Brentjens, Pietersma sublime in Ceres

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Bart Brentjens and Jelmer Pietersma of Trek-Brentjens attained their dream of a stage win at this year's Cape Epic as they sprinted to victory on stage 2 of the South African event. The duo took a narrow victory over Karl Platt and Stefan Sahm of the Bulls 1 Team, with South Africa’s Kevin Evans and Alban Lakata of the MTN Qhubeka Topeak Ergon team following closely behind in the first sprint finish of this year’s event.

“Today was really great with lots of single-track, but fast and small climbs all the way,” added Brentjens. “The Flückiger brothers were unlucky as was Schurter and Vogel. This year’s race has some really strong contenders. As it is, the Cape Epic is a hard race and very different to any other events – one needs to use a different race tactic. It’s push, push, push all the way – and today’s stage was hard as you had to concentrate all the time and stay focussed. There were also some annoying sandy sections towards the end.”

Asked what his hopes of a second stage win were, Brentjens said, “The stages count together, and one gets more tired as the race goes along. At least today we finished early and can take some time to relax.”

Sahm's teammate, Karl Platt, was particularly confident of what lays ahead for their combination. “Today was a nice stage with lots of awesome singe-track," he said. "At the beginning of the stage, the sun shone right into our faces which made it a bit tricky as you couldn’t see the stones, only dust. We’re feeling really strong and although we finished in second place, we’ll take the jersey in the end.”

The first ladies to the finish of Stage 2 were Hannele Steyn-Kotze and Ivonne Kraft (Team Sludge Ladies), who completed the course in a time of 5:16:10 (also first overall at 11:04:05). They were again followed by Kristine and Anna-Sofie Noergaard (Team Rothaus-CUBE) in a time of 5:22:31 who remain in second position overall (11:15:19). Giuliana Vitali and Tamara Horn (Team bike2help.ch – Big Tree) finished in a time of 5:39.01,5, placing them in third position overall (11:53:34).

Yolande Speedy and Paul Cordes (MTN Business Qhubeka) finished in first place today in a time of 4:44:23. They are now placed second (overall) in their category (10:07:24). They were followed by yesterday’s category winners Bärti Bucher and Esther Süss (Wheeler – BIXS) in a time of 4:48:40, however Bucher and Süss retained the first place overall (10:03.38,2). Nico Pfitzenmaier and Sally Bigham of the Adidas Big Tree team again finished in third place (4:59:41) and remain in the same position overall (10:22:45).

Cyclelab’s Shan Wilson and Andrew Mclean again took top honours in Stage 2 (4:40:49) to maintain their overall lead in the masters category (9:51:32). They were followed by the Big Tree Masters Team Corrie Muller and Robert Sim (5:02:03), who are now in third place overall (11:35:23). Adrian Enthoven and Gary Marescia (Cycle Lab Jag Foundation) finished in third place today in 5:05:26 and are placed second overall (10:41:28).

“Today was tough but good," said Wilson. "We extended our lead and are very happy with the result. We only had one flat at the beginning of the stage – but nothing major. The single-track made the race more technical, so one had to concentrate all the time.”

Video from stage two is provided by www.rsaweb.co.za.