Schurter/Stirnemann seal 2017 Cape Epic victory

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Nino Schurter and Matthias Stirnemann sealed their first Cape Epic overall victory as the Scott-SRAM duo crossed the line in fourth place as Scott-SRAM Young Guns duo Michiel Van der Heijden and Andri Frischknecht grabbed their second stage win of the race. In the women's race, Esther Suss and Jennie Stenerhag sealed their overall victory while Cadel Evans and George Hincapie (BMC Absa Racing Team) held on for the masters win

"The plan was to come here in 2018 and win, but we are a year early!" said Schurter. "This is very special. To win the Olympics and then come to South Africa and win the Absa Cape Epic, that is great. After Rio it was always my intention to come and win the race, but this has taken us by surprise. I thought next year would be our year. We are ahead of schedule."

The duo did even extended their lead over Christoph Sauser and Jaroslav Kulhavy (Investec-Songo-Specialized) in their final race together. The final place on the podium went to Nicola Rohrbach and Daniel Geismayr (Centurion Vaude 2).

For Stenerhag, it was a particularly emotional victory coming a year after she abandoned the race before undergoing heart surgery.

"I can't stop crying. I am so happy … it is just unbelievable," said Stenerhag. "I don't know what date it is today, but I think it is four days until exactly a year after my heart operation.

"Since that day my biggest goal was to try and come back to win this race. To pull it through is something completely unreal. I cannot believe that I am standing here as the winner.

"I think we won by keeping everything smooth and consistent. We just kept calm and never thought we could win until now when we crossed the line. I think that helped because we never stressed about anything – just kept it smooth.

"It is a fairytale. I put so much into it. Everything I have done for the last three months has been to just with this as a goal. It is just amazing."

Evans and Hincapie capped off their debut at the race as they took out the seventh stage to ensure overall victory in the masters category.

"We didn't have many time checks so we didn't really know where we were," said Evans "We knew we were at least three or four minutes up but you can't be sure until you cross the line, so we just kept pressure on right to the line.

"George had a bad moment mid-way when we came off on a descent. When he dropped it, it unsettled him a bit … but otherwise we were pretty good. I rode nine Tours de France and 16 Grand Tours in my career, so those ones mentally are much more taxing because of the duration. But the Epic is hard for your legs."

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