Riders during stage 1 of the 2015 Absa Cape Epic. \/\/ Photo by Sam Clark\/Cape Epic\/SPORTZPICS<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s a good feeling being on the podium after last year\u2019s bad luck (when he fell ill),\u201d said Hermida. \u201cWe have the legs to fight for the overall, but anything can happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Overnight yellow zebra jersey leaders Fabian Giger and Martin Gujan, both of Switzerland, dropped back to fifth place. Giger confessed afterwards that his decision to ride a \u201chardtail\u201d \u2013 with no suspension on the back wheel \u2013 had meant for a \u201cvery rough\u201d ride on the descents off the Groenlandberg.<\/p>\n
\u201cTowards the end the course wasn\u2019t so bumpy, so it got better,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The first South African pair home were USN\u2019s Rourke Croeser and Travis Walker, who were behind the RED-E Blend team of Darren Lill and Waylon Woolcock for much of the day but managed to catch them in the last 25km and come home seventh.<\/p>\n
Monday\u2019s stage took orders in a loop which started and ended at Oak Valley Wine Estate in the Elgin Valley. Tuesday\u2019s Stage 2 follows a similar format \u2013 starting and finishing at Oak Valley \u2013 but traverses different parts of the valley, and includes many sections of singletrack.<\/p>\n
Stage 1 Results:<\/h2>\n
1. Investec-Songo-Specialized; 4:47.39,7; 2-1 Christoph Sauser (Switzerland) 2-2 Jaroslav Kulhavy (Czech Republic)\u2028<\/p>\n
2. Bulls; +51,3; 4-1 Karl Platt (Germany) 4-2 Urs Huber (Switzerland)\u2028<\/p>\n
3. Multivan Merida; +1.14,7; 6-1 Jose Hermida (Spain) 6-2 Rudi van Houts Netherlands)<\/p>\n
Overall GC after Stage 1:<\/h2>\n
\u20281. Investec-Songo-Specialized; 2-1 Christoph Sauser (Switzerland) 2-2 Jaroslav Kulhavy (Czech Republic); 5:34.21,8\u2028<\/p>\n
2. Bulls; 4-1 Karl Platt (Germany) 4-2 Urs Huber (Switzerland); 5:35.07,7; +45,9\u2028<\/p>\n
3. Multivan Merida; 6-1 Jose Hermida (Spain) 6-2 Rudi van Houts (Natherlands); 5:35.54,8; +1.33,0<\/p>\n
\u20284. Topeak Ergon; 1-1 Kristian Hynek (Czech Republic)1-2 Alban Lakata (Austria); 5:38.59,6; +4.37,8\u2028<\/p>\n
5. Novus OMX Pro; 23-1 Martin Gujan (Switzerland) 23-2 Fabian Giger (Switzerland); 5:45.08,0; +10.46,2<\/p>\n
6. USN; 11-1 Rourke Croeser (South Africa)11-2 Travis Walker (South Africa); 5:50.42,4; +16.20,6\u2028<\/p>\n
7. Meerendal Centurion Vaude; 5-1 Jochen Kaess (Germany) 5-2 Daniel Geismayr (Austria); 5:51.09,2; +16.47,4\u2028<\/p>\n
8. EAI South Africa; 33-1 Gawie Combrinck (South Africa) 33-2 Johann Rabie (South Africa); 5:54.04,1; +19.42,3<\/p>\n
9. Scott Factory Racing; 7-1 Philip Buys (South Africa) 7-2 Matthys Beukes (South Africa); 5:55.31,2; +21.09,4\u2028<\/p>\n
10. Mitas Superior; 38-1 Jan Jobanek (Czech Republic) 38-2 Filip Adel (Czech Republic); 5:56.17,1; +21.55,3<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In a day of drama, Christoph Sauser laid down a significant marker in his bid to become the first person to win the Absa Cape Epic five times. Christoph Sauser and Jaroslav Kulhavy of Investec-Songo-Specialized celebrate winning stage 1 of the 2015 Absa Cape Epic Mountain Bike stage race held from Oak Valley Wine Estate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":49202,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[76,959,24,1515,4293,778,828,4302],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-20339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-absa-cape-epic","tag-brendon-davids","tag-cape-epic","tag-christoph-sauser","tag-emil-lindgren","tag-investec-songo-specialized","tag-jaroslav-kulhavy","tag-kargo-pro-mtb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20339","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=20339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20339"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=20339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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