And three! Simone Avondetto and Luca Braidot have got a taste for the Cape Epic 2025 and in Stage 4 around Paarl, 80 km with 1950 meters of elevation gain, they achieved their third partial success in 5 stages. Another performance made of legs, heart and brain, allowed the Wilier-Vittoria MTB Factory Team duo to sprint past their everyday rivals.
Source: Wilier press release
In a handful of seconds, in fact, 4 couples reached the finish line in Paarl, with the Italians doing well once again to anticipate the Swiss couple formed by Nino Schurter and Filippo Colombo, who maintain the leadership in the general classification.
It was a very fast stage, which developed a bit in fits and starts. Several times we managed to escape, but then there was a slowdown and several couples came back. In the end it was resolved in a sprint again and we played it well again today. It's really incredible to think that we won three stages! Now we have another 3 really tough stages ahead of us, we know that the 'crush' could come at any moment, but as long as our legs are there we will continue to play it as we have done up to now – Simone Avondetto
Before the finish there were 10 km of flat, so all the couples preferred not to push too hard on the climb. There were many of us in the sprint, but we managed it in the right way. Overall the stage went smoothly, we didn't waste too much energy and it's better this way, since now two really tough stages await us in which we will have to give it our all – Luke Braidot
In the general classification, the gap from Schurter and Colombo remains unchanged, still 42” away, while the 3rd place of the South Africans Marco Joubert and Tristan Nortje is, for the moment, at a safe distance with a margin of 9'10”.
Tomorrow, however, will see a watershed stage, a very tough one, from Paarl to Lourensford Wine Estate, with 98 km and 2850 meters of total elevation gain. The organizers did not hesitate to call it “the queen stage”.
ITALIANS IN THE RACE
The Italian Teams continue to surprise: today practically all the top Italian athletes arrived in the top 10! 5th place for Dorigoni and De Cosmo, who are competing in a stratospheric Cape Epic. Just behind Samuele Porro in 6th place while Rabensteiner is 8th.
HIGHLIGHTS STAGE 5 CAPE EPIC
STAGE 4 RANKING
| 1. | WILIER-VICTORY | Luca BRAIDOT | Simone AVONDETTO | 3:06:34 |
| 2. | SCOTT-SRAM MTB Racing | Nino SCHURTER | Philip Viero COLOMBO | +1 |
| 3. | MEGAMO BUFF 1 | Wout ALLEMAN | Martin STOSHEK | +2 |
| 4. | ChemChamp A Funnel | Mark JOUBERT | Tristan NORTJE | +4 |
| 5. | Torpado Kenda FSA 2 | Jakob DORIGONI | Joel DE COSMO | +48 |
| 6. | Orbea Air Conditioning | Samuel PORRO | Marc STUTZMANN | +53 |
| 7. | Honeycomb 226ers | Mark PRITZEN | Wessel BOTHA | +58 |
| 8. | Torpado x Singer | Fabian RABENSTEINER | Simon STIEBJAHN | + 3: 23 |
| 9. | Air conditioning Orbea 2 | Miguel MUÑOZ MORENO | Luis Francisco PEREZ MARTÍNEZ | + 3: 34 |
| 10. | ORBEA Leatt Speed Company | Lukas BAUM | Georg EGGER | + 3: 43 |
GENERAL RANKING AFTER 4 STAGES
| 1. | SCOTT-SRAM MTB Racing | Nino SCHURTER | Philip Viero COLOMBO | 13:34:00 |
| 2. | WILIER-VICTORY | Luca BRAIDOT | Simone AVONDETTO | +42 |
| 3. | ChemChamp A Funnel | Mark JOUBERT | Tristan NORTJE | + 9: 52 |
| 4. | Orbea Air Conditioning | Samuel PORRO | Marc STUTZMANN | + 13: 30 |
| 5. | MEGAMO BUFF 1 | Wout ALLEMAN | Martin STOSHEK | + 15: 24 |
| 6. | Torpado x Singer | Fabian RABENSTEINER | Simon STIEBJAHN | + 16: 20 |
| 7. | Honeycomb 226ers | Mark PRITZEN | Wessel BOTHA | + 19: 33 |
| 8. | ORBEA Leatt Speed Company | Lukas BAUM | Georg EGGER | + 23: 41 |
| 9. | Torpado Kenda FSA 2 | Jakob DORIGONI | Joel DE COSMO | + 23: 49 |
| 10. | BH Coloma | David VALERO SERRANO | Tiago Jorge FERREIRA OLIVEIRA | + 26: 35 |
