Knox, Zahnd make it two stage wins in a row

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After stage two of the six-day Cape Pioneer Tour, it is not a secret what Max Knox and Thomas Zahnd (DCM)'s favourite number is once they get onto their mountain bikes to race.

For the second consecutive day, the riders from South Africa and Switzerland managed to outride their rivals when it mattered most. So it is only logical to conclude that their favourite number must definitely be number one.

Knox and Zahnd's winning time for the stage from Mosselbay to George (110km) was four hours, 24 minutes and 20 seconds. This second stage victory means that they now have a six minute and 24 second lead over Kevin Evans and Adrien Niyonshuti (MTN-Energade) and are nearly 15 minutes ahead of the third placed team, Brandon Stewart and Jacques Janse van Rensburg (DCM).

Evans & Niyonshuti's time for the second stage was 4:26:47 and Charles Keey and Dave Morison (Blend Property Group) were third in a time of 4:32:58.

A weary Knox made it clear that he and Zahnd cannot afford to be complacent.

"The tour is still far from being won. As I have said many times before in a mountain biking tour, nothing is definite until you cross the finish line on the last day. If you dare to get over confident you are tempting fate. That is when things start going wrong."

The big question is how Knox is keeping up. It should not be forgotten that he has been racing for five days nonstop while his rivals have only been racing for two days.

Knox and Stewart won the Three Towers Mountain Bike Tour on Sunday in the Lowveld and then immediately flew down to the Southern Cape to compete in the DCM Cape Pioneer. "I must be honest. I am counting the days, and I am glad to say that there are only four racing days left before my racing season for this year is finished."

According to Zahnd, the deciding moment in today's stage happened about 15 kilometers from the finish on a very technical singletrack section.

"We decided to put the hammer down by making the racing really hard. To our surprise, we suddenly found ourselves out in front on our own. From then on out the challenge was to keep on racing as hard as we could and to see how much time we can gain. In a mountain bike tour like this every second counts," said Zahnd.

The rider from Switzerland was full of praise for the route of today's stage. "I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of racing. It was a challenging but do-able day in the saddle."

Evans, South Africa's ultra marathon champion, was not too disappointed about finishing second again. "We had a little bit of bad luck during the last technical section. Luckily we did not lose too much time. The challenge for me and Adrien is just to keep calm and bide our time so as to be ready to make the most of it if Max and Thomas should make a mistake in one of the last four stages," Evans said.

The bad luck story of the day was when the teams of Brandon Stewart and Janse van Rensburg (DCM) and Switzerland's Christoph Sauser and Silvio Bundi (Specialized/Songo.Info) got lost on the last technical section.

For most of the race, it seemed as if Sauser, a former Olympic medalist and two-time World Champion, and Bundi were going to win the stage. Up until the last technical section Sauser was putting in long and hard minutes in the front of the breakaway group consisting of eight teams.

No one is quite sure how they managed to lose their way.

According to Stewart, things started going wrong when they got to a sign with an arrow pointing towards the left.

"Just as we turned, I saw two logs across the road so we continued riding on what we thought was the right route, but obviously it was not. We ended up riding into the school grounds of Saasveld and from there into George, by that time we were really lost, not having any idea of where the finish was.

"Out of pure desperation, we stopped at a cycle shop and asked the owner if he knew where the finish was. He told us that he will drive us towards the finish. So we ended up following his car to the finish."

Sauser, who is on a cycling holiday, seemed not to be to upset by his unforeseen adventure. "Things like this do happen in mountain biking, you can lose concentration for just a split second and miss a marker. My biggest reward was getting to the finish and receiving a free pizza."

Mixed category

Things are certainly starting to hot up in the mixed category of the DCM Cape Pioneer mountain bike tour. After the second stage, Kobus and Fienie Barnard (Klein Karoo) are the new leaders while stage one's biggest losers, Johan Labuschagne and Yolande de Villiers (Cycle Lab), won the second stage from Mosselbay to George.

Marcel Deacon and Ischen Stopforth (Bizhub), who won the first stage, were the ones who were involved in a battle for survival during stage two, finishing fourth and slipping down to second overall.

Nobody was more surprised than Fienie Barnard to hear that she and her husband, Kobus, are the new leaders in the mixed category. "I really did not expect us to be wearing the red jerseys because we are only racing to enjoy ourselves. We are leaving the overall victory to the professionals."

Kobus Barnard agreed with his wife. "Racing the Cape Pioneer Trek beats being at the office any day. Stage two was really fantastic. The scenery was just amazing."

By winning the second stage, De Villiers proved that she was not just making small talk when she said that she and Labuschagne will keep on fighting until the last stage to try and ensure a podium finish. Therefore it was no surprise when De Villiers & Labuschagne took the lead right from the start relentlessly fought the clock until they crossed the finish line in George.

Their aggressive approach certainly paid dividends because by winning in a time of four hours, 57 minutes and 42 seconds Labuschagne and De Villiers managed to win back 10 minutes on the leaders. They are now only 35 minutes behind the overall leaders compared to being 45 minutes down after stage one. They are fourth overall.

Labuschagne was all smiles after the stage and with good reason. He did not have to stop and fix a puncture once during stage two. "I will be honest stage one turned out to be pure hell the moment I cut my tyre. I have never battled so hard just to try and ensure that there is air in a bicycle tyre. The biggest workout I got during the whole stage was using my bicycle pump. At one stage I considered getting into the 'broomwagon'.

"The only good news as far as I am concerned is that you only get to puncture so badly every 10 years, so I guess I can relax for the rest of the tour."

What is amazing about De Villiers' performance is the fact that during the last three weeks she has raced some of the toughest endurance events. Not only did she win a three day mountain bike tour, she also finished third overall in the six day Southern Storm (running ,cycling), finished second in the MTN Crater Cruise and then won the Seweweeks Poort mountain bike marathon.

Women's category

Renate Telser from Switzerland is one of the Cape Pioneer's heroes not only because she and her teammate Nathalie Schneitter have won the first two stages in the women's race and are the leaders in their category.

What makes her performance remarkable is the fact that she is deaf. In the true spirit of mountain biking she is riding to prove to herself and everybody across the world that life is what you make of it and that anybody is capable of anything if you are prepared to put your mind to it.

Schneitter who is the women's winner of this year's UCI World Cup cross country race in Champerey, Switzerland gets quite excited once she starts speaking about her teammate's guts.

"Renate keeps on amazing me. She is the sister of my trainer. When she asked me whether I would be prepared to be her partner in a mountain bike tour I immediately accepted.

"Renate wants to show the people back home, that even with a big handicap it is possible to do very well in sport and that people like me with no handicap could help them to achieve their goals."

According to Schneitter, riding with Telser is not really that different from riding with any other rider. "The start is our only real problem because things can sometimes be quite hectic. Renate can't hear the starter's gun and the other riders around her. So if somebody yells a warning it does not help. That makes things very stressful for her, but once we are out on the route things are fine again."

Schneitter admits that she is no expert in sign language. "But I am learning as the tour progresses. I can sign to Renate when I want us to race faster or when she should be careful."

Veterans' category

Andrew McLean and Bruce Diesel (Cycle Lab) also won the second stage in the men's veteran category, but it was not all plain sailing.

Diesel had all sorts of mechanical problems. "Luckily we were not under any pressure to defend our jersey so we did not have to kill ourselves. Actually it was nice not to be racing flat out for a change. It meant that we could just ride and enjoy ourselves.

"What I really like about mountain biking is the fact that you get to see places that very few other people get to see," McLean said.

Diesel was quite philosophical about his mechanical problems. "It does not help getting frustrated when you are having mechanical problems. It is a given that as a mountain biker that at one stage you will have problems, and if you cannot deal with it, you should not be racing."

McLean and Diesel's winning time was four hours, 54 minutes and 39 seconds which was still the seven fastest of the day.

Stage 2 full results

General classification results after stage 2