It is the longest stage of the race: immediately on the 3rd day of competition the Cape Epic unleashes its queen stage. See below the entire deferred stage.
The second stage of the Absa Cape Epic proposed a good 123 km and 2350m of altitude difference between Lourensford Wine Estate and Greyton. A day that came after the very hard previous day, where the general classification exploded. The stage was marked by the constant attacks of Scott-SRAM and his problems with punctures.
Schurter and Forster attacked 40km from the finish and managed to gain a good advantage, but yet another puncture brought them back to the group of leaders, made up of Toyota-NinetyOne-Specialized, Buff-Megamo and Canyon-Northwave.
Beers suffered a small crash in the last technical downhill, but managed to reconnect with the leading group, which remained united until the finish. It was all decided at the final sprint that rewarded the explosiveness of the 2 Scott Sram athletes despite Blevins being the first to cross the finish line but the second member's time counts.
Not a top day for Wilier-Pirelli (Alleman and Rabensteiner), who after the podium of the previous day arrived more than 10 minutes late. Even Santa Cruz with Marotte and Sweenson pay duty and say goodbye, for the moment, to their position in the top-5 of the general.
ORDER OF ARRIVAL
COMPLETE RESULTS
WOMEN RACE
In stage 2 of 123km, Ferrand-Prévot recovered and led teammate Robyn de Groot to victory.
BMC MTB Racing finished nearly three minutes ahead of current race leader Sofia Gomez Villafane and Haley Batten (NinetyOne-songo-Specialized). Now they are second in the overall standings about 6 minutes behind the leaders: in a long race like the Cape Epic anything is possible.
"It was very tough yesterday. Pauline had a bad day. It's amazing how she recovered today, absolutely amazing indeed. She was so determined".
ORDER OF ARRIVAL
COMPLETE RESULTS
Tune in to the live broadcast of Stage 3 from 07.30 on www.cape-epic.com.
