Women podium (L to R) Jennie Stenerhag & Robyn Lee de Groot of Ascendis Health (2nd), Ariane Kleinhans & Annika Langvad of Specialized (1st) and Milena Landtwing & Hielke Elferink Meerendal Wheeler C’Dale (3rd). \/\/ Photo by Gary Perkin\/Cape Epic\/SPORTZPICS.<\/span><\/p>\nStenerhag and De Groot, riding as a team at the Absa Cape Epic for the first time, were somewhat surprise second-placed finishers. \u201cWe just wanted to be steady and get it over and done with,\u201d said Stenerhag. \u201cThere is a long week ahead. We will just ride our own race from here and not worry about anyone else. Our strategy is to stick with what works for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
De Groot, lining up at the Absa Cape Epic for the first time, admitted that the nerves and emotion almost hit during the race. \u201cI don’t think I’ve been this nervous on a bike since the Olympics,\u201d she said. \u201cBut the Prologue is done now and the nerves should be settled from tomorrow. It’s vital to stay calm at this race.\u201d<\/p>\n
Third-placed finishers Meerendal Wheeler Cannondale surprised even themselves with their result. \u201cWe\u2019re very happy to be third \u2013 surprised actually,\u201d said Milena Landtwing. \u201cTechnically, the route was nothing special, but we needed to be careful because you can easily make mistakes and that can be the end of your race.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA good start is half the work done,\u201d added teammate Hielke Elferink. \u201cBut it will be important to not start too fast tomorrow. It\u2019s going to be a long, hard week.\u201d<\/p>\n
The race moves on to Elgin tomorrow, where riders will start Stage 1 at Oak Valley Wine Estate. They face 113km of truly epic riding with 2800m of climbing to keep things interesting.<\/p>\n
Prologue results:<\/strong><\/p>\n1. RECM Specialized; 53.38,7; 50-1 Ariane Kleinhans (Switzerland); 50-2 Annika Langvad (Denmark)<\/p>\n
\u20282. Ascendis Health 57.14,5 55-1 Jennie Stenerhag (Sweden) 55-2 Robyn Lee de Groot (South Africa)\u2028<\/p>\n
3. Meerendal Wheeler C\u2019dale; 57.25,8; 54-1 Milena Landtwing (Switzerland) 54-2 Hielke Elferink (Netherlands)\u2028<\/p>\n
4. Meerendal Wheeler; 58.24,0; 51-1 Esther Suss (Switzerland) 51-2 Alice Pirard (Belgium)<\/p>\n
\u20285. SasolRacing; 59.10,0; 56-1 Yolande de Villiers (South Africa) 56-2 Janka Keseg Stevkova (Slovakia)<\/p>\n
\u20286. Sellaronda Hero; 59.14,8; 52-1 Sally Bigham (England) 52-2 Christina Kollmann (Austria)<\/p>\n
\u20287. World Bicycle Relief; 1:00.17,7; 53-1 Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesja (Norway) 53-2 Kathrin Stirnemann (Switzerland)<\/p>\n
\u20288. Lovechock Specialized; 1:01.11,7; 57-1 Sanne van Paassen (Netherlands) 57-2 Jolien Janssen (Netherlands)\u2028<\/p>\n
9. RBS; 1:01.14,6; 137-1 Theresa Ralph (South Africa) 137-2 Jeannie Bomford (South Africa)\u2028<\/p>\n
10.Novus OMX Pro; 1:01.36,4; 79-1 Mariske Strauss (South Africa) 79-2 Cherie Vale (South Africa)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The world\u2019s leading female mountain bikers could be spotted on the slopes of Table Mountain on Sunday 15 March, but not for long as they tore apart the Prologue route of the 12th Absa Cape Epic. Ariane Kleinhans and Annika Langvad of team RECM Specialized during the Prologue of the 2015 Absa Cape Epic. \/\/ […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":49212,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[76,310,2298,24,4273],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-20346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-absa-cape-epic","tag-annika-langvad","tag-ariane-kleinhans","tag-cape-epic","tag-recm-specialized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20346","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=20346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20346"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=20346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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