Christoph Sauser and Joroslav Kulhavy of Burry Stander-Songo celebrate after winning stage five of the 2013 Absa Cape Epic in Wellington, South Africa, on Friday. Photo: Shaun Roy/Cape Epic/Sportzpics
Overall leaders Christoph Sauser and Jaroslav Kulhavy won the 75km fifth stage of the 2013 Absa Cape Epic from Wellington to Wellington in South Africa on Friday.
The Burry Stander–Songo duo clocked 3:03.04 for their third stage win and Sauser’s 29th overall.
They were followed by Nino Schurter and Florian Vogel of Scott-Swisspower in 3:05.19, who visit the podium for the first time this year.
Bulls Karl Platt and Urs Huber were third in 3:05.35, Cannondale’s Marco Fontana and Manuel Fumic fourth in 3:09.10 and Multivan Merida’s Jose Hermida and Rudi van Houts fifth in 3:10.07.
Sauser and Kulhavy’s overall time of 22:43:09 puts them three minutes and 43 seconds in front of Platt and Huber (22:46.52) with the Bulls 2 team of Thomas Dietsch and Tim Boehme third (23:03.43).
“This is my 29th stage win and I am thinking of making tomorrow my 30th, but finishing in overall first place at Lourensford is what is most important,” said Sauser.
“We got up this morning and I’m not feeling that fresh any longer,” said Kulhavy. “But we went flat box right from the first kilometer even though we were tired from the previous days.”
Yolande Speedy and Catherine Williamson (Energas) won their fourth consecutive stage in 4:06.55 (overall 28:57.02,1). They now lead this category by over two hours.
Second on Friday were Sara Mertens and Laura Turpijn of C-Bear in 4:17.01,3 (overall 31:46.29,7).
Hanlie Booyens and Ischen Stopforth of Pragma Volcan Ladies placed third in 4:29.25,8 (overall 31:00.03,7).
“It wasn’t a lot of fun. It would’ve been more fun if you had fresh legs, but there were so many steep climbs and my legs are shattered,” said Williamson.
Theresa Ralph and Damian Perrin of Biogen Britehouse won the stage in 3:44.34,6 (overall 29:34.22).
They were followed by the RE:CM team of Erik and Ariane Kleinhans in 3:45.09,2 (overall 26:47.35). In third were Johan Labuschagne and Yolandé de Villiers of Exxaro Cycle Lab 1 in 3:54.25 (overall 28:29.50).
“It was full gas the whole way and not one section that we relaxed,” said Ralph. “We were always pushing the limit and encouraging each other.”
