain).<\/p>\n
\u201cMy partner worked really hard today because he had chain problems,\u201d said Kraft. \u201cWe also battled on our own for most of the day. It was a really tough day.\u201d<\/p>\n
ENS RH77\u2019s Austrian combination of Rene Haselbacher and Sabine Sommer remain in second-place in the category overall in spite of finishing nearly seven minutes back on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The race for the Exxaro special jersey has swung convincingly towards Phillimon Sebona and Jan Motshioa (Exxaro PWC) in the past two stages after pre-race favourites Sipho Madolo and Azukile Simayile (Investec-Songo-Specialized 2) dropped back sharply. They had another bad day yesterday and Exxaro\/RMB\u2019s Lucky Mlangeni and Tshepo Tlkou slipped past them into second overall in the race for the jersey.<\/p>\n
Stage 3 results<\/h2>\n
Masters<\/strong><\/p>\n1. Dorma \/ Robert Daniel 61-1 Nico Pfitzenmaier (South Africa) 61-2 Robert Sim (South Africa) 5:41.23,1\u2028<\/p>\n
2. BETCH.nl-Superior 60-1 Bart Brentjens (Netherlands) 60-2 Abraao Azevedo (Brazil) 5:41.35,5 +12,4\u2028<\/p>\n
3. Assos Werksmannschaft 258-1 Daniele Nardello (Italy) 258-2 Karl Zoetemelk (France) 5:46.22,9 +4.59,8<\/p>\n
Grand Masters<\/strong><\/p>\n1. Meerendal BIXS KTM 65-1 Barti Bucher (Switzerlsnd) Grand Masters 65-2 Heinz Zoerweg (Austria) 5:51.46,6\u2028<\/p>\n
2. Ascendis Health 66-1 Greg Anderson (South Africa) 66-2 Andrew Mclean (South Africa) 6:04.47,9 +13.01,3\u2028<\/p>\n
3. Nampak 67-1 Izak Visagie (South Africa) 67-2 Linus van Onselen (South Africa) 6:22.24,0 +30.37,4<\/p>\n
Mixed<\/strong><\/p>\n1. ETIS 71-1 Peter Vesel (Slovenia) 71-2 Ivonne Kraft (Germany) 6:18.59,4<\/p>\n
\u20282. Dietrich\/Rocky Mountain 73-1 Carsten Bresser (Germany) 73-2 Hanka Kupfernagel (Germany) 6:22.12,2 +3.12,8<\/p>\n
\u20283. Asrin Cycling 70-1 Nizaam Essa (South Africa) 70-2 Catherine Williamson (England) 6:22.17,2 +3.17,8<\/p>\n
Absa African jersey<\/strong><\/p>\n1. RED-E Blend 36-1 Darren Lill 36-2 Waylon Woolcock 5:12.20,2\u2028<\/p>\n
2. Scott Factory Racing 7-1 Philip Buys 7-2 Matthys Beukes 5:19.23,6<\/p>\n
\u20283. EAI South Africa 33-1 Gawie Combrinck 33-2 Johann Rabie 5:20.35,5<\/p>\n
Exxaro<\/strong><\/p>\n1. Exxaro PWC 1. 82-1 Phillimon Sebona 82-2 Jan Motshioa 6:04.22,6<\/p>\n
\u20282. Exxaro\/EOH 108-1 Rilamulele Gadabeni 108-2 Tovhawani Mavundavhi 6:20.59,7\u2028<\/p>\n
3. Exxaro\/RMB 83-1 Lucky Mlangeni 83-2 Tshepo Tlou 6:21.39,6<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The red Absa African special jerseys changed shoulders for the first time in the 2015 Absa Cape Epic on Wednesday when Darren Lill and Waylon Woolcock (RED-E Blend) put in their second compelling performance in two days. Philip Buys of Scott Factory Racing chases during stage 3 of the 2015 Absa Cape Epic. \/\/ Photo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":49163,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[76,24,2641,703,54,4275,3794,962],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-20321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-absa-cape-epic","tag-cape-epic","tag-darren-lill","tag-matthys-beukes","tag-philip-buys","tag-red-e-blend","tag-scott-factory-racing","tag-waylon-woolcock"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20321","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=20321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20321"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=20321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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