SCOTT-SRAM MTB Racing with Nino Schurter and Matthias Stirnemann were in the lead bunch for most of the day, and pushed as hard as they could for third but couldn’t hold on. “The final kilometers were very tough. It was hard pedalling to the finish”, says Nino Schurter. The Elite team came in 4th after Stirnemann faced serious issues starting from the middle of the race. Both struggled with the dry and hot weather, so did Jenny Rissveds and Thomas Frischknecht: “Jenny was in excellent condition- till the wind stopped and the heat took over. Plus I had a flat which put us back some more. We then had to catch up with our toughest competitors, Grant Usher and Amy Beth MacDougall”, which turned into an almost impossible mission due to Jenny`s reaction to the extreme heat. However Frischi, who has an almost 30 year lasting professional cycling career in his legs, managed to bring his Swedish team mate back in the game- With a 7 sec lead, SCOTT-SRAM Next Level won the stage and is now the team to challenge the Mixed Category with a 1.51 min overall lead. Cross-Country Youngsters Michiel van der Heijden and Andri Frischknecht, racing as SCOTT-SRAM Young Guns, finished in 9th.
Manuel Fumic and team mate Henrique Avancini benefitted from an unfortunate crash of Jaroslav Kulhavy/Christoph Sauser just 5km before the finish area in Hermanus and managed to win stage 1. Stage 2 starts again in Hermanus and finishes at Elandskloof in Greyton. The stage is a 102km long and has 2350m of climbing. The weather forecast predicts even higher temperatures.