Four victories, two second places and a fourth place: that's the stage tally for Lars Forster and Nino Schurter. On the final stage, only 14th place was enough for the two Swiss riders to bring their leader's jersey safely to the finish. Their opponents, Manuel Fumic and Henrique Avancini, tried everything and won silver. That was as good as it got at this Cape Epic edition against the European and world champions. Even a tire failure on the third stage couldn't change that.

Although Fumic and Avancini were able to take the leader's jersey for a while as a result, Forster and Schurter regained it two days later and extended their time cushion slightly. In the end, there were a good seven minutes between the two fastest teams. And the third fastest?

Damiano Ferraro and Samuele Porro from Italy initially move inconspicuously in the starting field, but gradually move forward. After the time trial at the halfway point, the two are already in third place overall. They were hardly on the radar, but from now on they are regular guests on the podium. The fact that the two Italians are also in third place in the final standings is probably the big surprise of this year's event - the co-favorites are not in sight.

These included Jaroslav Kulhavy and Sam Gaze at the start. However, the New Zealander crashed on his head on the first stage. Starting the second day in third place overall, Gaze was unable to keep up - a concussion knocked him out of the race completely.
Alban Lakata and Karl Platt also failed to live up to their own expectations. Although they were still at the front at the start, they then increasingly fell back and had to settle for twelfth place overall.

Although it looks like an easy overall victory for the Scott duo, European champion Lars Forster is really relieved at the finish at the Val de Vie vineyard: "I wasn't feeling so good the day before yesterday and yesterday, I really had to fight. Luckily I had a partner in Nino, who still had a lot of power to deliver. I'm so happy that we took the overall victory," said a visibly shaken Forster.

Uncompetitive to fifth victory

Dane Annika Langvad is once again starting the Cape Epic with an inexperienced partner. But the world-class road rider shows no signs of flinching and rides the race almost from A to Z. By the third day, the pair are already seven minutes ahead of Ariane Lüthi and Maja Wloszczowska. The South African Candice Lil and her German team colleague Adelheid Morat are already 18 minutes behind.

The first two places seem to be taken early on, but then Wloszczowska has to fight a cold and second place is gone. Lil and Morat take it and don't give it up until the end. Lüthi and Wloszczowska can at least celebrate third place while the leading duo extend their lead to half an hour.

Even though Langvad always reacted very cautiously to an overall victory during the week, she is very exuberant at the award ceremony. The burden falls away because, as she explained in an interview, she was doing double duty. Getting herself through the stage and turning a road world champion into a world-class mountain biker in one week. She verbally coached the Dutchwoman through all the technical sections. Five wins in five starts at the Absa Cape Epic, putting the Dane on a par with legends Karl Platt and Christoph Sauser in the men's race. How could you beat Annika Langvad at the Epic? "I don't know myself," she says - and thus also provides the answer for her competitors.

Her teammate Anna van der Breggen looks more than happy that the exertions are over. "That was a really tough week. A new experience for me, on the one hand it was exciting to experience it like that and to push my body to new limits. The suffering was hard to bear, but at the same time I liked it. I don't think my body has ever been as exhausted as it was during that week of the Epic, I've never spent so many hours on a bike. It was so hard at the start, but now I'm enjoying the feeling of having achieved what we set out to do."

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