Knox, Zahnd complete hat trick of stage wins

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Max Knox and Thomas Zahnd ensured that Ian van der Walt, owner of DCM, is a more than proud event-sponsor when they completed a hat trick of victories by also winning the fourth stage of the DCM Cape Pioneer Trek. It is beginning to look more and more like the DCM team will also win overall.

Knox and Zahnd's winning time for the 110km fourth stage from De Rust to Prince Albert was four hours, 41 minutes and 32 seconds which means that they now have an overall lead of 18 minutes and three seconds on Kevin Evans and Adrien Niyonshuti (MTN-Energade).

The MTN-Energade Team's hopes of winning the tour effectively ended when the chain on Niyonshuti's mountain bike broke halfway during the fourth stage. Despite of a quick fix, Evans and Niyonshuti could not catch up with the leaders again. At the last water point they were forced to accept defeat.

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Christoph Sauser and Silvio Bundi (Specialized-Songo.info) were the day's other big losers. For the most of the race they were racing in front with the DCM team taking turns to set the pace against a headwind that at time blew for nearly 70km of the route today.

All indications were that the two teams were going to battle it out in a sprint to the line, but it did not happen. About two kilometers from the finish, Bundi made a slight judgement error which led to his bike's front wheel sliding out from under him. The rider from Switzerland crashed heavily into a thick sandy section.

He was back on his bike quickly but it was to no avail. Sauser and Bundi finished in four hours, 41 minutes and 55 seconds, 23 seconds behind the winners.

Bundi refused to use his crash as an excuse. "I am not so sure whether we would have been able to outsprint the DCM Team. 'Suzi' (as Sauser is known) already killed me with the pace he was setting."

Knox once again made it clear that there can't be any talk about a tour win until Saturday. "The wheel is round. We had an easy week without any mechanical problems while everyone else had bad luck. When somebody has mechanical problems and lose time it is not the best way to win, but this is mountain biking where anything can happen at any time. When an opportunity arises you must make the most of it, because you never know when it is your turn to crash or fix a mechanical problem.

"I can just hope that our luck holds until Saturday."

Zahnd agrees with Knox that they are the lucky team so far. He had only two complaints after the fourth stage. "There must be something wrong with my mountain bike's fork because on the steep climbs and rocky descends I kept on hitting rocks. My arms are now even sorer than my legs.

"I am also never going to believe the stories they tell us at the race briefings. We were made to believe that after the climbs, we were going to have an easy to ride to the finish however the organizers did not warn us about the headwind."

Matthys and Gerrie Beukes (Mtbdestination.com) can certainly lay claim to be the DCM Cape Pioneer's 'comeback kids'. During the first stage Matthys Beukes had a bad puncture which led to them losing more than an hour.

The two brothers refused to let that get them down. From the second stage they have been slowly but surely gaining time on the leaders. Yesterday, they finished fourth in a time of five hours, two minutes and three seconds.

Mixed

Patrick Griessen has gone from being a mechanic for mountain bike champions to becoming a champion in his own right. Griessen and Ariane Luthi (Sputnik-Bikeshop.Ch) won the fourth stage in the mixed category in a time of five hours, 15 minutes and 17 seconds and in doing so they are now leading by more than 11 minutes.

Griessen and Luthi's performance might easily be seen as the tour's "fairy tale". From 2003 to 2005 Griessen was the mechanic whose main responsibility was to ensure that Christoph Sauser never had mechanical failures when he raced.

He then quit to go help his dad in the Sputnik Bike Shop. This career change gave Griessen the opportunity to start racing himself. He soon realized that he is not a bad marathon racer.

Griessen met Luthi after her cousin suggested that he should sponsor her. After seeing her race he readily agreed.

It was Sauser who suggested that the two of them should race the Cape Pioneer together.

"I always wanted to come and race in South Africa but when the Cape Epic is on, it is spring in Switzerland which means that we are quite busy in the bike shop. "The Cape Pioneer takes place in our winter, so it is perfect timing. This is certainly not the last time that I will be racing it," Griessen said.

Luthi used to be a competitive swimmer and tri-athlete before she started to compete in mountain bike races. In the past few days she has astonished a lot of male riders with her aggressive riding.

Apparently Luthi does not hesitate to go to the front and set the pace if she thinks they are riding to slow. In the process she has dented quite a few male ego's because not everybody can keep when she is riding in front. When asked about it Luthi just laughed and said that it is just a way to enjoy herself.

Johann Labuschagne and Yolandi de Villiers (Cycle Lab) finished second in the fourth stage in a time of 5:24:18 which means that they are now in third overall. According to Labushagne they did not have the best of days.

"Yolandi suffered two punctures, one in her left leg and one in her right leg that forced us to take things a little bit easier today," said Labuschagne jokingly.

De Villiers complained afterwards that there was a moment when she felt like "Absalon". That was when she rode into a thorn bush. At the finish she was more pre-occupied with pulling out thorns than answering questions as to how her race went.

Kobus and Fienie Barnard (Klein Karoo) who were the leaders for two stages had really bad luck. Kobus Barnard reckons that he ate something that was off in De Rust that meant that he started the fourth stage with an upset stomach.

"I had to stop four times in the veld. To top it all we had to stop and fix a derailleur which meant that we lost at least another five minutes, but I am not complaining. We managed to finish and there is still two days of racing left."

They finished third in a time of 5:31:04 and are now lying second overall.

Stage 4 Results

General classification after four stages