The final stage!! It was the perfect day for riding as racers finished up the last 60km of the 2014 Absa Cape Epic. They were welcomed onto the grounds of the beautiful Louresnford Wine Estate by a crowd of family, friends, as well as spectators. The race village was overflowing with Cape Epic fans ready to watch the finish of "the Tour de France of mountain biking".
Thomas and Mike have conquered the Cape Epic. They crossed the finish line for the first time together after two previous attempts. Despite Mike's sour stomach throughout the stage, they managed to maintain their 6th place overall finish in the Grand Masters! HUGE congratulations to them for finishing without any broken bones (although we can't say the same thing about bikes...)
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| Mike and Thomas were awarded their finishers medals by Jose Hermida and Rudi van Houts |
The Topeak-Ergon Racing Team finished the last stage without a problem to win the 2014 Cape Epic. They beat last year's champion Christoph Sauser and his partner Frantisek Rabon of Meerendal Songo Specialized by about 10 minutes. They were followed by The Bulls 2 Team by an additional 3 minutes.
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| Robert Mennen and Kristian Hynek of Topeak-Ergon Racing celebrate their victory. |
Matthys Beukes and Gert Heyns of the SCOTT Factory racing Team made Cape Epic history as the first all South African Team to take home a stage victory in the final stage. They finished alongside Nino Schurter and Philip Buys.
Ariane Kleinhans and Annika Langvad of the RECM 2 Team won the Cape Epic in a BIG way. After disaster in Stage 1 where they finished 24 minutes off of first place, they came back to win every remaining stage for an overall win over Team Meerendal by 37 minutes.
Thomas, Mike, and I, want to acknowledge a few people who made this adventure possible. Huge thank you's to Alta-Marie Bekker for awesome massages for Mike and Thomas and support for all of us! Alta-Marie, Hendrik van Rensburg, and Anton Van Der Watt were our amazing support crew and we could not have done this without them! We are pretty amazed that they managed to put up with the three of us for the entire week. Special thanks as well to JP Van Der Watt for all of his help in organizing this and hooking us up with the amazing Kappius/Sir Richard's Jeep! We are so appreciative of everyone who helped us out on this crazy journey.
Thomas, Mike, and I are headed back to the states tomorrow, and I am going to have to deal with 48 hours of traveling with two old guys with PSRD (Post Stage Race Depression). Wish me luck!
8 comments:
Wow. Thanks for the blog. Ive been following every day. What a wonderful race and to finish in the top ten is amazing. Finishing sixth overall is outstanding. Cheers. Strong work.
SO PROUD OF YOU GUYS! Way to go! Can't wait to hear all about it... Nice job Anna on keeping up with those two!
YEAHHHHH!!!!!! So proud of you guys - now that is perseverance! And great blogging, Anna. Loved the commentary and pictures. Thanks to all who supported you over there. It's a big job and under paid :)
Outstanding!
Incredible!
So proud of you two!!! Unbelievable finish!! We've been following Anna's excellent blog all along...thanks Anna! What an adventure...you did it...congrats! Kathy, Kyle, Ed and Paul
YES!!!! Huge congrats Mike and Thomas! We have been following your epic race and cheering you on every night. Way to go! Anna, your blog was great - especially the pictures...watch out National Geographic! :-) Safe travels home, you three!
Congratulations!!!!!!
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