SCOTT-SRAM’s Nino Schurter and Lars Forster executed a decisive attack on the final climb of the 90km second stage of the Cape Epic today to surge ahead and take the spoils.
The Swiss pair formed part of a four-team leading break, before hitting their stride on the final climb in Paul Cluver with just over 10km left.
SCOTT-SRAM’s Nino Schurter and Lars Forster executed a decisive attack on the final climb in the 90km second stage of the Cape Epic today to surge ahead and take the spoils. Photo: Nick Muzik/Cape Epic
The other escapees were Cannondale Factory Racing’s Manuel Fumic and Henrique Avancini, Kross-Spur’s Sergio Mantecon Gutierrez and Ondrej Zink and Trek Selle San Marco’s Damiano Ferraro and Samuele Porro.
Once Schurter and Forster created that gap they defended an eager chase to eventually win by 30 seconds, making it their third stage victory out of three.
The pundits were expecting a bunch-sprint finish, but the pair put paid to that idea.
“It was nice and it wasn’t planned,” Forster said of his and Schurter’s attack on the final climb.
“After the last feed zone we [obviously] wanted to win.”
Schurter admitted that it was a stiff contest against their close rivals in the break.
“It was a tough battle, but we always felt comfortable and we managed to control the race.
“It’s great to secure a hat-trick now. Three in a row is amazing.”
Gutierrez and Zink redeemed themselves to win a sprint finish for second against Fumic and Avancini after losing over an hour yesterday due to a series of mechanicals.
“We had a pretty good feeling in the prologue, but unfortunately yesterday we lost a lot of time,” Gutierrez said.
“Today we had a lot of confidence and we felt pretty good. The next time we will fight for a stage win.”
Specialized Foundation NAD’s Matt Beers and Alan Hatherly were originally aiming to be a back-up team for Investec-songo-Specialized’s Jaroslav Kulhavy and Sam Gaze.
But largely due to Gaze’s crash yesterday, the team were under pressure in today’s stage as Beers and Hatherly took the lead and formed part of the chasing group for almost the whole stage.
They managed to retain their red African jersey, though. “We were pretty much chasing the whole day. It was quite difficult but fortunately we had some strong guys with us,” Beers said.
“It was quite frustrating because we were going almost the same pace [as the leaders], but we just couldn’t catch up. But it was a good day overall.”
Speaking of that final climb where Schurter and Forster broke clear, Hatherly said it was the turning point in the race.
“At the end of the stage it was just survival of the fittest,” he said. “I think that’s where you had to make the decision of how deep you wanted to go.
“If you empty your tank completely, it may be a bit risky. So you need to sort of conserve your body a bit.
“I gave it my all, as much as I could, and rode hard until the finish.”
