Schurter and Stirnemann never actually set their sights on overall victory. Instead, they wanted to gain important experience as a duo this year and then really go for it in 2018. But woe betide them once they have race numbers on their handlebars. There was no sign of restraint after the prologue. The two Scott-Sram riders made themselves comfortable in second place - while their direct opponents struggled with defects (Fumic/Avancini) or performance lows (Sauser/Kulhavy). In the end, Schurter and Stirnemann moved up to position 1 and never relinquished it in a commanding manner. Not only did they dominate their rivals, they were also largely spared any bad luck during the seven stages.

Swiss overall victories in (almost) all categories

The dominance of Swiss mountain bikers at the Cape Epic is impressive. In addition to Nino Schurter and Matthias Stirnemann, two other Swiss riders, Christoph Sauser (2nd place) and Nicola Rohrbach (3rd place), are on the overall podium. In the women's race, Esther Süss and her Swedish partner Jennie Stenerhag convincingly dominated the women's classification. This is their third Cape Epic victory. An old acquaintance is also back on the podium in South Africa: Thomas Frischknecht and his team rider Jenny Rissveds win the mixed classification almost unchallenged. And no Cape Epic podium without Bärti Bucher from Central Switzerland. Together with Austrian Heinz Zoerweg, he is the undisputed leader in the final standings of the Grandmasters category with a lead of over 2.5 hours. The only category not won by a Swiss team is the Masters class. None other than the two ex-road pros Cadel Evans and George Hincapie are at the top here.

"Young Guns" fire again

Not only are the Swiss at the top of the overall rankings almost across the board, the final stage also goes to a Swiss rider: Andri Frischknecht and Michiel van der Heijden win the seventh stage convincingly, proving that even very young riders can have a serious say in major tours. Both went into the stage adventure with even less ambition than Schurter and Stirnemann. They had no experience of such distances but knew that they were actually still a good deal too young for such projects. They threw both facts to the wind. The same applies to them: woe betide them once they have race numbers on their handlebars. They fly back to Europe on Tuesday with two stage wins.

Stage video from Scott on the final stage of the Cape Epic 2017