The Cape EPIC

[font='Comic Sans MS']Cape EPIC DAY 3[/font]

[font='Comic Sans MS'] It was early in the third stage - 122km from Mossel Bay to Riversdale - of [/font]

[font='Comic Sans MS'] the eight-day 2006 Cape Epic mountain bike race and the riders were fresh [/font]

[font='Comic Sans MS'] and close together.[/font]

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[font='Comic Sans MS']Thomas Zahnd, who finished second yesterday with teammate Sandro Spaeth, [/font]

[font='Comic Sans MS'] explained that they don't need to take much food because they're riding [/font]

[font='Comic Sans MS'] "only for four and a half hours". [/font]

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[font='Comic Sans MS'] "Just some energy bars, an inner tube and some spare parts. But for people [/font]

[font='Comic Sans MS'] who ride the whole day, they must take lunch and rainjackets and so on," [/font]

[font='Comic Sans MS'] Zahnd said. [/font]

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[font='Comic Sans MS'] Karl Platt, of Germany, who finished first with teammate Carsten Bresser, [/font]

[font='Comic Sans MS'] described yesterday's race as "kind of relaxing, a day to recover", while [/font]

[font='Comic Sans MS'] Mannie Heymans of Namibia, who finished third with teammate Kevin Evans of [/font]

[font='Comic Sans MS'] South Africa, said having no rain and no headwind had made it a lot [/font]

[font='Comic Sans MS']easier.[/font]

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[font='Comic Sans MS'] Winning Masters team Gedden Ruddock of Franschhoek and Linus van Onselen [/font]

[font='Comic Sans MS'] of Stellenbosch had a tense moment close to the finish when they had to [/font]

[font='Comic Sans MS'] stop and tighten a crank just before the final sprint. [/font]

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[font='Comic Sans MS'] Joerg Schneiderbauer and Anna Baylis-Schneiderbauer, who have won the [/font]

[font='Comic Sans MS'] mixed team every day, are an unusual couple. [/font]

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[font='Comic Sans MS'] They are joined by a tow rope and are apparently well known for yelling at [/font]

[font='Comic Sans MS'] each other while racing, but never at home.[/font]

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[font='Comic Sans MS'] Anna told one of the race organisers: "Yelling at him makes him stronger, [/font]

[font='Comic Sans MS'] I guess. But I hate to be yelled at, so I shout back. [/font]

[font='Comic Sans MS'] "But after we've crossed the finish line, all is forgotten."[/font][font='MS Mincho'][font=Courier New] [/font][/font]

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[font='MS Mincho'][font=Times New Roman] Published on the web by Cape Times on April 25, 2006.[/font][/font]

[font=Verdana]Stage 3 saw the tightest sprint finish in the history of The Cape Epic. In fact it was so tight that the race commissars had to analyze the television footage in order to determine the stage podium positions. Since the Absa Cape Epic is a team race, the time of the second rider in a team crossing the finish line is the time that determines the team’s performance. With a bunch of 20 riders sprinting down the finish chute and crossing the timing mats simultaneously it can get quite complex and the time keepers have to reconstruct the exact order of the finish line crossing to get accurate results. [/font]

[font=Verdana]Today’s 122 kilometre long stage also saw some new faces on the podium. Karl Platt (GER) and Carsten Bresser (GER) celebrated their first stage win. Rocky Mountain was the first team to cross the time mats, followed by team Texner-Stoeckli with Sandro Spaeth (SUI) and Thomas Zahnd (SUI) and team adidas Raleigh with Mannie Heymans (NAM) and Kevin Evans (RSA). With wide gravel roads, rolling hills and ‘just’ 1800 metres of climbing the third stage of the Epic was fairly easy and more of a ‘road race’ in comparison to the two previous stages. It was fast and tactical and ensured the top pro riders all worked and rode together, changing pace and pushing each other on. All top teams defended their leader jerseys.[/font]

[font=Verdana]“Today we started more relaxed and took an easy pace”, commented Karl Platt. “We were all riding in a big group. In fact we were going so slow that the group became bigger and bigger and we were joined by more and more amateur riders. That’s when we started to get a little bit nervous, because many of these guys are excellent mountain bikers but they don’t know how to move in a bunch. And that can actually be quite unfavourable. After all you don’t want to end a race because of a silly move resulting in a crash.” All top riders thought the same, thus they hit the gas in one of the climbs to get rid of the ‘dead weight’. “Not too long ago I was doing the same”, remembered Kevin Evans. “I was one of the amateurs who got excited if I could catch up with a top group. But I learned quickly that you must not ride all the way to the front if a few minutes later you get in the way and cannot keep up with the pace. You slow the others down, the riding is not consistent and doesn’t run smooth and it is also mentally frustrating if five or six guys have to do all the work and are dragging others along.”[/font]