Investec-songo-Specialized’s Annika Langvad and Anna van der Breggen redeemed themselves after yesterday’s disappointment to comfortably win the 89km penultimate stage of the Cape Epic in Stellenbosch today.
The pair surged to an almost 10-minute victory over yesterday’s winners, Summit Fin’s Candice Lill and Adelheid Morath.
In so doing they not only gave themselves a morale boost, they also cemented their overall lead.
Langvad and Van der Breggen staked their claim early, building up a solid lead on Nik Naks climb about a quarter of the way into the race.
Investec-songo-Specialized’s Annika Langvad and Anna van der Breggen redeemed themselves after yesterday’s loss to comfortably win the penultimate stage of the Cape Epic today. Photo: Cape Epic
As the challenge wore on, they gradually extended their advantage to emerge easy winners in the end.
Langvad was delighted at how the race unfolded. “Today was definitely a good day for us,” she said.
Based on their experience yesterday, she said they chatted about getting a gap early on. They could then “kind of ride at our own pace without following the pace of other teams”.
That was their ideal scenario – and they made it happen.
“Already a few kilometres after the start, when we were still in a bunch, Anna signalled that we must go. So then we put in a proper attack and created a huge gap.
“Anna rode like a boss today. She was very strong and this was definitely a good thing for us.”
Van der Breggen was elated at having made up for yesterday’s disappointment.
“I was hoping today would be better than yesterday, where I really had a bad day.
“Today I felt better from the start, so I thought that if we could go to the front then we could ride our own speeds down the downhills after the hard climb in the beginning.
“That worked and we just tried to set the pace from then onwards. I’m just glad for a good day again.
“Annika has been enjoying every day, but [for a change] I was able to enjoy today as well,” she quipped.
In contrast to Langvad and Van der Breggen’s experience, Morath said in their pursuit and in trying to keep the third-placed team Kross-Spur Racing’s Ariane Lüthi and Maja Wloszczowska at bay, it was just a matter of survival.
“Today was really hard. It was all about surviving the heat,” she said. “We couldn’t put the power down and we also couldn’t drink enough.”
Lill saw the positives in what was a day full of “suffering”, however.
“We’re still happy to come second on a bad day,” she said.
“All we had to do was survive today and hopefully tomorrow we can cross the line to protect our second place.
“Those Specialized girls came at us with a vengeance today, which I kind of knew they would. They did that, but at this time in the race there was no point in us chasing, overdoing it and then blowing at the end.
“We just sat back, rode our own pace and made it to the finish.”
