Investec-songo-Specialized’s Annika Langvad and Anna van der Breggen extended their lead to establish a comfortable buffer after dominating the 111km first stage of the Cape Epic at Hermanus High School today.
The field was spread out for much of the stage as Kross-Spur Racing’s Ariane Luthi and Maja Wloszszowska gave chase some three minutes back, while Summit Fin’s Candice Lill and Adelheid Morath were a further two minutes adrift.
A muddied Investec-songo-Specialized’s Anna van der Breggen after stage one of the Cape Epic today. Photo: Live stream
The chasers rode a consistent race, but Langvad and Van der Breggen proved far too strong in the end.
However, despite their dominant performance, Langvad remarked on how difficult it had been out on the course.
“It was really tough,” she said, while trying to catch her breath. “We got away quite early on in the race and we just tried to pace ourselves.
“We were both looking at each other and we were like ‘wow this is really tough’. We thought we might’ve gone out too hard but we managed to find a decent pace, which we held until the finish line.”
Van der Breggen echoed those sentiments. “Today was long and hard. It went by so slow but we tried to go as fast as possible.
“Going hard for five hours was obviously hard on the body. We needed to refuel all the time, which was quite difficult on the bike like that.
“It was really different, but it was cool to do. It was nice to win.”
The pair now created an almost six-minute buffer ahead of the second stage tomorrow.
