{"id":18268,"date":"2013-02-26T14:13:39","date_gmt":"2013-02-26T12:13:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/cape-epic-no-neutral-zone-for-swiss-duo\/"},"modified":"2013-02-26T14:13:39","modified_gmt":"2013-02-26T12:13:39","slug":"cape-epic-no-neutral-zone-for-swiss-duo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/cape-epic-no-neutral-zone-for-swiss-duo\/","title":{"rendered":"Cape Epic no neutral zone for Swiss duo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t    <a href=\"http:\/\/mysport24.co.za\/cape-epic-no-neutral-zone-for-swiss-duo\/absa-cape-epic-2011-stg-3-tulbagh-to-worcester\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2191\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2191\" alt=\"Ralph N\u00e4f makes his way through a deep river crossing during the 2011 Absa Cape Epic. Photo: Karin Schermbrucker\/Cape Epic\/Sportzpics\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/plugins\/rss-poster\/cache\/f3ad3_Ralph-Naf-LR.jpg\" width=\"268\" height=\"402\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ralph N\u00e4f makes his way through a deep river crossing during the 2011 Absa Cape Epic. Photo: Karin Schermbrucker\/Cape Epic\/Sportzpics<\/p>\n<p>The 2013 Cape Epic won\u2019t be a neutral zone for Swiss friends Lukas Fl\u00fcckiger (29) and Ralph N\u00e4f (32) as they target a podium finish.<\/p>\n<p>The 10th edition of the eight-day race starts on March 17 and will take riders over 698km, with more than 15 000m of climbing, from Meerendal in Durbanville to Lourensford in Somerset West.<\/p>\n<p>Fl\u00fcckiger will line up for his fourth Cape Epic, having finished fourth overall in 2010. He also has four stage wins.<\/p>\n<p>He was a silver medallist at the 2012 World Championships and a former junior world champion.<\/p>\n<p>N\u00e4f will take part in his third Cape Epic and has two stage wins to his credit. He was the 2012 Eliminator world champion and an ex marathon world champ.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI really like the spirit and the location of the race,\u201d said Fl\u00fcckiger. \u201cI like South Africa and its people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Riding with N\u00e4f for the first time, Fl\u00fcckiger said that they both saw the race as a great opportunity to start the season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe see it as fun and not only as a race. Both of us have participated before and know how to race over eight days. We\u2019re really confident that we can win one, two or three stages.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHowever, it\u2019s hard to say what will happen in the GC. There are many strong teams this year, but our goal is to finish in the top three.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLukas and I are good friends, hopefully also after the Epic, and we both have the same goals,\u201d said N\u00e4f.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ll have to see whether we\u2019re a good combination, but we\u2019ll have a lot of fun for sure and hopefully win a few stages and finish on the podium.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ralph N\u00e4f makes his way through a deep river crossing during the 2011 Absa Cape Epic. Photo: Karin Schermbrucker\/Cape Epic\/Sportzpics The 2013 Cape Epic won\u2019t be a neutral zone for Swiss friends Lukas Fl\u00fcckiger (29) and Ralph N\u00e4f (32) as they target a podium finish. The 10th edition of the eight-day race starts on March [&hellip;]<\/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-18268","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\/18268","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=18268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18268\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}