{"id":21281,"date":"2014-03-04T15:55:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-04T15:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/2014\/03\/04\/absa-cape-epic-welcomes-previous-winners-suss-and-bigham-r1253\/"},"modified":"2023-02-08T12:11:35","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T12:11:35","slug":"absa-cape-epic-welcomes-previous-winners-suss-and-bigham-r1253","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/absa-cape-epic-welcomes-previous-winners-suss-and-bigham-r1253\/","title":{"rendered":"Absa Cape Epic welcomes previous winners S\u00fcss and Bigham"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Absa Cape Epic welcomes back two-times winners of the event Sally Bigham (35) of the United Kingdom and partner Esther S\u00fcss (39) of Switzerland. They will be riding as team Meerendal 3 and will take on the challenging 718km from 23 to 30 March later this month.<\/p>\n

\"ccs-41808-0-45716600-1393948539.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Image credit: Nick Muzik\/Cape Epic\/SPORTZPICS<\/span><\/p>\n

The Women\u2019s category is bound to be as exciting as the Men\u2019s this year. Both S\u00fcss and Bigham have many accolades to their names. S\u00fcss is a two-time winner, once in the Mixed and once in the Women\u2019s category. She started riding in 1998 and was crowned Marathon World Champion in 2010. S\u00fcss won a silver medal (2009) and three bronze medals (2011, 2012, 2013) at the Marathon World Championships. In 2013, she also won a bronze medal at the Cross-Country World Championships, and became Swiss Cyclist of the Year for the second time (first in 2010). At 38, she placed 5th in the London Olympics, racing against women 10 years younger and more. Her European history includes a gold medal at the 2008 and 2010 European Marathon Championships as well as a silver medal at the 2012 Cross-country European Championships.<\/p>\n

Bigham holds two Absa Cape Epic wins, both in the Women\u2019s category. She has won the British National Marathon Championship four times, and the Transalp twice (2012, 2013). She finished in second place in the World Marathon Championships in 2012 and 2013 and placed first Overall in the 2011 UCI World Marathon Rankings. She won the Andalucia Bike Race in both 2011 and 2012. She has won 8 Absa Cape Epic stages in her career.<\/p>\n

Bigham holds a PHD degree and started mountain biking in 2006. \u201cI started for fun and then it took over. I really like the Absa Cape Epic. It\u2019s an iconic race and a real adventure. It\u2019s all about suffering and fortunately I like to suffer. I\u2019ve been preparing well and Esther is the perfect partner for me. We\u2019ll give it 100% and see what we can do.\u201d S\u00fcss adds: \u201cOf course it\u2019s nice to win a stage, but it\u2019s better to win the overall!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ccs-41808-0-29062800-1393948544.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Image credit: Nick Muzik\/Cape Epic\/SPORTZPICS<\/span><\/p>\n

With regards to their training together, Bigham comments: \u201cWe raced the Absa Cape Epic together and won in 2012 and we’ve raced against each other plenty of times in solo races, so we don’t need to train together so much. We\u2019ll ride together the week before the start of the event.\u201d S\u00fcss adds: \u201cSally is from Great Britain and I\u2019m from Switzerland, Sally is also professional and I\u2019m only semi-professional. I work as a teacher, so we\u2019ll hardly ever train together.\u201d<\/p>\n

S\u00fcss believes it is paramount to work as a team. Bigham reckons good preparation and a strong mind is very important in this race. \u201cI really look forward to the atmosphere. I love it, and of course the amazing scenery and places that we’ll visit.\u201d Adds S\u00fcss: \u201cI\u2019m also really excited to see the racing in the women\u2019s category this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2010, 2011 and 2012 Bigham rode a hardtail 26er. \u201cThis year I\u2019ll be riding a full suspension 29er. Bikes have changed a lot since 2010 and my new Canyon Lux is light and fast. Riding this bike leaves me feeling less tired at the end of the stages which means I can give more the next day.\u201d S\u00fcss has been riding Wheeler in all her Absa Cape Epic events.<\/p>\n

Bigham is of the opinion that the Absa Cape Epic is \u201caddictive\u201d and says she does not balance training and her private life. She hopes for health and happiness in 2014, as well as \u201cmedals at big championship races including the Worlds and Europeans\u201d. <\/p>\n

S\u00fcss says: \u201cI\u2019d really like to win the Absa Cape Epic with Sally, and also to win a medal at the World Championship Marathon in Pietermaritzburg and at the World Cross-country Champs in Norway.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Absa Cape Epic welcomes back two-times winners of the event Sally Bigham (35) of the United Kingdom and partner Esther S\u00fcss (39) of Switzerland. They will be riding as team Meerendal 3 and will take on the challenging 718km from 23 to 30 March later this month. Image credit: Nick Muzik\/Cape Epic\/SPORTZPICS The Women\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":52476,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[76,1548,3209],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-21281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-absa-cape-epic","tag-esther-suss","tag-sally-bigham"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21281","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=21281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21281"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=21281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}