It was a day of upheaval at the Cape Epic. Haley Smith and Hayley Preen, Team Chemcamp Honeycomb a.k.a. Team Ha(y)ley, landed their first stage podium. At the same time, the She Sends Foundation team of marathon world champion Kate Courtney and Greta Seiwald finally disrupted the dominance of the Thomus Maxon Sabi Sabi duo.
On the men’s side, the leaders were more consistent but Canada’s Andrew L’Esperance, racing with EF Education First’s Lachlan Morton, took a few more steps up the GC standings to move into the top 15 overall.
Team Ha(y)ley earns its first podium finish
Haley Smith and Hayley Preen have raced with impressive consistency, persistence and forward progress this Cape Epic. After landing within sight of a podium on Stage 2, the duo moved into third overall after Stage 3. On Thursday, the Canadian/South African duo finally earned their podium finish.
“Finally! We’ve had two days where we were sprinting for fourth.” Preen “to finish on the podium is incredible.
“You don’t really think where you are at the moment, you’re thinking about holding the wheel.” Smith said after the finish line as the result sunk in. “There’s a lot of happiness. I’m 32, I’ve been doing this for a long time and you never know how many special moments like this you’re going to have left. This is one that I’ll have forever.”
There are still three days left for Smith and Preen to create more special moments together as the Cape Epic rolls on towards its conclusion on Sunday. We’re excited to see what those days could hold.
Up front, the She Sends Foundation team was elated to finally have got the better of the Thomas Maxon Sabi Sabi squad. Alessandra Keller and Candice Lill have ruled undefeated so far at the 2026 Cape Epic. On Thursday, they finally had to settle for second.
“We had been discussing tactics and various scenarios, and it worked out perfectly,” said Seiwald after taking the stage victory. “I still can’t believe we won and we will definitely celebrate with some cake today.”
While Kate Courtney was, I’d expect, quite focused on her own race and happy with her team’s result, she also took time to congratulate the Honeycomb duo. “I was also happy to see the Ha(y)ley’s up on the podium. They’ve been in the sprint twice and ended up fourth, so I’m happy we’ll get to be on the podium…
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