Germany’s Jochen Kaess and Austria’s Daniel Geismayr (Meerendal Centurion Vaude) won the last stage of men’s Cape Epic on Sunday. The duo beat Spain’s Jose Hermida and Netherlands’ Rudi van Houts (Multivan Merida) by four seconds, and Swiss pair Martin Gujan and Fabian Giger (Novus OMX Pro) by over a minute on the 92km final stage from Wellington to Meerendal Wine Estate, Durbanville.
Swiss rider Christoph Sauser and his Investec-Songo-Specialized teammate Jaroslav Kulhavy took the overall victory of the eight-day event, beating Czech rider Kristian Hynek and his Topeak Ergon teammate from Austria Alban Lakata by over 10 minutes. Germany’s Karl Platt and Switzerland’s Urs Huber (Bulls) were third overall, 34:25 minutes back.
“This is the coolest thing in the world with all these spectators cheering us on … these moments are very rare,” Sauser said at the finish. “With five kilometres to go I knew that we had it. I tried to absorb as much of it as I could, and thought about all the memories this race has given me.”
Kulhavy added, “it was really good racing with ‘Susi’ … I enjoyed every kilometre of the stage today and especially the finish line.”
In the women’s race, RECM Specialized teammates Ariane Kleinhans from Switzerland and Annika Langvad from Denmark won the final stage. They beat Ascendis Health teammates Jennie Stenerhag from Switzerland and Robyn Lee de Groot from South Africa by 7:22 minutes, and SasolRacing teammates Yolande de Villiers from South Africa and Janka Keseg Stevkova from Slovenia by 13:22.
Kleinhans and Langvad dominated the eight-day race from the prologue and defended their overall title from last year in the women’s category. Runner-up team of Stenerhag and de Groot finished more than an hour back and third-place teammates de Villiers and Stevkova finished more than two hours back.
“We are very happy,” Langvad said. “This is such a special moment – defending our title, winning again with Ariane and being able to celebrate the victory on my birthday.”
Kleinhans added, “We always wanted to defend our title, but when we saw the quality in the field we didn’t know what to expect. Everything just went so smoothly for us.”
Brief results
| # | Rider Name (Country) Team | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jochen Kaess (Ger) / Daniel Geismayr (Aus) Meerendal Centurion Vaude | 3:28:12 |
| 2 | Jose Hermida (Spa) / Rudi van Houts (Ned) Multivan Merida | 0:00:04 |
| 3 | Martin Gujan (Sui) / Fabian Giger (Sui) Novus OMX Pro | 0:01:11 |
Men General Classification
| # | Rider Name (Country) Team | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Christoph Sauser (Sui) / Jaroslav Kulhavy (Cze) Investec-Songo-Specialized | 31:00:57 |
| 2 | Kristian Hynek (Cze) / Alban Lakata (Aus) Topeak Ergon | 0:10:41 |
| 3 | Karl Platt (Ger) / Urs Huber (Sui) Bulls | 0:34:25 |
| 4 | Jose Hermida (Spa) / Rudi van Houts (Ned) Multivan Merida | 0:46:49 |
| 5 | Philip Buys (Rsa) 7-2 Matthys Beukes (Rsa) Scott Factory Racing | 1:06:28 |
| 6 | Gawie Combrinck (Rsa) / Johann Rabie (Rsa) EAI South Africa | 1:13:52 |
| 7 | Darren Lill (Rsa) 36-2 Waylon Woolcock (Rsa) RED-E Blend | 1:14:18 |
| 8 | Jochen Kaess (Ger) / Daniel Geismayr (Aus) Meerendal Centurion Vaude | 1:15:28 |
| 9 | Martin Gujan (Sui) / Fabian Giger (Sui) Novus OMX Pro | 1:17:25 |
| 10 | Rourke Croeser (Rsa) / Travis Walker (Rsa) USN #1 | 1:22:39 |
Women Stage 7
| # | Rider Name (Country) Team | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ariane Kleinhans (Sui) / Annika Langvad (Den) RECM Specialized | 4:06:53 |
| 2 | Jennie Stenerhag (Sui) / Robyn Lee de Groot (Rsa) Ascendis Health | 0:07:22 |
| 3 | Yolande de Villiers (Rsa) / Janka Keseg Stevkova (Slo) SasolRacing | 0:13:22 |
Women General Classification
| # | Rider Name (Country) Team | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ariane Kleinhans (Sui) / Annika Langvad (Den) RECM Specialized | 37:07:25 |
| 2 | Jennie Stenerhag (Swe) 55-2 Robyn Lee de Groot (Rsa) Ascendis Health | 1:18:12 |
| 3 | Yolande de Villiers (Rsa) 56-2 Janka Keseg Stevkova (Slo) SasolRacing | 2:09:44 |
| 4 | Theresa Ralph (Rsa) 137-2 Jeannie Bomford (Rsa) RBS | 2:33:33 |
| 5 | Esther Suss (Sui) / Alice Pirard (Bel) Meerendal Wheeler | 2:47:00 |
| 6 | Mariske Strauss (Rsa) / Cherie Vale (Rsa) Novus OMX | 4:34:19 |
| 7 | Leana de Jager (Rsa) / Yolandi du Toit (Rsa) SasolRacing | 5:42:45 |
| 8 | Ann Harrison (Rsa) / Marleen Lourens (Rsa) Dawn Wing/Momsen | 8:05:06 |
| 9 | Sanne van Paassen (Rsa) / Jolien Janssen (Ned) Lovechock Specialized | 8:24:56 |
| 10 | Genevieve Weber (Rsa) / Wanda Tattersall (Nam) Central Family Practice | 11:05:09 |
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