During the next five days the battle for the honour to wear the Absa Cape Epic\u2019s coveted Exxaro development jersey will turn into a full-fledged \u2018war\u2019.<\/p>\n
This was proven by the brilliant way in which Phillimon Sebona and Prince Maseko (Exxaro PWC Academy) outwitted, as well as out-powered, their rivals to win the development category of the Epic\u2019s second, and longest (145km), stage from Citrusdal to Tulbagh. Their winning time was 6 hours 58 minutes and 01 second.<\/p>\n
William Mokgopo and Luke Mashiane (Exxaro Deutsche Bank Academy) finished second in 7:06:08 and Jan Motshioa and Thokozani Mahlangu (Exxaro Accenture Academy) were third in 7:07:47.<\/p>\n
Azukile Simayile and Sipho Madolo (Exxaro RMB Academy), winners of the first stage and also winners of last year\u2019s inaugural Exxaro Development competition, were fourth in 7:11:25.<\/p>\n
Sebona and Maseko certainly managed to turn things around. After stage one, they were nine minutes behind Simayile and Madolo and third overall in the development category.<\/p>\n
They now have a lead of roughly four minutes on Simayile and Madolo and are seven minutes ahead of Mokgopo and Mashiane.<\/p>\n
Notwithstanding their good performance, Sebona refuses to take anything for granted. \u201cThere are still five days of racing left and I fully realise that anything can still happen. Remember this is mountain biking. The biggest challenge for Prince and me during the third stage will be not to get over-eager and do something foolish. That will be a sure way to undo our big effort in stage two. This definitely also means no \u2018cowboy stunts\u2019.”<\/p>\n
\u201cThe secret of our success in the second stage was that we were patient. We purposely rode at a fast but consistent pace. You can say that we were like slow poison and this enabled us to take the lead after 96km.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sebona said they would love to protect their 50th position in the pro-elite men\u2019s category. \u201cWith a little bit of luck we might even be able to finish in the top 40 in the pro-elite category, but I don\u2019t want to talk too much about that now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mokgopo, who is studying sports science at the University of Johannesburg, was more or less satisfied with the way the second stage played out. \u201cWe had a good race for approximately 90 kilometres. Unfortunately for me, the knee I injured when crashing during stage one became a bit of a handicap. I could never stand up to pedal because it hurt too much, so I had to sit and pedal throughout.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mokgopo crashed on Monday on a rocky downhill section when the rider in front of him lost a water bottle.<\/p>\n
CITRUSDAL – Exxaro Academy riders during stage 2 of the 2013 Absa Cape Epic Mountain Bike stage race held from Citrusdal to Tulbagh, South Africa on the 19 March 2013<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Photo by Gary Perkin\/Cape Epic\/SPORTZPICS<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n As luck would have it, the bottle bounced up and hit Makgopo’s front wheel while he was racing into a slight corner. \u201cI lost control and went down hard. My shoulder and knee took most of the impact, but I am confident that it will not become too big a problem. The way matters stand at the moment, is actually exciting. The Exxaro jersey is still there for anyone to take.\u201d<\/p>\n The 18-year-old Mashiane was full of praise for the calming influence Makgopo had on him throughout the stage. To be honest, I did not have the best of legs, but because I raced with William, I never panicked.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Mashiane, he knows that he will feel like a champion when they reach Lourensford, no matter in what position they are. “This is my first Epic and I just want to learn as much as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n Simayile and Madolo had one of those days when they just could not do anything right.<\/p>\n Madolo, in particular, appeared to experience strain throughout the stage.<\/p>\n The men\u2019s category of Stage 2 of the Absa Cape Epic 2013 was won by the Bulls team, consisting of Karl Platt and Urs Huber, in 5:35.32,1. Platt has won the event four times and this was the thirteenth Absa Cape Epic stage win of his career. They were followed by the Bulls 2 team, consisting of Thomas Dietsch and Tim Boehme, in 5:41.20,6 with Christoph Sauser and Jaroslav Kulhavy of Burry Stander \u2013 SONGO in third place (5:44.16,2). Yesterday\u2019s winners, Jos\u00e9 Hermida and Rudi van Houts, finished in fifth place in 5:47.00,4.<\/p>\n Platt and Huber (Bulls) now lead the men\u2019s category by 6 minutes and 23 seconds (11:05,08,4). Dietsch and Boehme (Bulls 2) are in second place overall (11:11.31,4) and Sauser and Kulhavy (Burry Stander \u2013 SONGO) are third in 11:13.12,3. Multivan Merida\u2019s Jos\u00e9 Hermida and Rudi van Houts are in fourth place overall (11:14.14,2).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" During the next five days the battle for the honour to wear the Absa Cape Epic\u2019s coveted Exxaro development jersey will turn into a full-fledged \u2018war\u2019. This was proven by the brilliant way in which Phillimon Sebona and Prince Maseko (Exxaro PWC Academy) outwitted, as well as out-powered, their rivals to win the development category […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-21959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21959","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\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21959\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21959"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=21959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}