The Absa Cape Epic mountain bike race in South Africa wrapped up on Sunday, with Matt Beers and Tristan Nortje (Toyota Specialized Imbuko) overhauling the GC leaders to win the men’s race on the final day, whilst Candice Lill and Alessandra Keller (Thömus Maxon Sabi Sabi) won all but one stage of the women’s race.
Going into the seventh and final stage around Stellenbosch on Sunday, Beers and Nortje were sitting 13 seconds down on Luca Braidot and Simone Avondetto (Wilier-Vittoria) who had led the incredibly close men’s race since stage 3.
Article continues below
“People want to win the Tour de France, but it’s always been a dream of mine to win Cape Epic,” an emotional Nortje said. “I got the yellow jersey at the beginning of the week, that was the first goal, and we lost it and we had a lot of bad luck. But we just kept believing… and won it.”
If the men’s race was tight going into the final stage, the women’s race was the complete opposite, with Epic veteran Candice Lill and World Cup-winning debutant Alessandra Keller winning all but one stage to complete a dominant GC victory by a whopping 52 minutes.
The high-profile win was particularly significant for…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at CyclingNews RSS Feed…