Genze & Kaess win stage 3 while Sauser and Stander retain overall lead

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Stage three delivered new winners in both the men's and women's categories. Hannes Genze and Jochen Käss (Multivan Merida Biking) took the men's stage while Sally Bigham and Karien Van Jaarsveld (team USN). Bigham and Van Jaarsveld are also the new race leaders after the previous leaders received a time penalty and finished second today. Burry Stander and Christoph Sauser (36ONE Songo Specialized) continue to lead the men's race.

With the fast roads out of Tulbagh, riders covered 13km before the first climb. It was steep at times and very loose, requiring hard bursts of effort to gain momentum over the rockiest parts. If there was ever a theme of race week, it's "from effort comes reward". After the 4km climb, riders arrived at a plateau with a beautiful valley nestled between spectacular mountains that resemble the pictures found on the covers of fantasy novels.

There was little time to look around during the race though - the deeply rutted descent tested rider and equipment alike. After smooth farm roads and more rocky tracks, tyres were put to the test, with devil thorns lying in wait. A long drag upwards on a rough path lead to a remote hut at the foot of the cliff face of the bare rock of the mountainside. This area is a geologist's paradise. After the final water point, Absa Cape Epic veterans experienced déjà vu, with a similar run into the race village through some winding single-track.

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Men's category

The German team of Hannes Genze and Jochen Käss (Multivan Merida Biking) beat the South African/Swiss team of Burry Stander and Christoph Sauser (36ONE Songo Specialized) in a sprint finish by 2.8 seconds, securing their first stage win in this year's Cape Epic. Stander and Sauser still lead overall by six minutes and 15 seconds, with three times winners Karl Platt and Stefan Sahm (Bulls team) in fourth place overall and eight minutes and 32 seconds behind the leaders.

With an overall time of 14 hours, 40 minutes and 29 seconds, the 36ONE Songo Specialized team will wear the yellow leader jersey for stage 4 tomorrow.

Genze and Käss of Multivan Merida Biking were the first to sprint across the finish line, securing their first stage win in this year's event in 5:06.33 (overall 14:40.29). They were closely followed by Sauser and Stander in 5:06.36 (overall 14:34.14). In third place, with their first podium finish this year, were Bart Brentjens and Jeroen Boelen of Milka-Trek in 5:06.49 (overall 15:11.26) with the Platt and Sahm in fourth (5:07.44; overall 14:42.46). Nicolas Vermeulen and Kevin van Hoovels (team Versluys-Evenza) again finished in fifth place in 5:10.10 (overall 15:00.03)

"About 20km from the finish, we broke away from the Bulls team and carried on riding with Sauser and Stander," said Käss."We're extremely happy with our stage win. I trained differently to previous winters and it obviously worked. We're in good shape. This stage win is excellent motivation for us to perhaps finish on the podium on Sunday and perhaps we can even finish in second place overall."

"Today was my best day so far and Jochen was also feeling strong," said Genze. "I wasn't feeling great on the uphill during the middle of the race, but near the end decided that I still had some energy left as I saved a bit yesterday which stood us in good stead today. Also, Susi (Christoph Sauser) and Stander didn't push for the stage win. Bart was riding very well today - his partner is a roadie (Jeroen Boelen) and roadies always want to attack to win stages. They attacked shortly before water point 2, but I think they spent too much energy alone on the tar, so we could close the gap again."

"We're happy with our overall result and weren't fighting for stage win," said Stander. "We're ahead of the Bulls overall. We stayed with the Multivan Merida Biking team and they broke away in the last 2km. We let them know if you want to win a stage, you have to earn it. This stage was very hard . I've never experienced something so tough. It was five hours of pain and at one point I couldn't feel my hands or feet. There were rocks everywhere and the first 50km felt like we'll be riding all day. Eventually we hit the tar. I take my hat off to anyone who finishes this stage!"

Brentjens of the Netherlands, the 2005 winner of the Cape Epic, two-time Olympic medallist and former World Champion and World Cup winner, finished in third place today with his team mate Boelen. "We attacked before water point 2, but we lost time as we took a wrong turn. We rode at a good speed and worked really hard. It was a long stage. This is my 6th Cape Epic, so I know the race, but Jeroen is a roadie and has never done the Cape Epic before. He's a new member of our team but I'm very happy with his performance. He's learning a lot - fast. Every day we plan for the next day and I really hope we can make it to the finish."

The reigning Belgian champion Vermeulen who was leading the front bunch and set the pace during the first kilometres of today's stage said his team had a great day. "I didn't have too much energy on the last climb. It was a hard day and one had to ride very carefully to avoid flats." Adds his teammate Kevin van Hoovels: "The first day was very hot, but I'm getting better every day - we still have four days to go and hope for a place on the podium."

José Hermida of the Multivan Merida Biking team says he is thrilled to keep one of their teams in front. "I'm really tired today, but we're fighting for our team in the race. I'm so pleased they won today. We enjoy helping where we can, but they still need to win it by themselves. I've had a headache for most of the day and it was really hard out there. But as they say, it takes many days to get to Paris."

African leaders' jerseys

Mannie Heymans and Adrien Niyonshuti (team Garmin adidas MTN) are the leaders in the African jerseys with an overall time of 15:34.01, followed by Paul Cordes and Charles Keey (MTN/Qhubeka) in 16:12.52. Brandon Stewart and Shan Wilson (Toyota DCM) in 16:15.10 are in third place

"The Cape Epic is a race of pacing and I think we're doing quite a good job," said Heymans. "We'll keep it consistent, and perhaps even finish in the top 10 of the elite group. It's not something we're aiming at but will be very good. I don't like time trials and today was a brutal day. The terrain was super tough and we rode alone for most of the stage. We'll go home, recover and come back fighting tomorrow. Consistency will definitely pay off!"

Women's category

Yesterday's leading team Eva Lechner and Nathalie Schneitter (team Colnago Arreghini Südtirol) received a time penalty of one hour. They were penalised for breaking rule 23.1 and 23.4 of the Cape Epic. Riders are not allowed any outside assistance with regards to spares, equipment and nutrition.

Sally Bigham and Karien Van Jaarsveld (team USN) were in the leaders jersey out of Tulbagh this morning and proved their competence by also winning stage 3 in a time of 6:43.36 (overall 19:25.15). They were followed by Hanlie Booyens and Ischen Stopforth of Absa aBreast in 6:48.41 (overall 19:47.21) with their first podium finish, ahead of Naomi Hansen and Jodie Willett of adidas who finished third in 6:55.45 (overall 20:22.01). Lechner and Schneitter lead by 22 minutes and six seconds.

"It was a really long stage, but even though we were in the leader jersey, we stayed within our strategy and were racing our own race," said van Jaarsveld. "We're both endurance riders and the other team's penalty didn't change anything for us. We just kept doing what we set out to do. I'm looking forward to tomorrow's shorter stage - the time trial. Our plan is to stay consistent. We've had immense support from everyone when we were told we'd be wearing the Leader jersey and we also behaved like leaders today. We're still riding quite conservatively, looking after ourselves and our equipment. We have a nice lead and don't need to take risks."

"I don't know how to feel about having the leader jersey because I'm not sure how it happened," said Bigham. "I'd want to be in the leader jersey because we're the strongest team, but I also firmly believe in sticking to rules. If it's true that they didn't stop at the water points, they saved a lot of time because it takes us at least two minutes at each water point, which adds up to six minutes per day in total.

"Having won today was really nice though and I'm really pleased. It was a tough stage and lived up to the Cape Epic's reputation. It definitely is the hardest race I've ever done and I've done quite a lot. We're halfway and I look forward to starting later tomorrow - we can rest, eat and recover a bit."

Stopforth said, "It was a lot longer and tougher than I expected with lots of sand, rocks and steep climbs. It was race, race, race form the word go for us."

"The back markers will definitely struggle today," said Booyens. "The route was extremely technical and will be very hard for the more inexperienced rider. I think it's the most technical stage ever in this race."

Willett noted that it was the roughest stage she has ever ridden in her life. "We worked well as a team today, but I must admit that my arms hurt more than my legs today. I'd definitely prefer the sand over the rocks and I'm really looking forward to a shorter day tomorrow."

"It was nice finishing in third place today and our third podium finish this year," said Hansen. "I raced with my boyfriend in 2009 and must say I much prefer having a girl as a partner. My boyfriend just put his music on and there he went and I had to do my best to keep up. Racing with a girl is a lot easier - riding with a guy is just hard - so I really prefer to race with girls!"

Mixed category

The Wheeler - BIXS team, Bärti Bucher and Esther Suss, again won the mixed category in 6:13.11 (overall 17:29.20), again followed by Erik Kleinhans and Ariane Lüthi (of Contego Giant Sludge) in 6:17.48 (overall 18:07.35). The Swiss/German team of Klaus Steinkeller and Kerstin Brachtendorf (FIAT Rotwild) achieved their first podium finish in 6:36.29 (overall 19:01.33). The Wheeler - Bixs team lead by 38 minutes and 15 seconds.

Reigning marathon world champion Süss, of team Wheeler - BIXS said, "I didn't enjoy today. It was only hard work and no fun. You couldn't ride really and we also had a mechanical, which took us about 10 minutes, but at least it gave us time to eat and drink as we were very thirsty. I also had a problem with my hand - it hurt this morning. Today was not my type of stage - I like riding fast."

"We couldn't go fast today. But we were lucky - we had a mechanical 6km before the water point and it could've been worse and further away," said Bucher. "We're really looking forward to the time trial."

Kleinhans said, "It was really difficult until the second water point. But after that we enjoyed it. It was nice mountain bike riding and not boring at all. Ariane struggled a bit at the beginning to find her rhythm."

"We pushed hard to catch up to the leaders after the second water point," said Lüthi. "Erik was pushing really hard and I was just trying to hold on. They're a very strong team. Tomorrow's stage will be more intense, so I'm not sure that I'm going to like it that much." Kleinhans and Lüthi are getting married a week after the Cape Epic. Erik looks after me like the biggest gentleman. I'm even surer I want to marry him."

Master's category

The Juwi team (Carsten Bresser and Udo Boelts) won the stage for the fourth consecutive day in 5:35.20 (overall 16:05.34). They were again followed by Robert Sim and Doug Brown of the Robert Daniel team in 5:50.14 (overall 16:47.23) with the Nandos team of Adrian Enthoven and Gerrie Beukes again in third place in 5:55.00 (overall 17:12.19). The Juwi team leads by 41 minutes and 49 seconds.

"It was a very tough stage but we found a good rhythm. We're very happy about tomorrow's time trial," said Bresser. "It gives us time to relax a bit. We're halfway and really tired, but so is everyone."

Brown reckoned it was a very difficult stage. "We were lucky with the weather. Today's stage seemed very long and it was really nice to get to the finish. I also enjoyed the school kids cheering us on. It's amazing how it gives you a lift. The leaders in our category are really fast and we're riding at our limit. We're going as hard as we can every day, but with this race anything can happen."

Enthoven said he had a puncture when they were 10km from the finish. "We rode easy from there and made sure we had no major other problems. It was a great day and we rode on our own, which means you can go at your own pace. It would've been hard to ride in a group today. The atmosphere at the finish line was fantastic with all the screaming and shouting kids. It makes the pain and suffering worthwhile."

Stage 4: Worcester to Worcester (23km; 800m of climbing)

It's a first for the Cape Epic - two time trials in the 2011 race. This is a 32km route through the foothills of Brandwacht. As in 2010, riders traverse the western side of Worcester in this semi-desert environment. Added to last year's route is an extra 5km loop along dual tracks past the local golf course. The route data reads 860m of climbing which may not seem like a lot, but over such a short distance, it still requires a hard effort.

As usual, the top teams leave at one minute intervals, racing only against the clock, some looking for a stage win and others to consolidate. Riders should hold back on this stage and save themselves for the next half of the Cape Epic saga. With what's waiting for them in the coming days, they'll be glad they did.

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