Stage 4 - Greyton

Stage 4 gave riders a bit of a rest with only 88km, although it still included 1850 m of climbing.  Plenty of single track was a welcome change after yesterday's abundance of farm roads.  The majority of the course was within 10km of the start/finish, and the winding course took rider's through one of Greyton's primary schools rugby fields where excited school children waited to cheer.

What many rider's didn't know as they crossed the rugby field, is that they were riding over south Africa's largest painting.  The second largest painting in the world, as a matter of fact.  A local artist, the head of Greyton tourism, and the primary school teachers had gotten together to come up with the idea of the painting in celebration of the Epic coming passing through town.  Unfortunately, the painting was so large it wouldn't fit in one photo....

Mike and Thomas broke out of their 7th place rut with a 5th place finish at Stage 4.  This moved them up to 6th place overall, only one minute ahead of 7th place.  At this point in the race, Mike and Thomas have been on their bikes for almost 25 hours over the past 5 days.

As for the pros, it was a disappointing day for the Bulls Team, as Carl Platt was forced to turn around about 4km into the stage due to extreme soreness in his knee that has persisted throughout the week.  His partner, Urs Huber, finished the stage alone.  They had been in second place overall as of yesterday, but will be removed from the running for the 2014 Cape Epic Champions.  Philip Buys and Nino Schurter of Team SCOTT-Odlo MTB Racing won this stage, and they are currently in 5th overall, 37 minutes from leaders Topeak-Ergon Racing.  Team Meerendal Songo Specialized is second overall, 11 minutes behind Robert Mennan and Krisiten Hynek of Topeak-Ergon Racing.