Unstoppable! Simone Avondetto e Luke Braidot continue to shine and amaze at the Cape Epic 2025 and, after having won the prologue and worn the yellow jersey for a day, they also won the third stage in line, slightly shortened due to the torrid heat of Paarl. In the end they were 78 kilometers faced (instead of 90) for a total of 2450 meters in altitude.
Source: Wilier press release
The couple of Wilier-Vittoria MTB Factory Team she was the protagonist of a beautiful battle with the Swiss couple, and leader of the general classification, Nino Schurter and Filippo Colombo, and with the hosts Marco Joubert and Tristan Nortje. The stage was decided in the final rush, with Avondetto and Braidot who beat the Swiss in the sprint, who however remain in the yellow jersey.
The end was quite tactical, we managed to break away from the South Africans but then we studied the Swiss a bit and they also came back.. I knew Luca was a little faster than me in the sprint, so I anticipated and let him sprint cleaner. We were first and second, so it went great. – Simone Avondetto
What an effort today! From halfway through the race onwards it started to get incredibly hot, we had to suffer. Filippo Colombo attacked on the climb, but we were good at responding and not letting him escape. Then the last 5 km were flat, so we looked at each other a bit and took it to the sprint. We are really happy, it's great to have won today too – Luke Braidot
The gap from Schurter and Colombo remains unchanged for the Wilier-Vittoria duo, 43 seconds, but the good news is that the gap on 3rd place is starting to get interesting, given that the South Africans Joubert and Nortje are 9'06" behind. Tomorrow will see another complicated stage, again with start and finish in Paarl, for a total of 80 km and 1950 meters of altitude difference.
ITALIANS IN THE RACE
Worth mentioning is an excellent 4th place for Samuele Porro in the cup with Marc Stutzmann. Another Top10 for Fabian Rabensteiner.
HIGHLIGHTS STAGE 3 CAPE EPIC
STAGE 3 RANKING
| 1. | WILIER-VICTORY | Luca BRAIDOT | Simone AVONDETTO | 3:22:44 |
| 2. | SCOTT-SRAM MTB Racing | Nino SCHURTER | Philip Viero COLOMBO | +1 |
| 3. | ChemChamp A Funnel | Mark JOUBERT | Tristan NORTJE | 12+ |
| 4. | Orbea Air Conditioning | Samuel PORRO | Marc STUTZMANN | + 2: 31 |
| 5. | Honeycomb 226ers | Mark PRITZEN | Wessel BOTHA | + 4: 47 |
| 6. | MEGAMO BUFF 1 | Wout ALLEMAN | Martin STOSHEK | + 5: 17 |
| 7. | Torpado x Singer | Fabian RABENSTEINER | Simon STIEBJAHN | + 5: 18 |
| 8. | MEGAMO BUFF 2 | José DIAS | Pablo RODRÍGUEZ GUEDE | + 8: 15 |
| 9. | Toyota Specialized | John VAN ZYL | Travis STEDMAN | + 8: 27 |
| 10. | Air conditioning Orbea 2 | Miguel MUÑOZ MORENO | Luis Francisco PEREZ MARTÍNEZ | + 8: 57 |
GENERAL RANKING AFTER 3 STAGES
| 1. | SCOTT-SRAM MTB Racing | Nino SCHURTER | Philip Viero COLOMBO | 10:27:25 |
| 2. | WILIER-VICTORY | Luca BRAIDOT | Simone AVONDETTO | 43+ |
| 3. | ChemChamp A Funnel | Mark JOUBERT | Tristan NORTJE | + 9: 49 |
| 4. | Orbea Air Conditioning | Samuel PORRO | Marc STUTZMANN | + 12: 38 |
| 5. | Torpado x Singer | Fabian RABENSTEINER | Simon STIEBJAHN | + 12: 58 |
