Sauser & Bundi victorious in third stage

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Max Knox and Thomas Zahnd (DCM) proved during the third stage of the Cape Pioneer Trek that it will take a super human effort from Kevin Evans and Adrien Niyonshuti (MTN-Energade) to take the coveted yellow jersey from them.

Judging by the way they rode during the third stage, which is considered to be one of the toughest of the entire race, it is starting to look as if Knox and Zahnd will be hard to overtake on the overall classification.

Evans admitted as much. "The only thing left for us to do is to play the waiting game. The only chance that we have of winning the tour is if Max and Thomas make a really stupid mistake or if they have some serious setback as far mechanical problems are concerned," Evans said.

The third stage was a classic case of Evans and Niyonshuti winning the battle but losing the war. Niyonshuti attacked 50 meters from the line and managed to outsprint everybody. Unfortunately for the rider from Rwanda Evans was caught napping and that enabled Christoph Sauser and Silvio Bundi (Specialized-Songo.info) who were racing shoulder to shoulder to win the stage over 110km in four hours, 50 minutes and 34 seconds.

Evans crossed the line in fourth place which meant that the MTN-Energade team had to be satisfied with a second place finish. Knox and Zahnd finished third without losing time.

After three stages, the DCM-team has an overall lead of five minutes and 35 seconds on Evans and Niyonshuti. They are the only two teams who still are in contention for an overall victory. Brandon Stewart and Jacques Janse van Rensburg (DCM), who is currently the third placed team, is now 37 minutes behind.

What was sort of ironic during the third stage was when a journalist in the media vehicle wondered out aloud on how long the 34-year-old Sauser, a double world champion and Olympic medalist, will still be competitive.

"Is he not getting a little bit old", was the question asked?

Well Sauser let his legs do the talking.

On the Kammanassie Nature Reserve's old Voortrekker-trail, which is a really murderous technical climb of 1000m, where most mountain bikers can't help uttering three and four letter words that are not usually used in civilized conversations, Sauser seemed more interested in improving his photographic skills than necessarily in being part of an eight-man breakaway.

Near the top, while Niyonshuti was sprinting flat out to win the King of the Mountain-prime, Sauser was using only one hand to steer his mountain bike through the treacherous loose rocks. With his other hand he was holding a small digital camera. He seemed oblivious to what his rivals were doing. His only concern was to get a good picture of the helicopter hovering above them and the stunning view behind it.

Sauser only laughed when asked about his photographic obsession during what is considered to be the tour's second toughest stage.

"Yes it was really important for me to get a good picture of the helicopter. In South African racing, it is always special to have a helicopter hovering above you. I am going to use the picture on my website."

This nonchalant performance by Switzerland's top mountain biker made the journalist admit that he might have underestimated Sauser's abilities.

Sauser's was slightly concerned about the slower riders. "A lot of riders are really going to battle in the hot and very windy conditions. As far as I am concerned everybody who finishes this tough third stage is a winner."

Mixed category

The words blood, sweat and tears definitely became a reality for many a rider during the third stage. First there was the challenge to work your way upwards through the never ending loose rocks, bumps and holes to get to the top of the old Voortrekker-trail in the Kammanassie Nature Reserve. There was no respite racing downhill either. It was just as technical and challenging.

Things certainly did not ease up during the remainder of the stage from George to De Rust in the Southern Cape. In the last 40 kilometers, the riders' endurance was severely tested by a dry headwind while the temperature soared to a number somewhere in the mid thirties (degrees Celsius)

However, the harsh weather conditions and tough technical sections did not deter the mixed teams to keep on battling full on for the privilege to wear the coveted red jersey.

In the end, during a day where deals were offered and refused, water bottles lost leading to a near unbearable thirst and of course untimely punctures it was again Johan Labuschagne and Yolandi de Villiers (Cycle Lab) who proved that once the going gets tough, the tough gets going.

For the second day in a row they were the stage winners and in the process they gained another five minutes on the overall leaders in the mixed category, Kobus and Fienie Barnard (Klein Karoo). They are now fourth, 30 minutes behind.

De Villiers and Labuschagne's winning time was five hours, 21 minutes and 14 seconds.

According to Labuschagne, they tried making a deal with the Swiss-team, Patrick Griessen and Ariane Luthi, during the last 30 kilometers. "We asked them to work with us so as to try and make up as much time as possible on the other teams. The deal we offered them was that if we work together they should allow us to win the stage and in return they will get to wear the red jersey.

"When the Swiss-team turned the deal down, I dropped back to Yolandi and told her what happened. We then bided our time before I used a 'slingshot' to catapult Yolandi into the lead. From then on we made the racing really hard. The Swiss tried chasing us down for about a kilometer before giving up.

"As luck would have it Damien Booth and Cornell van Heerden joined up with us. That made things a lot easier because we could take turns setting the pace up front."

Griessen and Luthi finished second in a time of 5:23.49.

Luthi said afterwards their problems started when she lost her water bottle. "In effect, it meant that for the last 60 minutes of the race we had no water. You certainly don't want to be in such a situation if you have to race against a dry headwind in hot conditions. I am just glad that we did not lose too much time."

Actually Luthi deserve a special mention. She has only been cycling seriously for the last 12 months. She used to be a swimmer.

The Barnards finished third in a time of 5:27:11 in doing so they ensured that they still have a four minute and 2 second lead on the Swiss team and are nearly 16 minutes ahead of Marcel Deacon and Ischen Stopforth (Bizhub).

According to Kobus Barnard the turning point in their race came when he punctured on the decent of the treacherous Kammanassie.

"Up until then we were all riding together. Although it did not take long to repair the puncture we could not manage to catch up with the leaders again. That meant we were out on our own for the last 30 kilometers. That made for some real tough going."

Stopforth admitted that there was not much she enjoyed during the third stage. "I consider myself to be a hard woman that can handle a lot. Today was the first time that I literally cried during a race."

Veterans' category

Andrew McLean and Bruce Diesel (Cycle Lab) who race as veterans (over 40) impressed everybody when they latched on to the pro-elite breakaway group on the Kammannasie-climb and managed to stay with them until the finish. Taking their fair share of turns in front to set the tempo.

After yesterday's heroic performance McLean and Diesel are leading the veterans category by more than 90 minutes.

Afterwards Janse van Rensburg, a roadie turned mountain biker, did not hold back when asked what he thought about the route through the Kammannasie. "Sometimes I really battle to understand how mountain bikers think. Why would anybody want to race on a route where you cannot ride your bike. It is definitely not any fun. "

Stage 3 Full results

General classification after stage 3