Swiss rider Ariane Lüthi wins the "Cape Pioneer Trek" mountain bike stage race in South Africa together with her team partner Amy-Beth McDougall. Despite five stage wins, Sabine Spitz and Robyn de Groot finish in second place. Alan Hatherly and Matthew Beers take the overall victory in the men's race.

If it was down to the number of stage wins, the German Sabine Spitz and her South African team partner Robyn de Groot dominated the mountain bike stage race in South Africa. However, their daily victories in the last five of the seven stages were not enough to make up for the large gap they had made up in the first two stages.


Ariane Lüthi and her South African partner Amy-Beth McDougall win the first two stages and open up a lead of over seven minutes on the German-South African duo. Alleged health problems for de Groot at the start of the 553-kilometer race prevented the second-placed duo from achieving overall success. Lüthi and McDougall, on the other hand, were able to keep the daily gap so small on the remaining five stages that they took overall victory with a cushion of 1:40 minutes. Ila Stow and Marianne Bergli (RSA) finished in third place.

Lüthi's colleagues from Team Spur took the overall victory in the men's race. The two South Africans Alan Hatherly and Matthew Beers even take six out of seven stage wins, riding into second place on the last stage of the day. Hatherly and Beers win the overall classification with a lead of 1:42 minutes over their compatriots Nico Bell and Gawie Combrinck. The two Dutchmen Bram Rood and Gerben Mos came third.

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