Stage three winners Karl Platt (Germany) and Urs Huber (Switzerland) of the Bulls celebrate after the third stage of the 2013 Absa Cape Epic mountain bike race which started and finished at Saronsberg in Tulbagh, South Africa, on Wednesday. Photo: Nick Muzik/Cape Epic/Sportzpics
After their success the previous day, Karl Platt and Urs Huber of the Bulls also added victory in the third stage of the 2013 Absa Cape Epic to their names in Tulbagh, South Africa, on Wednesday.
Platt and Huber finished the stage in an impressive time of 3:53.17 to strengthen their position at the top of the overall standings.
Their combined time of 14:58.25 puts them eight minutes and 49 seconds ahead of Christoph Sauser and Jaroslav Kulhavy of Burry Stander-Songo, who were second on the day.
Thomas Dietsch and Tim Boehme of Bulls 2 rounded out the podium on the day in 3:59.10. They maintain the same overall position with a time of 15:10.41.
South Africans Charles Keey and Darren Lill of Cannondale Blend are now fourth after completing stage thre in 4:01.15 for an overall time of 15:28.01.
“Christoph (Sauser) and Jaro (Kulhavy) were a bit angry and naughty today,” said Platt. They tried to attack everywhere and accelerated like crazy.
“We could follow them on the flat section but they attacked again on the climb and we decided to just ride in our own rhythm and at a comfortable speed. Last year no one put them under pressure, but this year they’re making mistakes.
“We were going at the limit and if you get chased, you make more mistakes than if you’re the chaser. Today we increased our lead time which is awesome for us – it’s such a cool feeling.
“Urs is like a machine. He just hammers down.
Yolande Speedy and Catherine Williamson (Energas) won the stage in 4:58.36,2. Their total time of 19:00.07 puts them more than an hour ahead of the closer challengers in the women’s section.
The RE:CM team of Erik and Ariane Kleinhans won their fouth stage in a row in the mixed category to lead on 17:27.57.
