Known for being the toughest stage of the Epic, Stage 1 took riders up 2450 meters of climbing over 114 kilometers. The stage started and ended in the Arabella Wine Estate just outside of the small town of Robertson. A light drizzle throughout most of the day kept riders cool, but lead to many mechanicals.
 |
| About 20 km into Stage 1 |
It was a tough day for Mike and Thomas, but they both finished, an improvement from last year's Stage 1. They finished 7th in the Grand Masters; both 5th and 6th place were within 20 minutes.
Victory was short for yesterday's stage winners, Rudi van Houts and Jose Hermieda of Multivan Merida Bicycling Team, as Hermida was ill this morning. They finished the stage in 5:59.11, more than an hour and fifteen minutes behind the leaders. A comeback is not likely for the Multivan Merida team, but anything can happen at the Epic.
 |
| Rudi van Houts at Aid Station #3 |
Meanwhile, Markus Kaufmann and Jochen Kaess of the German team Centurion-Vaude took the stage win, but only two minutes ahead of a tight pack that included Meerendal Songo Specialized (Sauser and Roben), BMC Mountainbike Racing (Fanger and Fluckiger), Bulls 2 (Boehme and Stiebjahn) and Cannondale Blend (Lill and Woolcock). Carl Platt and Urs Huber of Team Bulls finished 4 minutes back from the leaders. Find the rest of the results
here.
2 comments:
Wow! Great Job guys-Keep it up!!!
Great effort boys! Glad to see you're still in the race and not at the medical clinic! I'm pumped you guys are back at it and looking forward to Anna's updates. Mike, long ago you told me before my Escape From Alcatraz race to stop in the middle of the bay, turn around in the water, and take it all in- the enormity of the adventure. Encouraging you to do the same throughout this race. Enjoy it - suffering and all!
Best, Brad B.
Post a Comment