After the Prologue in Meerendal the riders, crew and supporters transferred to Hermanus, a little coastal town on the southern tip of the African continent, which is well known for whale watching and hiking alongside the beautiful coastal mountain ridge. Cape Epic participants will probably dream of sitting on a boat, waiting for whales and enjoying a cold sea breeze. The area has been turned into something of a mountain biking mecca, with a network of trails snaking across the nearby hills and valleys. But unless there is a wind blowing down from the mountains, the heat is just relentless- and riding mountain bikes rather turns into a battle with the elements than enjoying nature. The 1350 riders faced 101 km and 2300m of climbing in brutal heat and severe conditions on stage 1.

“The heat today was just unbelievable- we literally got roasted out there”, Nino Schurter says after the race. “The tough thing is that the conditions here can change so quickly- from windy, cold air in the mountains to extremely hot and dry air on the other side. Combined with sandy trails which are not really rolling, riders are suffering almost nonstop.”

Unless there is a wind blowing down from the mountains around Hermanus, South Africa, the heat is just relentless- and riding bikes rather turns into a battle with the elements than enjoying nature. On stage 1 of the Absa Cape Epic, SCOTT-SRAM MTB Racing and 1350 riders faced 101 km and 2300m of climbing in brutal heat and severe conditions.

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.

Photos: Jochen Haar, Michal Cerveny, Greg Beadle, Nick Muzik