Fabian Rabensteiner e Samuel Porro they in fact finished the stage number 6 of the famous South African stage race in second place, 87 km to 2400 meters of positive altitude difference with departure and arrival in Stellenbosch.
Source: press release
The two Italian bikers lost the wheels of the very strong Toyota-Specialized, Matthew Beers and Howard Grotts, leaders of the general classification, only in the final, arriving at the finish line 41" behind: “It's a shame, we were close – said Rabensteiner -. For a moment I hoped that the Toyota-Specializeds would leave the stage to us after the great work they had done, but instead they wanted to win this one too. Unfortunately Samuele ended up on the sand about 20km from the finish line, we had to make a good effort to get back in, but then we did well to stay with Beers and Grotts. We started shooting, but in the last little stretch they attacked us and we weren't able to respond. Personally I'm fine, I still had some left at the end, so tomorrow we'll try to repeat ourselves with another good performance, we know the route well."
The Porro-Rabensteiner pair thus rose to 5th place in the general classification with just one stage to go, while the good performance of Daniel Geismayr who, paired with Jakob Dorigoni, finished today's stage 6th and returned to the Top 10 in the general classification.
Tomorrow ends with another fraction with departure and arrival in Stellenbosch, for a total of 67 km e 2000 meters of positive altitude difference. On the other side of the world, however, at Swiss Bike Cup, Simone Avondetto e Ginia Lara Caluori they will try to assert themselves in the XCO trials, for a Sunday to be fully experienced.
