Never before at the Absa Cape Epic has the lead of the race changed hands on the final stage. The closest was in 2007, when Karl Platt and Stefan Sahm took victory with a lead of three and a half minutes over future Tour de France star Jakob Fuglsang and Roel Paulissen. After eight days in the yellow jersey, the German pair won their first of three titles together, but only after a brutal final stage to the Lourensford vineyard.

15 years later, on the start line of the grand finale in Stellenbosch, there was a sense of inevitability, and not just in the minds of the 2022 underdogs of the race. Team Speed Company Racing had been talking about their chances of overall victory ever since their surprising second place in the first prologue in Lourensford seven days earlier. The German upstarts quickly became crowd favorites; private riders in the toughest mountain bike stage race in the world, making the race difficult for the factory teams and winning more fan hearts stage by stage.

On Saturday's stage 6, they had reduced their gap to Andreas Seewald and Martin Stošek (Canyon Northwave MTB) by almost four minutes and rode into Val de Vie just two minutes and 46 seconds behind to secure yellow. It was clear that they would go full gas from the start. Could they pull it off? The form book said yes.

Only Nino Schurter and Lars Forster from SCOTT-SRAM and the duo of Maxime Marotte and Keegan Swenson from Santa Cruz were able to keep up with them when they set off early on the 68 km course. The first detonation came on Muratie's magnificent network of trails, and it would prove to be the decisive one. By the 16km checkpoint, Egger and Baum were already 40 seconds ahead of Seewald and Stošek, who had defending champion Matt Beers and his new (Toyota-NinetyOne-Specialized) partner Christopher Blevins as companions.

The quartet worked well to limit the gap to the attacking Germans in the first hour and a half of the race. Former winner Stefan Sahm, riding Speed Company Racing's Media E-bike, was barely able to keep up. "It's like they're winding their way to the finish," he said. "It's the right thing to do because they have nothing to lose.

The gap remained under a minute, but then slowly began to widen before dropping again on the final climbs of the race in the Simonsberg Conservancy. Santa Cruz and SCOTT-SRAM kept pace with Speed Company Racing for most of the day, potentially setting up a sprint finish on the final day. However, Baum and Egger attacked with almost unbelievable energy on the last, steep and winding climb of the Absa Cape Epic 2022. The rubber band snapped and Santa Cruz and SCOTT-SRAM fell back.

By the time Speed Company Racing reached the Val de Vie Estate singletrack, they may have known that their lead had grown to over five minutes (with only Lukas' father being the only backup crew, it was difficult to get information about the course), but it didn't show as they sprinted to the finish almost two minutes ahead of SCOTT-SRAM.


A dejected Canyon-Northwave duo rolled to the finish almost six minutes behind the new Absa Cape Epic champions, who are now second overall, while Beers and Blevins retain their third place after one of the most entertaining, exciting and unpredictable weeks in the history of the Untamed African MTB Race.

I'm so emotional right now," said Lukas Baum. "I'm just riding with my best friend on the bike and it's paid off in a great way."

Egger added: "We didn't have any time controls out there, we didn't know what was happening, we didn't know we were ahead in the overall standings. We didn't know anything. It was even better that way, because if we had known we were in the lead, we probably would have made a mistake."

Results overall classification
1st Speed Company Racing / Georg EGGER & Lukas BAUM (GER), 27:44:06.5
2nd Canyon Northwave MTB / Andreas SEEWALD (GER) & Martin STOŠE (CZE), 27:47:09.0
3rd Toyota-NinetyOne-Specialized / Matthew BEERS (RSA) & Christopher BLEVINS (USA), 27:54:45.0
4th BUFF-MEGAMO / Hans BECKING (NED) & José DIAS (POR), 28:14:06.5
5th Bulls / Urs HUBER (SUI) & Simon SCHNELLER (GER), 28:26:53.8
6th Wilier-Pirelli Factory / Cameron ORR & Daniel GEISMAYR (AUT), 28:36:53.2
7th Wilier-Pirelli / Fabian RABENSTEINER (ITA) & Wout ALLEMAN (BEL), 28:38:22.4
8th Imbuko {Type} DEV / Pieter DU TOIT & Marco JOUBERT (RSA), 28:43:04.3
9th SCOTT-SRAM / Nino SCHURTER & Lars FORSTER (SUI), 28:43:04.4
10th Trek-Vaude / Sascha WEBER (GER) & Jaco VENTER (RSA), 29:04:10.6

American-Argentine duo win the women's classification

The competitors, who were taking part in the Absa Cape Epic for the first time, took the lead in the CM.com Women's category on the first stage last Monday and never relinquished this position. With perfect stage tactics throughout the race, they finished 12.5 minutes ahead of second-placed Faces Rola (Candice Lill and Mariske Strauss).

On the final 68 km Grand Final stage from Stellenbosch to Val de Vie Estate, the CM.com women's category race took on a familiar shape. At the start of the stage, NinetyOne-songo-Specialized and Faces Rola pulled away from the other women's teams, although BMC MTB Racing's Pauline Ferrand-Prévot gave the impression that she meant business at the start of the stage. BMC MTB Racing pulled away after a strong start and left the race to NinetyOne-songo-Specialized and Faces Rola on the Trail to Val de Vie.

Before the final stage, Candice Lill said that she and Mariske Strauss would give it their all to win stage 7 of the 2022 Absa Cape Epic. They made good on their promise by matching Batten and Villafane pedal stroke for pedal stroke.

Gómez Villafane seemed to struggle on the early climbs, but she and Batten kept the pressure on the South African team. Lill broke away on the last climb of the day and eventually Faces Rola was able to pull away. They rode home unimpressed and took an excellent stage win.

"It was a dream race today," said Lill. "We fought really hard on the last climb to gain an advantage. I could see that Sofia was struggling, even though we were struggling too! Mariske and I gave it our all from the start today and it paid off."

Strauss said it was an emotional finish. "I got really emotional 10 km before the finish. I knew we had made it, but I was struggling with my emotions. I just had to keep pedaling."

Although he fell behind Faces Rola with 10 km to go, NinetyOne-songo-Specialized's overall lead was never in danger. Faces Rola crossed the finish line, and four minutes later Batten and Villafane arrived and waved to the spectators as they rode down the finish line of the Absa Cape Epic for the last time in 2022.

"This is just an incredible feeling," said an overjoyed Haley Batten. "We've had a good week. We didn't make too many mistakes and not much went wrong for us. Even on our weaker days we were strong enough to limit the damage. It was tough out there. This event is so tough. I'm so proud of our performance. The whole team was great. Everyone did their part to make sure we crossed the finish line first. The support at the Absa Cape Epic is incredible. There's nothing like it anywhere else."

Villafane said the morning started with Batten determined to take the stage win. "Haley was on fire in the morning. She told me she wanted to race for the win, but I said I probably didn't have the legs. We were able to keep up well with Candice and Mariske, but I just gave up on the last climb. I had no strength left. But we knew that the lead in the overall standings was big, so we could just roll to the finish and enjoy the last few kilometers of this special week of mountain biking."

Results overall classification
1st NinetyOne-Songo-Specialized / Haley BATTEN (USA) & Sofia GOMEZ VILLAFANE (ARG), 33:41:11.3
2nd Faces Rola / Candice LILL & Mariske STRAUSS (RSA), 33:53:43.3
3rd BMC MTB Racing / Pauline FERRAND PRÉVOT (FRA) & Robyn DE GROOT (RSA), 34:28:17.3
4th Private Client Holdings / Mari RABIE & Hayley PREEN (RSA), 35:05:25.3
5th Symbtech ZA / Ariane LÜTHI (SUI) & Amy WAKEFIELD (RSA), 35:33:36.5

cape-epic.com