Hermida/Naef escape for stage 6 win

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No South African has ever won the overall title at the ABSA Cape Epic, but on Sunday, Burry Stander could change that. The 23-year-old KwaZulu-Natalian and his Swiss teammate, Christoph Sauser (34) have not only been consistent, but also dominant during the past week, taking five stage wins and two second places.

And on Sunday, the world’s most prestigious mountain bike stage race wraps up with the South African/Swiss combination, racing for Team 36One-Songo-Specialized, holding 10-minute lead. Normally, a 10-minute lead going into the final day of any sports event would be considered comfortable. But in mountain bike racing, unpredictability is as much a rider’s companion as his padded shorts and helmet.

Should they avoid major mechanical problems, illness or injury on Sunday’s 79km trip from Oak Valley Wine Estate to Lourensford Wine Estate, Stander and Sauser should win. And it will be a well-earned, long-awaited win. Sauser, a two-time former world champion and Olympic medallist, won the race overall in 2006 with compatriot Silvio Bundi. But in their first three attempts as teammates (2008–2010), Sauser and Stander, always starting as title favourites, have fallen victim to injury, mechanical failure and illness – in that order.

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On Saturday’s tough 128km Stage 6 that started and finished at Oak Valley, the 36One-Songo-Specialized pair were beaten to finish by Spain’s current Olympic cross country world champion, Jose Hermida and his Swiss teammate, Ralf Naef, a former Marathon world champion. Hermida and Naef had to work hard for the stage win though and only managed to shed Sauser and Stander close to the finish where they clocked a winning time of 5:00:47.

"It was our goal to win a stage, so we’re very happy. We worked for our teammates Hannes and Jochen for most of the stage and near the end they saw we could have a chance of winning and gave us the green light to go," said Hermida. "We pushed to the end and Susi (Christoph Sauser) and Burry (Stander) seemed to accept the situation and let us go. It was a difficult stage with the most climbing of all the stages. The terrain varied a lot from rocky to sandy and some really nice single track, which was good. It was great fun."

Hermida, who gives the amateur riders a witty summary of the day’s events in the evenings, said jokingly, "Today I was in the front and finally saw the top riders, so I can tell everyone about it."

"It was a great day for us and we’re really happy," said Näf. "For most of this year’s Cape Epic we’ve been helping our team mates to maintain their overall position. They were also strong today. We’re not here for the overall win but rather as final training for the season, so the stage win really means a lot. Of course we’ll try again tomorrow!"

Stander and Sauser rolled home just shy of a minute later, with the Swiss Fluckiger brothers, Thomas and Mathias (Trek World Racing) claiming the final podium spot, two-and-a-half minutes down.

"Today’s stage was hard, especially after yesterday," said Stander. "Hermida and Näf broke away and our motivation was not so high to catch them. They’re not a threat to us as they’re not close to us on the overall. We’re happy for them. We’ll take some extra parts tomorrow and ride hard to the climbing section. We’ll be more cautious on the descent as we want to get to Lourensford and ensure that we win."

Stander's teammate Sauser said, "It was an advantage for me because I know this area quite well. I knew we had to get to the singletrack first as it’s so tight there, but I didn’t know how all the trails were connected. It was very long towards to the end with lots of twists and turns in typical Dr Evil (route planner Leon Evans’ nickname) style. We’ll keep on riding like this tomorrow. I know the first climb is super hard, but once we get over the pass it’s okay. I hope we can hang on to our lead without killing ourselves. It’s better to ride safe than over the limit and make mistakes. This has been one of my best weeks ever in racing. I feel comfortable and still have some reserve. It feels like 2006 when I won the race and I’m sure next year will be really hard again."

Nobody has posed a consistent daily threat to Stander and Sauser this year, but the team closest to them on the overall classification, Germans Jochen Kaess and Hannes Genze (Multivan Merida 2) finished Saturday’s stage fifth, losing another two minutes to 36One-Songo-Specialized. A distant third is the German Bulls team, defending champions and three-time winners.

It also appears as if a South African will win the women’s title. The country's marathon champion, Karien van Jaarsveld and her Team USN teammate, British marathon champion, Sally Bigham, finished third on Saturday’s stage, but extended their lead significantly to 1:26:00 over the all-South African pair of Hanlie Booyens and Ischen Stopforth (ABSA aBreast).

Stage winners on Saturday, Italian Eva Lechner and Swiss Nathalie Schneitter (Colnago-Arreghini-Sudtirol) moved to less than a minute-and-a-half within a final podium place and are expected to chase that goal with purpose on Sunday.

Nathalie Schneitter (team Colnago Arreghini Südtirol) said she crashed yesterday. "So it was really hard. I had to ride for 70km without a fork. It was wonderful to win the stage today. It was our plan as the course suited us quite well. We got away at the beginning and had a peaceful day. We closed the gap to the team that was in second place so we’re happy with our performance. We’d really like another stage win tomorrow."

Lechner said, "The view from on top of the mountain was spectacular. We’ll recover now and perhaps go for a stage win again tomorrow. This is my first Cape Epic and it’s a lot harder than I thought."

Karien van Jaarsveld (USN) comments that they had a fun race. “It was quite long though. I’m really looking forward to tomorrow and the finish line. We have a good lead so can have some fun. I always dreamt of finishing the Absa Cape Epic and to ride in the Leader jersey is a privilege. It’s amazing to ride with Sally. She’s so experienced, strong and disciplined. We have a similar mindset to racing which helps. We’ve also become good friends and have fun riding in such special terrain. The Cape Epic was a goal race for me this year and I’ll first recover before tackling my next goal which is the World Marathon Championships.”

The master’s category on Saturday was won by Germans Cartsen Bresser and Udo Boelts (Team juwi), who lie 15th overall and have almost a one-hour lead over South Africans Robert Sim and Doug Brown with one stage remaining. Women’s marathon world champion Esther Suss and Barti Bucher (Wheeler BiXS) have won every stage of the 2011 Mixed category race and have a one-hour advantage over second-placed South African, Erik Kleinhans and his Swiss fiancé, Ariane Luthi (Contego-Giant-Sludge).

Namibian Mannie Heymans and Rwandan Adrien Nyonshuti (Garmin adidas MTN), both sporting icons in their respective countries are ninth overall and the leading African team.

"Today went without incidents for us. The pace was very fast and it was hard for us at the beginning. We decided to ride with Shan (Wilson) and Brandon (Stewart) and rode at a steady pace. We lost them at the last water point – I’m not sure if they had a mechanical. Then we caught up with Milka-Trek 2 and rode with them," said Heymans. "We had some fun through the singletrack. It’s awesome to train here. All in all it was a comfortable day in the saddle and we’re happy with the African leaders' jerseys."

After seven days, the 2011 Cape Epic, which started with 1200 riders from 54 countries, will conclude. The 404 remaining teams and 44 individual riders that lost teammates along the way, will start the final stage having completed 648km and climbed 12850 vertical metres.

At 79km with 1700 metres of climbing, Sunday’s final stage isn’t quite a procession, but does usually see the category leaders with large advantages taking it a little easier. After what has been described as probably the toughest edition of the Cape Epic yet, you can’t really blame them.

Full Results (Provisional)