{"id":17838,"date":"2013-02-07T00:56:56","date_gmt":"2013-02-06T22:56:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/unmarried-lakata-and-mennen-together-for-epic\/"},"modified":"2013-02-07T00:56:56","modified_gmt":"2013-02-06T22:56:56","slug":"unmarried-lakata-and-mennen-together-for-epic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/unmarried-lakata-and-mennen-together-for-epic\/","title":{"rendered":"Unmarried Lakata and Mennen together for Epic"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t \"Alban<\/a><\/p>\n

Alban Lakata and Robert Mennen will again pair up for the 2013 Absa Cape Epic Mountain that takes place outside Cape Town in South Africa. Photo: Sven Martin\/Cape Epic\/Sportzpics<\/p>\n

One of the favourite teams to take top honours at this year\u2019s Absa Cape Epic, Robert Mennen (27) of Germany and Austria\u2019s Alban Lakata (33), will participate again as team Canyon Topeak Ergon.<\/p>\n

Lakata has participated in five previous editions of the Absa Cape Epic, whereas this will be Mennen\u2019s second attempt at a podium finish.<\/p>\n

Together, they boast enough experience to handle the fast pace promised during this year\u2019s event, which takes place from March 17 to 24 in the Western Cape.<\/p>\n

Both Lakata and Mennen boast an impressive list of victories.<\/p>\n

Lakata was the Craft Bike Transalp winner last year and won the 2010 marathon world championships. He is also a five-time Austrian marathon champ and has a World Cup win to his credit.<\/p>\n

He has won two Cape Epic stages and finished in third overall in 2010 with Kevin Evans.<\/p>\n

Last year, Mennen won the Transalp alongside Lakata and placed second in the German marathon championships. He was 12th in the world marathon champs.<\/p>\n

Lakata started mountain biking in 2000. \u201cMy career goal is to win this prestigious race,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started mountain biking in 1998,\u201d says 27-year-old Mennen. \u201cThe Cape Epic is one of the most beautiful races in the world and only a real mountain biker can win it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having won last year\u2019s Transalp with Mennen, Lakata is confident. \u201cWe won the Transalp, which is also a tough race, and last year we finished fifth in the GC.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year finishing on the podium is a goal!\u201d says Mennen. \u201cThe route looks tough, but every time I watch last year\u2019s DVD, I want to do this event again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll do the Andalusia bike race together this month. That should be enough. We\u2019re not married,\u201d said Lakata when asked about training together.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also get along very well,\u201d says Mennen. \u201cAlban is a very experienced and clever rider, and we\u2019re both focused and know how hard we can push each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe that we have more potential than finishing in fifth. Last year was my first Cape Epic and I learnt a lot.<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil now my training has gone very well and Alban is also on the right track. Our aim is to improve last year\u2019s results and finish on the podium!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alban Lakata and Robert Mennen will again pair up for the 2013 Absa Cape Epic Mountain that takes place outside Cape Town in South Africa. Photo: Sven Martin\/Cape Epic\/Sportzpics One of the favourite teams to take top honours at this year\u2019s Absa Cape Epic, Robert Mennen (27) of Germany and Austria\u2019s Alban Lakata (33), will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[3258,830,885],"class_list":{"0":"post-17838","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-mysport","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-sport","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17838\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}