Prologue | Live Broadcast | 2021 Absa Cape Epic

um a lot of pro riders will come here to kind of use the cab epic as a really really solid um entry into the season and now this is kind of after every all the other major events olympics world cups and world marathon championships and so on and so it is very different and i i feel the riders that are here now are here for the win because this is kind of the last big race of the season it's not like you you prepare for anything else after this so we'll see some pretty hungry riders out there it is the race that measures all for all these riders who've been preparing and we talk about the pro athletes we'll be focusing on them but of course there are hundreds of amateur riders and we must just uh emphasize that this is a race of half the capacity of the regular uh just under 600 race teams there are 600 riders just under 300 entries here so it is a smaller event fewer riders but gratifyingly uh 44 of the fields still from overseas 56 local riders so it is wonderful to see so many riders from overseas coming to join us at the absolute cave epic it is the pinnacle of uh the mountain bike calendar for many many of these riders and uh this is what they've been focusing on we talk about the pros having uh different years these amateurs have been uh many of them preparing for the 2020 after cape epic that was deferred some they couldn't aren't here now they for whatever reason weren't able to uh to take part this year and others have just kept rolling and kept focused on on taking on this challenge so it is a a wonderful opportunity to explore the beautiful western cape over the next eight days in a very very different condition as you can see just from the lush green lawns here at the uct uh we're likely to see a lot of greenery a lot of foreign foreigners very different to our usual images of the absolute cape epic through march which can be harsh and dry this will be very very different so the root prologue the prologue for the absolute cape epic this year let's take a look at what these riders are going to experience today and already experiencing because they were rolling off the star tram over an hour and a half ago the university of cape town on the lower slopes of table mountain and then they go up quarry climb a very very tough climb indeed dead man's tree will take them up onto high level road and then down the land rover technical terrain which is plum pudding and it'll be a moist plum pudding i reckon that today coming down there well the rain will um firm up the the ground a bit it means it won't be quite so dusty and so slippery but uh there will be perhaps a little bit of mud a few bits of uh some patches of water so the riders will still have to take care but it'll be a different speed going down for sure well that's the sort of day it is here the devil's peak uh shrouded in mist as we reflect on the week ahead the prologue here in cape town then it's out to series the whole camp moves out to series uh on uh this evening and 98 kilometers 1850 meters of climbing then stage two really will be a test as they transition through to syronsburg kilometers 2 100 meters of climbing uh very very tough stage indeed as they leave the wittenberg valley uh nothing back from syronsburg in tilbach again 91 kilometers 2 100 meters of climbing uh stage four will be a transition to slung hook to uh the finishing point there and then they'll be transported through to the race village in wellington where 2 300 meters of timing awaits them in a 90 kilometer stage on stage six and another loop around wellington cput is the headquarters there in the beautiful town historic town of wellington for stage five and then the finish at valdovi 68 kilometers 1850 meters of climbing totaling 619 kilometers all told and 15 15 350 meters of climbing we we with those triple five our tongues very glibly and easily but for every single rider here it is a serious challenge this isn't it uh i think i mean beard as a full-time professional or as a as an amateur this is the race that measures all oh yeah it truly is um this is by no way a walk in the park you need to come prepared otherwise it's going to be really really hard and but it's also yeah there's a beautiful thing about this race it's also that it's it's a massive adventure and you ride yourself into it and yeah it's going to be really good adventure with these people the belgians heading off on to the prologue course very serious monica nassau and iranian landmarkers and good luck to them as they explore yeah it is an adventure um and for many the first-timers journey into the unknown and the real test of their team dynamics their capabilities and their training that's what it is all about so here the helicopter overhead which is a good sign because we can bring you images of these riders very strong riders indeed they've been out to south africa many times for various different races and they're back for the absolute epic again riders roll in as well so the prologue done for many very early on the first day get the nerves out the way which is always a good thing nerves always a thing it doesn't matter who you are you have nerves yeah it's true especially here on the very first day because you that goes so much into the moment where you're actually standing on that start ramp is of course your adrenaline level is going high and really excited about everything and at the same time you need to you know you need to measure your effort a little bit and yeah so yeah it's truly a nice thing to be standing there on the start line right we'll let go so this is a look out on the route as we pick up our cameras on the route there are a number of timing mats out there to bring you the uh progression of the riders as they head out and that's our first one at 5.5 kilometers and as you can see they've already done a lot of climbing of that 600 meters of climbing coming early on in this terrain yes it's on the slopes of table mountain what do you expect it is going to be a tough climb as you can see there again up uh good man's tree eight and a half kilometers to our next timing mat to measure the efforts of these riders and so we progress further up the mountain onto the big climb the dead man's tree climb that was the quarry climb bigger button this is uh atop a dead man's tree eleven and a half kilometers into the ride and uh by now those teams will be realizing that uh sometimes it might be better just to push your bike up there i assume that this part is like super steep you can see it goes into tar just right at that point because it's so steep that and now with the conditions being slick actually your rear wheel will kind of spin in the mud yeah and you kind of need to aim for the patches where you can get grip maybe there's a little bit of grass on the side or maybe some gravel in the middle but the the proper like mud will be quite slick and because it's so steep it's so easy to spin out and you saw riders making their way rather generally down on foot down at plum pudding at that stage and that's you know there's there's there's no uh excuse no um embarrassment in doing that because this is the first day it is really slick out there they've got those poles across there they can be very very slick you don't want to end your race uh 12 k's in on day one well joel you're talking about the build up and the amount of time that it takes to prepare for this race and the energy and the effort and the sacrifice no matter who you are whether you're an amateur or whether you're a professional the last thing you want to do is end it at kilometer eight and uh most riders will be smart enough to take no risks on the downhill so risk can be taken later on as the week progresses the confidence comes and uh riders get uh stronger um you might want to take a risk or two but generally oh there's a rider heading out with this mask on which is uh not uh a prerequisite but uh thinking nevertheless as he heads out to the uh onto the route of the uh prologue so all set for a week of incredible racing and riding around from all over the world just take it all in this is an opportunity to get those uh stretch the legs get the nerves out the way and just settle in to what will be the adventure of a lifetime the journey around the absolute epic so it's not just us sitting here in the admittedly dry and warm confines of our commentary facility but out where the action is right now it's wonderful to uh introduce and welcome a new face to our coverage of the absolute cape epic but not too many of our viewers around south africa um the eastern federation is down at the start line good morning good morning from the start line you're the prologue of the 2021 edition of the absolute cape epic gerald cape town has really shown off that there are nine weather conditions in one day as the sun slowly starts to come out we had a lot of rain coming down a little earlier and what our international riders don't actually know is that in africa rain is seen as good luck and a blessing and a lot of riders are going to need the luck out there on the muddy trails and just a blessing to be out here in the beautiful cape province i got a chance to catch up with a few of these riders starting out on the prologue this morning just touching on the nerve seeing how they're feeling and getting a sense of the next couple of days what it's going to hold for these riders thanks very much too lisa will be hearing from those riders and who she's caught up with in a moment but the weather is going to be a talking point here yes a blessing it really is robben island in the distance there what a beautiful sight the city bowl and table bay and then the riders making their way up the uh the climbs here and they're in in that little picture is one of the dynamics that is so integral to this incredible event team dynamics already that rider ahead there smiling waving at the camera the other one head down and flying up the climb yeah luckily it's still on on day one and maybe the guy you know the second guy hasn't been like too annoyed with the he'll fight his legs yeah yeah well this is a significant departure john gale is one of four of the last lions heading out four riders in this field have completed every single absolute capex 16 and uh john gale on the left hand side there george evans he has written with him before i think way back in his early years in the absence cape epic we've seen that hundley steinkotzer go out with mike nixon and craig beach is our other last line might work we won't miss those riders out on the course spectacular i hope they don't get too muddy today those are nice nice kids and they're fine excitement it's good to see that's what we've been missing like really this excitement you know finally getting going so good epic series legend john shaft your lombard and conrad strauss heading out from the right start ramp [Music] the only uh woman in that uh last alliance han last night of course the previous winner of the absolute cape epic but she's come back every single year since then one of the last mike one of the last lions on the start line wow guys this is your 17th absol cape epic for both of you first time riding together yes it had to happen somehow other time but i have a problem now i can't take him out of the race on this one i have to finish with my partner and how are you feeling riding with hanla well you know she's the lioness and as you know the lionesses do the hunting you said you are so pro getting more women on mountain bikes the last 18 months we've seen biking just taking an absolute fly across the country lots of more women on bicycles how you feeling about that i am very happy and i heard yesterday that the tour de france for women's back on so it's happening we must just keep on working at it and good luck to all the girls that's doing the epic and thank you for being here and don't stop there's plenty of of work to do it's fantastic so going into the race you know you've got your 16th going to your 17th what is the plan for the next couple of days well today it's certainly with these conditions to remain upright and try to stay within touching distance of the rear wheel of my partner well please have fun and we will see you on the other side thank you very much liesel wonderful combination mike nixon a great adventurer not just on the mountain bike but a climber and a real wild and keen spirited mountain biking and all adventures but of course hanla is from the netherlands heading up onto the prologue what's the approach to the prologue well speaking from a personal point of view um in the pro category i mean everybody's in pro category mostly are in really good shape and meaning that you can go really really hard the pro prologue and you're actually capable of recovering from that because you will peek for this event meaning you you you you show up like well rested and this opening prologue you know it kind of gets your whole system going and you can easily recover afterwards um so that that's always how i kind of approached it and most most people around me are right around me is there a bit of a a pride thing is it a bit of a throwing down the gauntlet thing if you can uh post a really good time in the in the prologue does that mean that you put your rivals on the back foot would that be a factor and also just to get a feel like where are you in comparison to everybody else is it really really you know as soon as the prologue is over you kind of have an idea uh all the unknowns you didn't know before now you got a real feel for it after a prologue and that's that's important so it's all about rival knowledge uh when it comes to being top competitor at the absolute epic well it's interesting to to it'll be fascinating to get the insight that you bring in the experience that you bring to uh to our commentary box on the back of winning every race you've written here yeah and i always love coming back to this race and i have a lot of good memories and feeling attached to the race and that's that's also why i kept coming back you know for the excitement for the feeling for the for everything here let's say engine and generate great excitement amongst not just the riders but everyone involved in in the event all around this beautiful western province western cape province and that's an illustration of what you were talking about just now is that attraction is going to be tricky on the very steep climbs on the slopes of table mountain here for sure lush and green it is at this time of year as we said march is a regular date for the abza cave epic when quite often it's dry and hot and dusty so so different in every respect this year uh we've touched on how different it'll be for the races because they're bringing a different type of form and a different type of approach to it and now it is going to be a different type of terrain in terms of the uh the damper and the wind and perhaps the rain that will affect the riders a little bit of blue skies as liesel suggested we'll get a bit of sunshine as we're getting now uh four seasons in one day is very much cape town at this time of year so enjoy it and zachary swat from the single track fair tree heading out onto their journey of the absolute cape epic both of them novices so excitement at all time high for each of them i'm sure yeah next team rolling out you cannot resist a bunny hop over that little well they could still get a bit of a lilt to this to their step here and uh hopefully that will stay their morale will stay throughout the week that's the most important thing in this race is morale making sure that the riders uh stay in a good mood and stay on top of things and uh not get bogged down by the many things that could possibly happen a multitude of uh of uh obstacles along the way yeah i mean anika's talking about the approach from the professional side of the the riders and how they go you go you primed you ready you race hard on this day for the amateurs we touched on how just get through the day don't don't uh do anything silly just feel your way in um don't take any risks don't do anything that might compromise you tomorrow or later on in the week and put this one to bed early enough for these riders and you can recover for the rest of the day as they are approaching our second timing mat spitting it out all good fantastic the spirits are high here at the absolute cape epic on day one of the wonderful journey here at the university of cape town for the prologue you can just get an idea of how steep that little pitch is for craig and donnie as they dig in no gloves uh donny there which is more something a lot of riders are doing more and more of not uh yeah i always wore gloves just to get that extra like grip on the handlebar especially on the data it's like today a little bit of rain moist i feel you know the handlebar actually get really really slippery if you're not wearing gloves but i guess it's a personal preference i think some of the riders choose not to wear gloves because they prefer the feel they like the feedback of the grip on the bar and they like to be able to have no no insulation but the flip side of that from from what we have heard from wearing gloves is that when you need to make some trailside repairs fixing a tire fixing a chain is always a lot more easy when you've got gloves on less damage to the fingernails and gloves are certainly a good call for a stage race to preserve your hands one of the most important thing are your contact points um feet really important to keep your feet and your hands in good condition especially if you need to inflate a tire with a bumper co2 and once you activate that one it gets like super super cold and if you're not careful you can actually get you know freeze burns on your hands if you're wearing no gloves so a lot of good reasons to wear the gloves henry de langa and his partner daniel slayman heading out as we are building up to the start of our elite women's riders starting in a couple of minutes time team from latvia to novice absolute epic riders carlos and normans on their absolute big journey it is underway here on the prologue enjoy the ride so the women's field this year the number one seats but the favorite team is uh aryan luty and robin de cruett they dominated the swiss epic the epic series events earlier this year and uh difficult to look beyond them but perhaps today might be a little bit different maybe one of the other teams might feature more prominently on the prologue uh could be i mean we have some especially some young riders that are really really fast coming from a yeah pure xc background they they will be able to go really really hard today and today i assume the winning time of the women's race will be around maybe just below one hour so it's the effort is very similar to an xc race and so i i would yeah assume that the the purebred xc riders to do really well today but i mean ariane lutty and robin the horde they bring so much experience to this race and even though they don't win today's stage they will keep calm because they have experienced everything they know okay maybe we're not the fastest on on the prologue but we can still be very consistent and attack contender for the entire week and then so yeah there's some team there's the face of cst team of candice lil and mariska strauss the south africans and of course the swiss youngsters who are on their first absolute epic cena fry and laura stigler exactly that's uh that'd be my pick for the day since they have so much uh experience of racing at the in the red zone at the highest level um it all comes down to what form they have i know that they've had certainly a peak at the olympics they've been peaking for certain world cup races and uh it may be a very long season for them they may be on top form today but uh let's see how the rest of the week uh turns out for them it's a long it's a long week absolutely and that's something they will find out very quickly those young riders in their first time out here oh yeah oh yeah but they they are very excited they they bring all the excitement uh to this race and so they they they have the you know the excitement the speed and they'll have to use that uh when they have to battle you know the more experienced riders and they have so much to learn within these first few days and really how to approach the race day by day and but today this definitely will [Applause] learn them a lot about their teamwork the terrain their competitors so it's going to be very exciting the other uh there are only three riders in this women's field who've won their event before hannah stay in court back in 2005. of course uh we've got jenny stenar who's won the event but this is in the early years sunny buoyance and sharon laws in the very first journey they won it back again in 2009 quite a gap between those two victories sally bingham and karine vanyas felt in 2011 and uh sally teamed up with this to win in 2012. you'll and speedy with a broken collar bone famously winning on the final stage with catherine williamson and then the dynasty of in 2017 and back normal service was resumed in 2018 and 19 with different partners those two last two years yeah different partners um i really love stage racing um as a team because you need to to build this this uh this partnership with your with your partner and that's one of the things that excites me the most about is race team dynamics and uh those who haven't experienced it before will be learning very quickly about uh reading the emotions the strengths and weaknesses of their of their partners as they go through particularly today but then later on in the week that's that's absolutely crucial to an event like this oh yes and and a lot of the teams you know maybe they this is their first time riding a race together so they don't know how each one of them reacts when they get on a real pressure and during these eight days everybody has a low load moment a low time and how do you get through that and how do you still maintain that good relationship to your partner i mean you learn so much so quickly about the your partner well talking about uh someone who learned very quickly about partners because she said she's one of five times of three different partners um and back in 2019 here you were with anahana bregan a legend on the road um coming into her first big mountain bike stage race and the partnership worked it worked uh i mean anna's just such a talented ride and no matter what she does the way she approaches things she's such a pro and yeah it was we had such a good time it was uh yeah i get goosebumps now i think back on it it was amazing i mean we came in with different strengths and i know news that she was really really strong and you know having the right mindset but also that she was really unexperienced in this world of mountain biking so for me uh the hardest thing throughout this week was actually i felt i actually felt a lot of pressure and responsibility to actually you know see such a decorated writer to get her through this event and i wanted to feel good uh that was that was that was challenging but i mean it all went well and we really had a good time yeah i mean she brought a lot of focus from a different field almost to to the event so yeah a degree of responsibility on you to look after and make sure that she had a good time and won it actually yeah yeah yeah yeah no she did fine she's she's totally capable of whatever she's doing not retired into a different role but still within the sport of uh cycling as ideas with uh her team next year but yeah wonderful to have anna winning it with anika sitting alongside us here kate courtney the year before that really decorated riders all of those uh riders so fantastic to see them take it on this year there'll be a new team at the top of the uh podium come what may um the combinations will be different as i said jenny stenhock is riding with uh amy mcdougall jenny was a little ill at the world championship of the marathon world championships a couple of weeks ago and uh she did race last week in a marathon race in stellenbosch so she's sort of getting back to her full strength amy mcdougall is in some very very good form at the moment so that'll be an interesting combination as well other contenders in our in our women's race uh we've got as we've mentioned cena friend and laura sticker sarah hill and vera lucic teresa ralph and kim la court kimber court who from mauritius who won the captain cycle tour a week ago so she's got good form on the road and uh of course i don't like morata and sheree there will be a very interesting combination going today shari's been racing the world cup circuit uh together with the other south africans mariska strauss and candlestill and adelaide has great experience in world cup that hasn't done a lot of world cup this year but that could be featuring well today on the prologue we marked them as a dark horse certainly and uh discussing it uh earlier on before the before the race started um there were still darts as to adelaide's form cheri we know is a great south african racer and we always know in almost at the very first checkpoint we'll know exactly um what's happening that's a very good clue even to see what we're going to expect throughout the race um that 8.5 kilometer checkpoint uh is very revealing marie robbie a double olympian in the triathlon and has been doing a lot of mountain biking of late because you've been preparing for this and doing very successfully so as well is teaming up with hayley preen who is the south african road race champion but also a very capable multi-sport athlete now we focus on adelaide morath and sheree redeker our first of our elite women's teams heading off the computer mania mountain bike pair up on the left in her fourth absolute cape epic cherry riding just her second in based in in europe and in germany for most of the year and they are very excited ahead of their first uh absolute epic together oh you guys are amazing elite teams that are going to be heading off shortly shari adelaide how are you feeling heading into today rather excited um they've done a really great job here and the trails the table mountain club have really made really good smooth track out there and i'm looking forward to it and adelaide you're no stranger to this route but your partnership is a new one how are you feeling ahead of today yeah i'm really excited to team up with sherry but i'm quite happy to have her as my team partner and we will do our best during the whole epic now you are going into an event you haven't been on this route since 2015 was your last absolute epic how the nurse feeling ahead of uh a couple of years of not riding out here um i don't think it's quite hit me actually to be honest it's more exciting because this is where my mountain biking really started in the western cape for the racing side of things so for me it's bringing back some great memories now a little moment that the camera didn't capture was you and adelaide doing a bit of a team talk team huddle what was the words of advice that adelaide was giving you that one like i just really need to believe in myself and fly out there that's what it's all about believe in yourself and fly and we'll see you out there good luck thank you thank you well wonderful there cherie looks so excited that light is very focused and sheree started uh her mother biking in the kwazulu-natal but not really as a competitive writer she was in fact a media representative she was a photographer on a lot of the events around including the absolute cape epic and then started to get more and more into mountain biking and found that she has the engine and she certainly does a former south african champion in cross country and adelaide well she's been more focused on marathon racing this year second in the swiss epic earlier this year with angelica tazerata and eight at the marathon world championships so uh she's that and that was uh barely two weeks ago so the form could be quite good it looks like she's really finding form now and she looks like look at the focus just before when she had her glasses off you could just see like you know the focus in her eyes yeah i think they're really ready he's too bright nerves manifest themselves in different ways for people there just can't stop smiling and you can sense the excitement she's waving to some friends out there and the adelaide is totally focused on the track ahead i think every writer has they knows right now they would know what works for them um if you watch world cup races you often see the likes of yolanda niff smiling broadly at the start and others are like you said joe are absolutely focused on the track ahead no smiles so the uh computer mania mountain bike team mdbt madelight from germany and south africa's cherie rediker set the tone in the women's elite category most teams because this is like the very first stage and it's really a good idea to have a strategy ahead of the start so these two women probably already know okay who's going to take the front here on the field who's gonna set the pace on the climb i mean it's a really good idea to have a strategy and you know agree on a strategy before the race because then there's less unknowns once you are out there and focusing on you know riding fast and being strong away they go adelaide and cherie redeker computer mania mtb the first of our elite women's team teams are on the route for the prologue to the 2021 absolute cape epic here at the university of cape town onto the slopes of table mountain on a damp and cool day as the absolute vaper gets underway satellite on the front straight away there yes and uh so just behind them is the uh land rover ladies marie ravi as i said a two-time uh olympian in triathlon and she was twenty one twelve and twenties yeah thank you partner twenty eighteen twenty smiling look at that hayley preen in her first absolute epic the capetonian and a road race uh champion but as i said she's got experience in exterior so she knows what it's like to race in these or ride in these sort of conditions but not over eight consecutive days which is the true test putting it all together for eight days just checking over and again an example there they go marie rabbi on the left-hand side haley preen was in the mix at the cape town cycle tour last week finishing second in a sprint finish down next to the stadium from a mixed winner nicholas from meisner she's absolutely thrilled isn't she she's riding with a south african cycling legend little royalty charizard and uh she is back this is a combination built on deep friendship and a passion for the sport and enjoyment of what they do hein will be uh very very excited and mum susie watching them go and ben i willet will be watching sharice head out onto the routine what a journey for these two and that is it is a journey for all these teams and it is what you make of it i mean it's a sort of tried comment but your approach to how you're going to deal with these eight days determines how much enjoyment and success we've got uh a lot of internationals racing uh the absolute cape epic there are 58 of the field are south african uh which is uh which is great to see we've got a big south africa contingent it is an international race as we said a big international contingent and the two french riders heading off on a new adventure for them absolutely 21 heading out onto the absolute capability well really we you know we cannot tell you how they go to fair and what we're so excited to see how they'll deal with it and and they may well be a team that uh feature later in the in in the race and they pop into a stage winning position but here they are on the prologue just getting the nerves out the way and heading out onto the route 20 k's done 600 meters of climbing on the uh absolute cape epic prologue route on table mountain it's a route that hasn't differed too much over the years the smiling face to the former mauritian champion kimberly lacourt and uh teresa ralph the galileo risk infinity teammate very experienced teresa in her ninth house okay epic and kim on her first she she approached last week's uh cape town cycle to 109 kilometers around the roads of cape town here with the uh mindset of don't do anything silly don't get injured because i've got the absolute epic that was a priority she goes and wins the race as well so so seriously uh strong rider and clearly in some good change she's got a great mentor in teresa ralph there's a rough very experienced writer she's been in the uh she's in fact won the um african jersey for women and she's best place at the races second so she knows a thing or two about racing at the on the western cape terrain on the left hand side sarah hill from south africa on her right vera formerly vera adrian the namibian former champion and she's been racing on the road building europe at the moment but sarah has been predominantly racing at home for the factory team got a deal she was very quiet very fortunate to get a deal with the live factory towards the end of last year unfortunately he hasn't been able to race obviously he's a great deal but here's an opportunity to shine for the live lapeer racing pair of sarah hill and veralucer just one absolute epic each they've completed sarah with uh teresa ralph just ahead of her the last uh epic you will have seen uh vera lucer at the at the olympics in tokyo fantastic performance she was in that lead break um with the eventual winner so she'll also be uh in good form racing internationally this is a pair we talked about already cinefry and laura stiga two youngsters from europe let's hear their thoughts ahead of their first absolute epic together hi i'm laura stika i'm 21 years old and riding for a specialized factory team and for the cab epic together with sango so this is my teammate sina fry she's 24 years old and we know each other yeah this year and before already and yeah it's cool to be partnering up with with this rocket it was super cool like with anika she gave us a lot of her experience with us and also with christoph saucer so we could already get some tips from them and i think yeah that's a huge advantage for us and also our team around is really professional and they know how it works so that's a big advantage for us i think the courses will suit us pretty good especially when it's technical and yeah we are used to do technical stuff in the down in exile so i think we can maybe gain some seconds there and yeah in the flat and up uphill parts we will see how we can keep up or or not so that is uh a very very interesting pairing in their first steps keep epic security swiss and austrian riders and a multi multitude of junior and under 23 world titles between them and they are on the course as are jenny sterner half the swedish champion and amy mcdougall a first time combination in the absolute cape epic and they're on the prologue here the uh first day of eight days of a trip around the western cape that is like no other the 2021 absolute epic is underway so they are rolling away jenny and amy a little bit uncertain of where they where their form is entirely because genie has had some illness and this is a combination that's been long in the uh making many ways because they've had parallel careers mariska strauss on the right-hand side and candace little on the left they've sort of swapped the national titles over the years at the moment the cross-country champion of south africa's candace lille on the left-hand side she's also the time trial champion on the road and they're so well matched physically um and technically that uh often when you're watching the world cups they're almost within one or two places of each other at the end and uh they seem to they seem to gel well together they've got a great vibe and um they just haven't ridden together because of the conflicting trade teams but they've managed to put this team together it was always obvious to uh to fans that this would be the perfect combination and now we finally get to see it we finally get to see it play out so the last team on the uh star tream is uh ariane luty and robin duckworth let's hear from them ahead of the prologue with our elite ladies ariana and robin fresh from the swiss epic how did that go yeah very well we can't complain winning all the stages was really nice and how does that to feel confidence-wise as you head into today yeah i think it was still some time ago so for sure it was a great warm up for us great to kind of get a feel for each other but obviously k-pep is something different and yeah we came to race together again do you think that was a great warm-up for this partnership and leading into today's event i mean you get to already practice a little bit of tactics how you communicate and everything with the terrain is very different i mean cape epic south africa is very different to the ops um so yeah and the competition is very different we've got a lot of cross-country writers here and it's just epic was more than marathon riders so it will be quite a lot different so who are you keeping a lookout for behind you or ahead of you i think we respect everybody it's so hard to pinpoint you know the strongest teams we don't know where everybody is at the moment but for sure the specialized writers are really really strong and we know candace and mariska we're not sure about jen and amy but i mean it's ardol's also yeah it's just a it's a good field this year ariana mentioned that communication is vital and you guys have had the chance to to get through an event a stage race together getting into this event who is uh busting who on the on the route i think ariane's got really the most experience and her pacing strategy tends to work really well so yeah we i think we need to just look after each other so it works both ways i'm not too bossy but well you're all smiles right now and as you head out into the mud good luck and we'll see you on the other side thanks very much thank you thank you guys so that is ninth absolutely dropping in her fifth and this is on board footage fantastic isn't it on board behind the pair of uh cherry rariket drops her seat post heading down the hill they drop a seat base now just uh dave rigueur on on bikes and eyla stowe is our rider on the bikes a very very fine mountain bike is isla loves trails and uh there's a little potential for going over jumps and doing some hectic trails but she'll be keeping an eye on these riders either and trying to keep that lens clean on a tricky day for doing that i think when we've been treated to the gopro footage that is the main challenge of especially in days like today is keeping the lens clean but the e-bike footage has transformed the coverage of the race it's really given us a rider's eye view of what things are like and uh it's been fantastic to to really get a sense and to get a visceral sense of what the racing's all about so that's like just dictating the pace up the climb yeah it seems like they have a really really like clear strategy um so it's true that the first part of the the course is more climbing but it's not only climbing it's a lot of rolling hills like slight downhill sections and sometimes also with the wind and sometimes the wind tends to like blow over the mountain and if there's a section where you know you go high quite fast and fast and that's head wind it's good to have the strongest riders in the front to kind of provide some some yeah some shelter for the one behind so you kind of get the feel of the teamwork on a day like this today head out from stellenbosch a pair who have been preparing so so hard for this uh journey around the absence of epic good luck to them as they embark on it we have got other uh e-bikers out there very shortly we'll be catching up with um epic legend in stefan sam who's uh on one of those bikes and thomas teach his bull's teammate also are bringing us images as they go around the course would be fantastic to see right in the heart of the race they certainly have a very exciting um very exciting armchair view of it it won't be easy for them the e-bike does give them typically an extra 250 watts compared to what an average professional would put out would be maybe 350 watts or so during uh during a stage like this on average so it does give them a bit of extra boost some extra torque on those climbs and definitely gives the viewer a great view of really what's going on in the race they'll be riding the bike riders will be riding with the backpack and that'll be a broadcast unit and also some of the e-bike riders will be able to talk back to us so we might even get to hear some trailside commentary absolutely bringing you innovation all the way through the absolute cape epic over the next eight days every year uh tweaks are made and improvements are made and we hope it uh delivers a uh a dramatic uh image of what is uh truly dramatic uh eight days of riding right on the road now adelaide still on the frontier little drink for cherry hydration and nutrition on a short day like today um now with the weather being so cold it's not like massively hot um you could even get away with like not almost carrying any drinks you just need to make sure that you are well fueled before the start because it will for some of the faster riders only be around one hour it's you know a little bit the same like a cycle cross effort and then you carry no drinks um but it's still nice to have something with you on the bike also just you know for the mental side you know that if you get thirsty or feel like drinking something you have something with you but on a day like this you would kind of carry as little as possible and be as efficient as possible up the climbs absolutely many of the riders will be carrying nutrition inside their bottles as well it won't just be the won't just be the fluids they'll be looking to replace it'll be the energy levels and on a stage like this annika's best place to answer what kind of energy replacement you'll need during the stage and then and afterwards maybe a jail but what you would do on a date like this is make sure you you get enough energy just before the start so drink well and maybe grab a deal just before the start and maybe one kill during and as soon as you cross the finish line and get something to recover some carbohydrates some protein um it doesn't really matter what you get but a protein drink is mostly the most easy thing to like chuck just after the finish line a great opportunity here for lorenzo leroux and luanda tobinguna these two men very much in the picture for the xiro category lorenzo lives on at the gate of the wonderful famous jungkook mountain bike park or mto forest and uh luanda from stellenbosch as well and again up there that have been uh just uh preparing so hard i don't like just keeping an eye over her shoulder there yeah adlat really needs to be take be careful that she doesn't over pace it and pushes sherry too much into the red and i'm sure that sherry is like experienced enough to to maintain her pace and here with the specialized girls and you can see they're going they're going really fast they're using the speed the freshness the the motivation and everything really to the full advantage yeah for them i mean this is even shorter than a a cross-country race so thomas deich is bringing us the images of cinephry and laura stiga laura a world champion on the road and the mountain cross country as a junior so clearly hugely talented uh rider and the silver minister the under 23 yeah cross-country world championships as well this year so yeah great potential yeah great potential i mean there's so much talent in this pairing and i really i really really enjoy watching you know the young young riders daring to to take on a race like this uh i felt like in the past a lot of young writers were more hesitant towards this kind of effort and it really warms my heart to see these women you know doing this absolutely getting the young riders in and uh and being hugely competitive there's no question this pair are going to be competitive that's what they are they're racist oh yeah they're pure pure bread races absolutely now this is another significant pairing the xoro pepto pair of anti-series from south africa racing in the women's open category and a journey around the abso cape epic is something that they perhaps never envisaged they'd be doing and here they are on hardtail bikes so it could be a it'll be a tough week for them but that's what the absolute cape epic is about for anyone but if anyone can get through it these two young ladies can do uh just that really really fantastic to see them 26 is deceiver and refuel is 22 both in their first uh journey of the yeah here we're back with the with the lara strix digger and cena fry and you can see they swapped positions so they really already now have a really good teamwork going on and i'm sure they have a good plan on where how to pace themselves and who to go to the front at what point and you can see they're doing it like perfectly right now and we're waiting for them to hit that 8.5 kilometer checkpoint so far the fastest at that checkpoint at the 8.5 kilometer mark is computer mania's marath and radica and they've crossed that mark at 15 minutes 48 so we're looking to this team to see how they compare themselves to that time of 15 minutes and 48 seconds especially in this section it's really open and it's as a rider you are able to see a lot of the teams ahead of you and it's such a good motivation to be there and you know okay whoever's in front of us they started two minutes ahead of us and also you know you catch a glimpse of them and then you you can feel the adrenaline just getting an extra yeah level because you as all of a sudden you have something to aim for and i'm sure these these two are just like looking one team ahead and just just always taking up a box and catching the next team it's really good motivation on this course the uh again the the vagaries of the cape weather illustrating itself again with the sunshine on that far side the sun behind the riders as they hit up here and uh they'll tick this box we talk about the micro climates of the western cape and definitely in the newlands area where the university of cape town is situated that's well known to be uh a little bit rainier than the other areas and um the riders will be passing into the city bowl which is uh a so-called another microclimate and the variations in temperature and and where the weather patterns will will definitely play a role in the race and also the variations in temperature tomorrow morning they'll be starting at seven o'clock and the temperatures will be perhaps in the single figures and then later on the day it'll reach possibly the 20s and in some cases actually the 30s so the the riders will need to be able to cope with all of those extremes uh when uh tackling this race here of uh mariskastrasse and candace lille the faces cst pairing of the south africans on their route just to to tell you that the fastest time at the moment 49 minutes and 33 seconds for the the entire route 49 33.6 emanuel pashnek and stefan spielman have coached me the swiss riders and they are significantly faster than anyone else at the moment they're finished so that's the the benchmark time and this is nikki nikki hiromi and charisse relate on the front is says cherise and you can see laura and cena are really cooking oh yeah oh yeah i mean they're so determined they are so focused it's a it's nice to see past kim la court and teresa ralph behind there kim great on the climbs teresa's strength is the power flats but uh this pair seems so well matched at the moment and uh are just ticking off teams as they uh roll on uh through this prologue course yeah seem to be in such a good rhythm just riding their own pace and uh taking turns at the front absolutely on a good day by the by the looks of it yeah they they really approach this super professionally so they spend already a few weeks here just to adjust to the climate and and have some time to to adjust to the terrain and to the teamwork also to really work on on how to to pace themselves together i mean that communication on the bike um yeah would did you use different ways with each of your partners or did you have a formula that you stuck to in terms of just communicating and said this is the best way to do it when you teamed up with your partners um sometimes you kind of you you talk about it beforehand and then once you're in the race you know everything is kind of off you obvious it's not like you you have the breath time to do like two minutes long conversations so it's more like you communicate maybe with your elbow or like short words and you know sometimes you even have the chopper like right above your head so the noise is so light you can't really do a lot of communication so you need to keep it simple and efficient so sarah hill and uh vera lussa are going up about the time as we're back with the pace set as we feel at this stage in the prologue in the women's race cena fry and laura stigger we have some information from the first time check the 8.5 kilometer mark so far there are still some teams to pass through but so far 91 songo specialized fry and stigger are the fastest leading computer mania by 30 seconds absolutely yeah and you can really feel how sticky the mud gets now now that it's not raining at this point the sun is out and it actually makes this really wet mud very sticky sticky yeah sticks to everything and uh can clog up your your tyres and uh get uh a little bit messy but hopefully it's a shortage race here you can have a look at the rear wheels there may be very tacky and we it's always tempting to compare the times from this year to 2019 which was the last absolute cap epic that was uh with anika and under finder bregen they raced this course in 51 minutes so um previous year i think um from our records it's 54 minutes when you're racing with kate courtney so there is a big difference and the terrain can play a big role the heat and also the trail surface depending on how loose it is and how tacky the surface is so we won't be tempted to compare the times as an all-out athletic effort but it will be a relative effort compared to some of these teams who do still have to pass that time check we don't have any information yet because they still have to pass we're still waiting for faces cst to go through and uh they're aiming for a 15 minute and 18 second that's the time set at that checkpoint by 91 songo specialized and this is mariska strauss and candace lille riska just on the front uh for the time being candace has been in great form she won again last week at a tough marathon event in stellenbosch quite comfortably ahead of her partner must be said in that race and she was very very impressive as they reasoned by very focused and looking in good shape as you get an idea for how damaged this beautiful table mountain was by the awful fires here in cape town recently you wouldn't think as much because we've had so much rain but this is again stress dictating the pace just for another dictating the pace but setting the pace yeah this is really smart riding from this team especially if candice lille is the stronger of the the two women here um letting my risk really set the pace so mariska doesn't overcook herself so this is really smart riding i think that's one of the the great advantages of this team is really the the experience when it comes to state racing a full season on the world cup circuit both these riders and as neil alluded to a lot earlier the uh they they were never that far apart um one week one would finish a few places ahead of the other the next week the other way around and that sort of experience and it's the first time i think they've really had a full go at the at the world cup circuit so that will have served them uh so well in preparing for this and just generally in terms of experience of racing in in the hectic uh world of cross-country racing in the particularly the world cups it's very hard to compare sports and to compare um sub sports within the sport but if you were to look at uh at world cup racing it's maybe annika you can you can come into this better but it's more like f1 racing versus something like the dakar yeah i think you're right it's a it's a different it's very different very very different this is like this is much longer and you need to think about so many things the recovery for the next day and then you're getting through each day well so it's very different sticker and fry here are absolutely flying yeah they are they're really flying they are certainly flying they've still got that 30 second at that time check but we have had more information from the all the teams have passed through that time check and currently team salus med that's aryan looty and robin the crit they are 34 seconds behind the time set by 91 songo specialized and computer mania are still the second fastest team on the tracks right now at 30 seconds behind not 91 songwriter specialized faces cst that's candice lille and mariska strauss they are sitting at 40 seconds at that time check so it's pretty very very clear where the strength lies just at the moment in this prologue it is but we we would also assume that the two youngsters on the specialized team that they would do really well uh today um it doesn't necessarily say anything about how they will be on day six and seven but for sure this is their their terrain absolutely this is if they're gonna shine um if you were to look at the race from a distance if they were to shine any day this would be it there as one would expect the timing of this year's absolute epic now in october there is a very different dynamic we've touched on it about to how the elite fields in both men's and women's competitions have fewer cross-country specialists and those that are coming into the race have had a really tough long year they've had their world cup season some like laura and cena have had olympic games as well world championships and now they come at the tail end of the season into the absolute cape epic bringing some form for sure fatigue perhaps as well um and then the unknown quantities of racing into an eight day going into an eight day event so the dynamics are so so different this year same in the men's field very few cross-country specialists more marathon specialists in in this year's field i think that one of the biggest factors that we can we will see during the week to play out will be the fact that many of these uh partnerships are untested at the absolute epic perhaps they've raced before which is always a good thing but uh it's important that to know that at the absolute cape epic it's uh the highest level of mountain bike stage racing and those partnerships need to be very slick so that uh the teams can operate effectively this up right oopsie no no you don't need to really do that just finish the prologue safely please that's better now jenny stinner i think this is it is amy mcdougall up front there and this is a combination that will be interesting to watch uh jenny rich experience but has had a difficult year with some illness towards the last couple of months whereas amy is starting to peak really nicely so again managing the expectations on either side it's going to be critical and it's a picture of the uh laura sticker and cena fry as they climb up towards the top of uh the mountain is very very cool misty damp the plum pudding descent which is what we are focused on there so we've seen a lot of riders the amateur riders just running down that rather than taking the risk of a potential fall and just getting through safely there we go teamwork take a drink now yes and that's actually a really really good point that you bring up because that's also you know the responsibility for your partner's well-being and you know sometimes if you can see oh your partner is struggling you know when you're so in the limit you all you forget the basic things like eating and drinking so just a kind reminder like okay you remember this it's actually super before [Music] and this is the mixed pair of team garmin van melt and your lundy swannapool the team have been racing has mixed for years and years all over the country and all over the world in fact and uh potential winners of the mix category here so wonderful to see they got married stucco got married in december they are now uh taking part in the absolute cape epic once again wonderful to see you would have seen ben melt racing with marnie heymans in the past years annie is a former winner and he's racing at the 2021 apps okay epic as well so we're looking for him on the trails that was the voice of neil gardner the encyclopedia the absolute epic and uh alongside us we are privileged today to have uh and throughout the week a five-time winner of the absolute cave they pick a former world champion in cross country and marathon annika longfellow has joined us and what a privilege it is to have your insight here thanks thanks i don't want to say thanks for retiring because we love watching you race as well but uh for taking uh you have to come out here yeah thank you it's it's awesome to be here i think for all of us it'll be great to ask the those unanswered questions that we've always wondered about the absolute insight into the mindset of the pro athletes both off the bike and on the bike on the trails there's so many things that you don't know unless you've ever been in the situation absolutely so anton and adrian going out there do as best they can in the mixed category from poland pavel kowalski and peter sipulia another international pairing here 44 of the field are from overseas which is from outside of south africa just very gratifying in these very difficult times in the coronavirus pandemic travel has not been the easiest different countries have had different uh restrictions to see so many riders coming out to take on it shows the uh the attraction of the aftercape epic and the desire to come and be part of the event some of those some of them may have been preparing for their first absence 19 months ago when it was cancelled at the very last moment well on the friday evening with the start on the uh on this sunday can you remember where you were when the cancellation happened i was at our accommodation and it was it was super tough the most tough thing was that this was a completely new situation for everyone and nobody really understood the seriousness of what was about to happen and so before the race actually got cancelled within our team we were fourth and back a lot because we had no idea like is this a good idea should we just you know really get home safely as soon as we can because what if you know they cancel our flights and we can't get back home there are so many and our team manager i think he was not sleeping for a few nights it's a word and you know when they so when they they actually canceled the race it was like okay okay now plan b let's get home straight away because this is serious business that canceled friday when did you get home i flew out the night after on this saturday night yeah or sunday morning can't remember yeah it was really quickly yeah it was a scramble to get out of uh or get home let's put it that way um with the uncertainty and uh justifiably so because as we now know history will tell us that the world was turned pretty much upside down watching these riders right around the table mountain here doesn't mean that the world is back on an even kill just yet but uh we are a lot closer and uh things have progressed in the right way fascinations and all the precautions taken and this event is being run along all the protocols that are in place uh according to the government of south africa in terms of what they've laid down level one protocols are in place masks must be worn around the village at all times social distance observed as best as possible and uh once you're on the bike you can take your mask off and we'll stay fairly close to your partner as well it is you must ryan is going out and ryder is coming in on the prologue 20 kilometers of effort today on day one of the 2021 absolute cape epic [Music] and thunder father and son writing for such an amazing canadians daniel albert and joel simpson beautiful journey both of them doing their first absolute epics a lot of first-timers this year you get the feeling and that is indicative of the standing of this event around the world you know it really is the one that everyone wants to do if you're a mountain biker that's exactly it and that's certainly the race that measures all and anyone who's got a curiosity about what they can do and anyone who has ambitions there's always a human instinct to climb a mountain or to take on a challenge if you're a mountain marker this is definitely the pinnacle of challenges if you're a marathon racer and a stage racer 52-year-old alex kruger and 20-year-old zander kruger alex with 10 absolute cape epics to his name and does under on his first what a wonderful thing as a as a family and if you take that back to when alex was doing his first um the young xander would have been 10 if not younger and now he's getting a chance to experience it that's the journey that is the absolute epic not just around the eight days but uh around people's lives does take fairly strong roots in families and in lives which is wonderful hitting up the dead man's tree climb i think we are at yeah and you can see how slick it is so the riders are now searching for track traction for the wheels for the tires here at the side of the the course at this point it's so steep and once you get to the tarmac here and do the left hand turn just 10 meters centimeters later you know that you have kind of done the toughest part of the the course from here on it's like a long traverse like so fast rolling so this is kind of really like a key point on the course the top of this climb yeah it's the last serious climber for the prologue so get this one under the belt just to let you know that it is a spectator-free venue here at the university of cape town riders and crew and staff here out on the mountain uh people of cape town have made their way up onto the mountain at their own risk and i've gathered to give the riders uh support which i'm sure they'll richly appreciate you'll love that noise is going up there yeah especially here because at this point you know you're suffering so badly and getting getting that extra motivation from the spectators is actually quite nice we begin to know from anika exactly how what kind of tactics do you use to pace yourself throughout the prologue because the terrain is so steep in certain parts and so fast roading and others how do you approach the race is it a do you pre-ride the course do you have a plan beforehand how to approach each climb um this is it feels a little bit like a time trial really you need to pace yourself nicely all the way through um so really carry speed from their less steep parts into this deep part and then settle into rhythm on the really really steep parts that you know wait doesn't you don't go too much into red but you still go hard and i remember when i did it with anna back in 2019 she he had this one timed perfectly so once we got to that corner like where the clamp ended and we need to do the traversing the fast rolling stuff i was like i was so cross-eyed but i was like okay okay if she can go this hard i can go this hard and then when we got to the flat sections she went to the front and i was drafting on her wheel and i was on my limit drafting on her wheel she was going so hard but i was like okay i can still recover from this i just need to go with her i believe haley preen on the frontier the rider for the land rover ladies and marie robbie is behind a hayley hammering it along here she's in great form again she's just peaked for the cape town cycle tour the south african road race championship he went to the world championships uh in belgium which must have been an extraordinary experience she'll have friends on that mountain i can tell you that well hayley from uh cape town so she doesn't want to get too far ahead of marie she used to look over her shoulder and these are things that you will only suddenly will only realize as a team as a novice team when you get to the top and she looks and wonders where she is yeah that's why today is so crucial for the entire race because that really you learn team tactics the hard way if you do it wrong and if you do it right you really benefit from it um there's a lot of things about this team dynamic you can see yeah when they get so far apart it can be really demoralizing for the one behind because you're going as hard as you can and still you cannot keep up with your partner and as the stronger rider in a pairing it's your responsibility to kind of you know make it a good teamwork because you're the one with that extra energy to think about that it's very clear to see the urgency of these two this is 91 songo specialized heading up that climb and uh you can just see the demeanor of the riding the rhythm that they're setting that they are absolutely going full and it's all in for these two aiming for the prologue win and the leaders jerseys at the end of today to go into stage one [Applause] listen to the noise up there wonderful welcoming them up there they'll love this [Applause] cena's looking so comfortable there not that laura isn't but she does look very very strong yes cena has had such a strong season and she's really on good form and her motivation is like sky high i mean she got she got all the strong cars on her hand that's that's for sure and they certainly from the split times we can see there are way ahead we still have some teams to go through that time to the through that checkpoint but they are way ahead of computer mania mountain biking at one minute 48 in front interesting to note that the the team that just passed 91 song especially they are riding in a very good there's a very good team dynamic between them there's no gaps you know keeping an eye on each other no um they don't seem to be that they seem to be being well drilled in the art of stage racing together and despite their inexperience or relative inexperience they are doing it exactly to the book yeah despite their young age they're really professional both of them and they have a good feel for racing in general just keeping an eye making sure that uh it's all together and your partner is okay a little section once they've climbed up dead man's tree that drag all the way along uh the uh road to the final descent down that plum pudding this is a beautiful road to ride on um it's close to cars at one point there is a bollard where the riders the cyclists can go through very smooth tower but not flat at all there's some really steep climbs that you need to measure your efforts on so that you don't go too far into the red this is team cst faces yes and lill so heading into uh time and they've got eyeless stowe on the e-bike just behind them talk about the years i mean cena fryer she's a short track world champion she was second in the olympic games she was always in the top echelons of the world cups i mean that's a seriously seriously busy year but she's a young woman with clearly bags of talent and energy just to race and and to get out there and race so so thinking that they're going to come along here and just um you know have a have a little feel around their first absolute epic no they're here to to to make it count they certainly are um i had a yeah some good chats with the two ladies leading up to this race yes they told us so actually yeah yeah yeah and one of the first questions i i asked them no one of the first questions they asked me was like should we wear like aero helmets on a time trial and i was like okay good this tells me everything about your ambitions for this race now i know where we are this is good yeah they're not here to uh no no jolly that's for sure ending the task here it's a steep climb for mariska strauss and candace lill and 111 is the split there neil we still have to see team silas made come through this time check but this is it giving us a good clue as to what's going to happen uh first of all for today's results and uh during the week we've got definitely got the team to watch that's for sure fantastic isn't it we've still got one that uh well the team that could make a difference here sal has met the uh aryan looty and robin deferred combination [Music] i haven't seen them yet on our coverage the fastest time of the day 49 minutes and 33 seconds uh by the men's team of manual fashion and stephen spielman there they are robin and ariana briefly up the climb and they'll be getting a big rule going up there of course fifth and sixth at the world championship marathon championships a couple of weeks ago and in fifth robin in sixth and just not even half a half a minute between them so well matched clearly very well matched not well matched to their kits they normally would have to wear matching kit but because ariane luty is the swiss champion the swiss marathon champion she gets to wear she gets the honor of wearing her swiss national shirt marie robbie and hayley preen uh now having completed the serious climbing this is a bit of a drag up the road here but haley just to illustrate aryan's form again she won the swiss championships just before the marathon world championship so she's clearly in very good shape robin not the south african champion this year and she had an unfortunate situation in the in the south african-american championships in palm where she missed the route and took a slightly longer route a shorter route came across the line first but then uh said to them look i i think i've taken a wrong route here and unfortunately for her she was she was disqualified so elaine de villiers is the marathon champion of south africa but uh robin uh doing as ever doing the right thing and just saying look i don't think i got this quite right but she's a multiple south african marathon champion over the years and clearly on form today just looking at that time check all of the women riders have passed that time check and what we have is well we have it here right here on the screen it's 91 songo specialized having passed there in 35 minutes and 19 seconds silas med that's almost a minute back with faces cst a minute and 11 seconds when you were doing the uh the prologue time trial were you made aware of of the gaps at any stage no and i was just about to talk about this that's the thing you you don't really know especially yeah if you kind of start the very first or the very last you don't really know when but you always think like ooh the others are going faster we need to go faster and that's why you go so fast in the prologue because you need to go fast because you can't really yeah don plum pudding adelaide murat and sheree riddicker of computer mania mtb safely down and uh heading towards the finish here at uct we saw earlier some of the amateurs walking down that section but the professionals seem to be making short work of that descent [Music] as you can see the road is not just a preserve of cyclists it is uh sunday morning uh jogging route as well on in cape town today we are on board with the top performing team today so far at all the time checks team 91 songo specialized seems to be on a they're in a great rhythm certainly and they are completely symbiotic which is the most important thing in mountain bike stage racing is to have the team symbiosis going and there's no doubt as to how well these guys are gelling as a partnership it is it's one of those things in in mountain bike racing like this you you look at the team and the moment you see them you know this is the team that uh the really formed team they're firing on all cylinders they've got everything together on the day and uh so far so good for cena fry and laura stigger with 91 song specialized i think we all expected this team to do really well and what is particularly impressive is how well they are working together and no doubt they'll have been absolute sponges before the race absorbing as much information from anika as she's alluded to and also from the likes of christoph souza and from the trade team who are well versed in this race in supporting the athletes in their recovery and in their preparation for each stage all right gentlemen getting almost down to the bottom and then bailing out no dropper seat post for these riders which is surprising it is uh something that you would have used did you use dropper yeah um especially the last few races i did yeah here a drummer seat post were more more common and you know i'm really i like to ride my bike in a race like quebec very similar to how i ride it like normally so i wouldn't change much on a bike for this race and normally i would ride a driver's seat post so i kept it for this race for those of you who are maybe wondering what the dropper seat post is it's a allowance to get the seat to drop down drop the center of gravity when you're going down a hill it makes descending a lot easier a lot more comfortable you may see it in operation just now as they drop into the pudding this could be very interesting these two uh highly skilled cross-country races also impressive work by the e-bike rider who's able to keep up with them clearly an expert as is is that we're not sure if this is stefan some or thomas ditch behind so thomas ditch behind the behind the races and yes riders giving way to the top teams on the trail past the land river ladies there no let's see them coming down marie robbie on the front haley preener was a partner there in the distance who had stopped her just get off the path of these two [Music] i'm afraid it has happened in the past many a rider riders week has ended um really before it started on that uh [Applause] we can't get it wrong and uh unfortunately it does happen so away they go they are absolutely flying they're flying look at that but so plum pudding is kind of one of the the most technical part of of this course but actually after the plum pudding you still have some really fast rolling uh yeah jeep tracks and the tricky thing is there's a lot of like loose rocks you go into like really dense forest where vision can be a little bit tricky so you can't like sit up after plum pudding you need to keep that focus going otherwise you can get it all wrong when you think you know you're home safe because you're not jenny and amy mcdougall with nikki hilmi and charizard just behind them yeah they have changes have been made to the trails just behind uct due to the fires but uh it is still very technical and there's a fairly couple of serious drop-offs just as they come towards uh or come out of the uh the single track there so uh it has to be taken very very uh carefully all the way through the finish you don't want to as wonderful to see these riders digging in working hard it's finally the opportunity to put all that preparation and all the sacrifice to good use here and uh get stuck into eight days of racing at the absolute epic they won the prolonged just 20 k's of 620 and it's a long journey for all these riders on the absolute epic and we'll take you around the whole journey as we follow the journey of the 17th absolute cape epic it's prologue day here on the slopes of table mountain russian green it is as yeah these are the trails that uh anika was referring to have some rocky sections here as well yeah here is so important to really pick your line well and there's some sharp rocks and you go into this section with a high speed and if you hit one of those rocks it's so easy to get a flat tire and that's not what you want at this point because here you can really you can smell the finish line of the prologue and you just want to go there safely so this is really a key moment to stay focused yeah i think somewhere around about here that uh the hopes of a south african team in the men's race uh 19 months ago ended alan healthy and matt beers picked up a puncture here when they were on course for at least challenging for a podium place and uh that didn't happen well they ended up fifth on the day and um that would have cost them at least a minute to be able to have to deal with that puncture so yes a bit of a difficult situation for them but at the same time the art of stage racing is keeping air in the tires and keeping upright and um generally the more risks you take um the more likely you are to to have a mechanical like a puncture very smoothly down mariska strauss and candace lill down the plum pudding descent and they will be heading down to the uc trails very shortly as well and you would have seen stefan a former winner of this race following them on the e-bike so we won't be too long before we welcome in the fastest of the women very shortly and that time that uh we are expecting you said 51 minutes was it near between on the prologue [Music] again it's not fair to compare necessarily but uh it's a guy yeah just under 52 minutes it's 51 44. uh and undefended bregen racing for investigative specialized and second place on the day was in fact aryan luthien maya wischelovsko at two minutes 35 back so clearly a very fast time set by invested somewhere specialized in 2019 in the prologue these are the trails some of those many of those have been rebuilt and uh this is going to be a tricky section but teresa ralph and kim recorded through and this is the computer mania mtp pair adelaide more up and cherie redeker completed their prologue [Music] very shortly for them we did cite them as a as a dark horse team in this race and there were darts as to the form and the motivation of them but they've clearly done themselves proud so far they are the fastest time rider they were the fastest the first home obviously among the big favorites but they were second fastest of the previous time check the fastest of course 91 sungo specialized at 46 minutes they were only one minute sorry that would be two minutes and 30 seconds approximately behind them so expecting to see them high up on the leaderboard right body position there from jenny stenhack as she comes down the plum pudding to center amy mcdougall nice and low and again that dropper seat base ensuring that you can get nice and low and get the body weight in the right position and not tumble over to get it wrong so sweeping through these uh uct trails lovely to see why it is clearing the way as the on-fire pair of 91 sunglasses specialized flying through cine fry and laura stiga yeah they're doing really well here today and they can really smell the finish line they know that they have less than than one kilometer to go it's almost there now it's a good time to if you have anything left it's actually a good time to get a last little bit out of the system just to make sure that you get all the time gain you can on on day one pudding and the cherries relate to nicola me pear or just one of them mickey i think this is this is i've got a whole week of uh challenges to come i want to enjoy that and i want to finish the race with my partner i'll just get down here safely enough it's very again it's firstly the camera doesn't do the gradient any justice and secondly the uh that clay is so so slippery after the rain i think in this situation if there is not so much at stake it's the when there's a doubt as to whether you can make it down without accident without having a um a slip or an accident there is no doubt as to what the right decision is no risks yolandi and ben mel swanna pooled in the absent colors and melts just giving your lonely a gentle push up that climb uh such a superb team this is uh our 91 songo specialized pair coming into the finish here at uct in the women's race cena fry of switzerland and laura stiga and they will race home and right now post the fastest time of the day a superb ride by these two the austrian and the swiss so really really impressive you can see from the body language of the two as they passed they knew they had a good day out everything went according to plan they didn't seem to make any mistakes and they were the fastest at all the checkpoints they will be receiving that information from the their team on the ground exactly how well they've gone but it looks like they know it yeah 54 minutes the way they wrote together is like they've been doing this forever it's impressive to watch [Music] a very impressive ride by the fastest women on the course right now cena fry and laura stigger they're off the course now and two minutes and 55 seconds ahead of the computer mania mtv pair at this stage i'd like morata and sheree redeke's time was 5704 this is candace lille and mariska strauss the south african pair faces cst and it's that fine line between just going and letting it all hang out and being slightly out of control yeah and keeping it together yes all the locals the cape town local mountain bike committee will know these trails it'll be a big thrill for them to see how fast these women are going through here as many uh many a rider has tried to say to the strava segment they're fast to strive a segment here and no doubt those times will be smashed today well they'll be leading time at the moment 5408 and they're heading towards that time now 5704 is the second fastest time at the moment in in the uh at the finish line so the faces cst pair will be pushing every every second as they head towards uct computer may have had a good ride today and definitely the dark horses under three minutes behind really the top team and the top performing team that uh has been doing so well on the world cup circuit so a world-class team really great effort from computer mania to have challenged that time looking back at the previous time check everyone's through the previous time check and it seems that silas made team salesman have done very well they're only one minute 18 at that last time check and faces cstr 132 so we're expecting similar results perhaps a bit of an extension on those times at the finish once all the teams are through and i guess you know we we talked about uh how strong they looked and how uh they were you've just expressed that sort of surprise but how well they they work together and and how composed they were it just shows how professional these ladies are i mean they really they really they're super complete riders so even though we're used to watching them raising the world cup circuit i mean they can do this too they bring all the skills and the knowledge and the intuition they have into this and that's actually a key part of this like to have a really good intuition because you have to react spontaneously this is the stasis cst pair of candice lil and mariska strauss who finished their prologue and finish it at the moment in their second fastest time a militant 33 down 55 41 and they i think will be very pleased with that uh performance eriel i think so they'll be looking they've been looking to this uh this race for a long time they've been uh it's always the fans have certainly wanted them to ride together and this is their first year it seems that they've gelled very well together and one minute 18 behind 91 songs specialize a very good effort a very strong showing from them and a good idea as to what's going to happen during the week the race will definitely be involving these two teams and at the finish we'll be able to tell who the third major contending team throughout the weeks will be that's as it is at the moment as the swiss champion arana luty and robin de cruet bring it home for team selizmid the last of the teams to start in the women's race emptying the tank here they are as they power towards the finish robin and ariane and they will cross the line uh neil have you got a time very shortly there's a very big effort by shortly from there robin and ariane but again the marathon specialists they will be just delighted they've got through clean and no problem at all um figuratively speaking clean of course and they've safe and sound home and host today because they are real marathon specialists and as the week progresses this is when they will get into their their stride from the final checkpoint we do know that they will be in contention for a podium it just depends on which step so it will most likely be the second or the third step and uh we predict from the spotter which is a timing mat just before the finish that they were in third spot at that point just a matter of five seconds behind theresa ralph and her partner kim la court putting the finishing touches to their effort today in the prologue in the women's race infinity combination and they've come home having completed the 20 kilometers all safe and sound and now can focus on what needs to be done for the rest of today rest recover and prepare for the big marathon stages to come key to that combination will be teresa's experience kim in her first event so here jenny stonehawk rich inexperienced the swiss swedish champion and behind her her partner is amy mcdougall as they come home to complete their prologue effort so jenny a previous winner and amy they were due to ride last year's event 90 months ago together they've made kept that together to uh decide to race again together here as fair tree and they are another dusted with the winner in 2017 of the absolute epic a very experienced campaigner 46 year old she knows exactly how to race this event and um sydney will come into their own later on in the week at the time checks today they were running around about fifth uh sixth we expect when we get the final official results board we'll know exactly how they're fared on the times but um probably we're looking at around about five five and a half minutes behind the fastest time this stage in the absolute favorite five minutes may seem like a lot but throughout the week um those time gaps definitely extend how much of a role does this prologue play in in the greatest scheme of things over the next several years oh it's super important it's important to for the motivation to have a good start it's really if you get off on a good foot you can bring that momentum with you in the coming days so it's really really important to have a good day today okay there is confirmation of the women's teams 5408 for 91 songo specialized minute in 33 just five seconds later salesman of around lieutenant robin to create a computer mania mtp in fourth place they'll be very pleased with that position they were the first of the women's teams to set off today and they put in a very very impressive ride so the dominant team today cena fry and laura stigger from europe in their very first day on the absolute cape epic they will wear the leader's jerseys going into stage one yeah it's gonna give them a massive massive motivation boost for the next days um and and i still see this like a very open race because we were expecting the 91 summer specialized and the faces cst to do well today because it is more like a cross-country specific effort today and you see sales met actually not that far off and their strength lies later in the week so we see the results today but actually it's still a very open and tight race in my opinion just to give you an illustration of what lies ahead uh on day one in series uh 98 kilometers 1800 meters in 94 kilometers 88 73 85 1966 adds up to just around 620 kilometers never mind the over 15 000 meters of accumulated climbing so that's the challenge that uh lies ahead for the riders day one is the prologue but as annika has just alluded to in terms of the racing perspective it is very very important in terms of setting the tone not necessarily of the race but within the team yes and assessing where you're going to be you can't put everything down to what what might or might not happen here but it certainly can set the set the trend right the riders are in and we're going to be hearing from a number of them very shortly let's go down to our presenter on the field liesel photo best statement candace mariska just coming across that finish line you're going to be wearing the absolute african jersey how are you feeling after that prologue it was so cool we had amazing supports all the way from where that steep climb starts all the update to dead man's tree i was going there with like goosebumps with the amounts of support we had it was so cool and what did the trails look like um absolutely stunning but really muddy and slippery out there today and the plan going forward for the next couple of days after the a really good start on the prologue yeah for sure i think we did it we did a good effort today but yeah just trying to maintain that and consistent throughout the rest of the race now i caught something that the cameras didn't get get a lot of the ladies that came in after you thanked you for something that you did on the trails what was that oh mariska um saw them coming well we were catching them up ahead and she was shot tracked just to let them know they'd be coming and i was like just go past man but it seems like that was a good thing to do so cool it's all about good manners on the trail isn't it absolutely and how are you guys feeling now what is the the plan for today do you just lift your legs and relax yeah try and recover we need to get to syria's side so yeah recover and rest up for tomorrow good luck we see look forward to seeing you on stage one thanks so much energy energized enthusiastic candace and mariska they're bubbly and they clearly have a good uh rapport on and off the bike which is critical their advantages certainly are their morale they've got a great uh rapport and also they have really good local knowledge of the trails coming up not just today but uh throughout the week and that that could play a big role coming um going through the entire week gerald you mentioned how many kilometers they still have to cover and there is so many obstacles along the way we could name them um it would be hard to name them all off the top of our heads but they've they've got a lot to cover and uh this pairing of faces cst they've seen almost all of this terrain they've raced it they know it firsthand and we expect to see them do really well throughout the week and those are just the obstacles we can we can see never mind the ones that are lurking around in your mind and uh you know wherever else you know there's there's so much that goes into making uh this week happen and make it successful which uh really is makes you realize just how good you have to be and how i suppose this luck plays a role for sure but you have to have everything in order for the entire week in order for it all to fall into place as you will only know too well anika yeah um that's absolutely true i was always very fortunate to have a really really good support crew around me and it's absolutely crucial because once you cross the finish line you actually you can really focus on recovering and getting ready for the next day you don't have to worry about washing your bike finding your bag finding food you can actually dress up nicely and hand your bike over to your mechanic and you know the rest is taken care of it's a it's a real privilege to have it's it's a privilege for a lot of the riders that have that but not everyone there are a lot of the riders who are doing it on their own and or the teams and you know they have to look after that and they'll come in a lot later so the pressure mounts the later you come in um to fit everything into the day as the elite women in the uh enclosure here we'll be hearing from some something very very shortly but the post ride post mortems are being chatted about now just assessing heart all went see kim and vera not racing together but just exchanging uh thoughts let's pop down to liesel see who she's got within it [Music] i think we're happy with that considering the lineup here um more cross-country style riders um so i think we did well and the conditions were tough nice and muddy so yeah i think we're happy with that and your partnership today on the the prologue yeah very good um yeah i think we got it all all quite dialed well um you know you also need to go by instinct you can't plan everything and i think that instinct is really good with us um yeah i think it was it was a little bit not in our favor the conditions uh compared to the skills that the other girls have so we were super happy with the third um i think yeah i quite expected to them that they really really smashed it today so yeah no i'm super happy with today i did catch you guys talking and just giving yourselves a little after the race uh talk what was being discussed yeah i guess it's uh just what we said this a prologue suits cross-country riders we're definitely not cross-country riders around super skilled but yeah i think considering the style and the punchiness of this kind of a prologue we're happy with this and now heading to series how are you feeling about stage one yeah we're gonna look at it today we haven't really looked at that one we really take it day by day but i think i think the longer stuff suits us a bit more well well done we look forward to seeing you on the start line at stage one good luck thanks so much again satisfied happy in fact uh with the way things have gone ariana and robin and and i think you said you know that they're not that far off no not at all really not at all uh you can see that they're like really motivated by coming in third today because they know that their strengths are gonna be later in the weeks so for them this is the perfect start to the race it's fine to open up here in cape town as we welcome in another weather pattern today we've got uh ray heavy rain this morning early this morning and a little bit of drizzle mist and now blue sky is starting to uh cast a little the light on devil's peak above the beautiful historic old buildings here at the university of cape town the start venue the prologue to the 2021 absolute epic a magnificent journey around this beautiful province of the western cape as tough as it comes and really does challenge every single rider but uh completing this journey the absolute cape epic over the next eight days is the single most important factor for every single one of them our women's results cena fry and laura stigger from 91 song goes specialized 54 minutes and eight seconds a minute and 33 behind them the all south african pair of candice lilla and mariska strauss will wear the absa african jersey for stage one ariane lutty and robin de cruet of salus med in third place just five seconds behind lil and charles marathon rideker then jenny sternach and amy mcdougall of team fairtrade the land rover ladies had a tough old day but they finished six minutes and four seconds down haley preen and uh marie robbie with theresa ralph and kim la court of galileo infinity spot in seventh place let's pop down to the finish area and the lethal i'm going first place today lara and cena how was it out there yeah it was really tough and we had a pretty good conditions where we used to from the axio so yeah we are quite happy but we know there are seven other hot days to come and you said you're so used to the roots a lot of the writers complaining that they weren't used to the conditions good out there yeah it was super good for us today and we felt both really good together we could ride super super together and yeah that was really nice out there and it was fun and it's the first time the two of you are riding together so good to tester and teaser for what the next couple of days are going to hold what was it like out there for the first time together yeah we had a pretty good uh speed actually we communicated well and yeah um hopefully it is like this in the next days well we look forward to seeing you over the next couple of days and how it goes good luck thank you so much so yeah good luck is one of those things every rider wishes for and uh these this team heading into you know if anything this is sort of known territory more cross-country style shorter burs shorter effort for them um but and tomorrow they'll probably be they'll be strong every day but it's that fatiguing effect of accumulation of kilometers that will test them yeah for sure and that's going to be really the exciting part of this race like how will they handle the fatigue over eight days um a lot of the other pairings they they haven't done it before and kind of have that experience and these two ladies don't but they bring a lot of excitement and a lot of talent and also really a good intuition to racing yeah i mean it just it makes for such a fascinating week of racing when you've got a pair like this who are clearly world-class in their chosen disciplines heading into uncharted territory and unknown waters here so against teams who've got rich experience and the the endurance capability to to hang it out it just creates a fascinating story over the next week certainly does the the one thing that there is a question mark with the partnership that uh with 191 songwriter specialized is that ability to go all the way deep into the week but they've certainly been taking off the previous concerns when we did the race predictions we were concerned about whether they were gel as a team absolutely that has been put to rest there is no doubt that they are gelling really well one of the big factors of stage racing let's see how well they go deep into the race when the legs are really tired jacques von rensberg man for rich experience on the road many grand tours in his legs heading up there with uh relatively uh new and this is an interesting combination yeah education nippo there have luckily morton and kenneth from kenya originally going to be alex howes the american american champion but unfortunately he broke a finger and at a very very late stage kenneth caraya from kenya decided or was asked to join luca morton the australian who has created an incredible story around riding off peace if you like out of the ef education nippo's regular road program not released this year at the alt tour around the tour de france route but we'll elaborate on all of that as we go through the week with lachlan morton on the front and kenneth caraya on their first uh efforts fantastic to see we'll be able to pick them out very very comfortably through the week a team following them in a way borah hansgrove well known on the road of course but uh they are following the uh year of education nippo's theme of taking riders away from their comfort zones if you like on the road four hunts grows lynette and ben's view off all throughout germany there are a few teams in the world that will cut these two riding for borah huntsville from germany and i'm here with leonard kellner we have like zero epics uh i did the swiss epic already but not the cape epic and we are really looking forward to a week of better weather than today i think the cave epic is one of the biggest event events in mountain biking everybody says it's like the tour de france of mountain biking and i think that's the real reason why we are also here because we are used to do the big road races all the season and now um yeah it's quite interesting to see where we guys can get here and um for us it's more like an adventure trip and we we don't want to win or something we want to have fun we want to be finished just to stay safe on the bike and that's i think the main goal for now coming to one stage of the welter this year i think and he's run a tour de france stage so proper credentials on the road he'll be tested on the mountain bike he certainly has uh he's got the engine he's won a stage in the tour and the criterium dofini and also so there is some big talent there known as one of the best junior riders ever to have come out of the junior rankings world champion talk about juniors here this is a 19 year old brazilian riding alongside a legend only one of five riders who won five absolutely epics christoph souza talk about getting rid of the racing you cannot out of this man can you no he's a purebred racer it's really in his blood alex valakhan from brazil is his his partner and again it'd be fascinating to see how this combination works and whether they uh make an impact france class and jens schumann's the belgian champion or next to roll off the start line france in his fourth episode themselves away they go the uh belgian pier france class and the insurmounts you don't recoup chopin is the name of their team one a cross-country racer gents that's a bit more of a cross-country specialist france very much a marathon specialist as riders come streaming in south african hopes well there are many very very strong south african teams in this year's event yep african jersey is going to be highly competitive and this is one of them 20th of the world championships mates burkas in one of the toughest marathon world championships for a long long time and alongside him fat haines who unfortunately couldn't compete in that youtube illness but he's in top form now burkes and hayden's team of south africa it won't be a pair to reckon with in the chase for the african jersey but on their minds will be a podium place on the overall for sure this was a last minute change at this team uh it was phillip bass and four of them so they can interchange themselves pretty well they've got a really good bond all four of them race really well together so they have the luxury of having a backup team as well if anything does go wrong and uh we expect big things from this team african apsa african jersey contenders no doubt they will be riding for that jersey and for overall sunshine here at the university of cape town seven teams to leave the startup and then everyone will have either completed or be on the course here for the prologue at the 2021 absolute epic three years i've got a minute between each team on the uh star trek and this next team is pure encapsulations manuel klim and peter bruce the estonian who's got great credentials in serious endurance races the dynamic so different we would that's okay that is we're used to welcoming the uh cross-country world champions in the oven series the shirt isn't like that it's different this year very very different this is the buff squad pair of hunts packing and you say diaz let's hear from them with jose diaz so we're riding this year together we've been in the same team four years and this year finally we can come to the cape epic and riding with him is cool we know each other very well and we don't have to say much so that helps as well and yeah i'm very confident for the race jose i have a zero experience i did it twice but it was a long time ago so we'll see a bit new for me after many years but i tell them i've told them it's eight days and even you have a bad moment we need to stay confident that there's better moments are coming and yeah just to keep calm and enjoy actually the event so is is easy not easy but uh it's easy put dance in the front and just speak go and see because this guy is like sometimes it's like one bull you just say go and push [Laughter] exactly certainly we always look out for the morale and among the riders and there's good morale with the buff scotch mountain bike team hunts becky and jose diaz his ideas his third and marathon world championships we've shown great form late in the season so expect him to be doing some great things during the race especially in the latter half yeah the unspeaking one the dutch championships just two weeks ago so he's in some good shape as we focus on the michael fry and simon again the bulls have such a steep history in this event uh simon doing his seventh often riding in the service of uh others but yeah with their super in the past yes and but um again another team um of a squad of four riders who can interchange really well um if one of them is slightly off form or really on good form they can interchange and they'll decide on the road or on the trails rather um the stronger team is in the backup team could well become the the overall gct overall gc hopeful team and that's the advantage of having such a big squad like the bulls well i mean okay that's an area that we'll obviously delve into as we go through the week the the importance of having that backup team and what it does for for you as a team or what it does for the entire squad is the bulls head out fry and steve john but but important to have a team behind you who could help you out if necessary yeah it's a great advantage to have that not all teams have that but yeah people teams who want to go for the win for sure you need a backup team that means you can you can you know you can take more risks at the front because you know okay worst case still we still have some backup teams coming and it's actually an interesting feature in this race like teams having or not having a backup team first time we are seeing the world marathon champions jersey on the start line at the absolute cape epic but because from as from this year the absolute epic is part of the marathon series the marathon champions jersey what we see here in the past it was a cross-country jersey and when the marathon world champion came here he wasn't uh able to wear his jersey and at the top of the marathon series standings and he is the world champion as of just a couple of weeks ago in a brutally hard race that was but he won that very impressively he's certainly shown his endurance uh properties or capabilities as a rider and note in third on those rankings was simon steve john expecting big things from the bulls again as always at the absolute paper great to see the rainbow stripes no less talented is martin stozick who is initially going to be riding with the 2014 winner of the race riding for the same trade team and interesting to know how this new team gels going forward christian heineck yeah let's hear from andrea sivalt and his partner uh martin i'd be happy with i know at the end of the race but i yeah with all these good races and we are ranked one and two in the marathon ranking we we should try to win and or finish the podium yeah i'm super excited because uh to be honest i was here like two years it's almost three years ago with christian heineck and his team when i started here but i was here like a physio i was doing massages and so on but i saw the whole epic like from the other side like not racing but i was helping the team so yeah i somehow knew how it works here and how the curse looks but of course when you don't like do it on a bike you never know so yeah i'm kind of expecting some hard racing that's an interesting journey yeah it's fascinating you know being physio and then yeah yeah yeah that's kind of you know a lot of people doing this race they learn about this race in a way and they get very fascinated and then you know the dream starts to build like okay one day i'm gonna do this matthew beers on the right hand side is the marathon champion of south africa and he has been quite dominant this year i think the only race he hasn't won was last week when his good friend allen hathaway beat him uh at a race in the bonnet valley and alongside him is the 2020 world champion in the cross country discipline jordan's so this is going to be a fascinating a little bit another 91 song specialized team and there will be no doubt um from their team managers certainly will be hoping that it's a that's a double win for them in the men and the women the women having just won the prologue so there'll be some impression they'll be feeling the pressure themselves um just for themselves and also for their trade team the second absolute bigger part and second absolute epic for jordan's hero and matt beers the south african marathon champion let's hear from this combination as they roll off onto the prologue combination of france and south africa together with matt and jordan how are you feeling excited yeah and you've only had four training rides together with your partner do you think that's going to help leading into the team in the next couple of days yes for sure matt is a local guy so yeah i will know almost everything here at the cape epic so yeah it will help me a lot here for sure well very good words coming from your partner there do you think it's going to be like that over the next couple of days good communication good teamwork yeah i think it's it's actually quite exciting riding with someone you don't really know it's we yeah a lot of communication and we yeah we're gonna have a good eight days together and we'll be good friends afterwards are you no stranger to this prologue because this is your home ground you train on this terrain all the time what advice do you have for your partner as you head out i think i think we both know we're just going to go full gas and that's about it and like we rode yesterday so it's looking really nice they've made it nice and smooth so we're lucky well good luck have fun thank you that beers and jordan soru out on the course and uh following them out the trek pirelli pair of uh samuel poro and fabian rubenstein are very much good teammates having come the second in the swiss epic last year this year a bit of a problem crashing out on day two do you think that's going to have an effect mentally on you as you head into the prologue and the next couple of days i am maybe more than mentally because i lost a lot of preparation because of that crash so i'm not on my hundred percent but i can trust in fabian it's really strong now he can help me and day by day we can improve our ship how important is that trust and that teamwork between the two of you yeah i think the teamwork is fundamental and yeah i think we are a good team and so let's have fun i like that let's have fun well good luck guys we'll see you out there thank you i'll see you thank you italian champion fabian ravenstein and former champion they've got seven absolute epics between them in various different combinations they've always come to the absolute cape epic with fairly fluid options in terms of their teams yeah another team another squad in fact that has the ability to interchange and they're all a very similar ability and it's all just really who's down to form at the time they make the decision very much very often at the last minute and they're always a dangerous team at the race a former champion in uruz huber is alongside someone schneller the german pair let's hear from them ahead of the program it's you're no stranger to the podium yet the absolute cape epic how are you feeling heading into the prologue today yeah i'm feeling really good and looking forward for the race i think our preparation was uh what's good so far and uh hope for a good race and tell me you're riding with simon have you had any good rides together yeah we did one stage race together before it was this year in mai and we could win it and would be really nice to yeah go again for for a good result here i'm in your second absent cape epic how are you feeling yeah it's already my third start this year i'm really excited to race finally again here in south africa and hitting the trails and now that as you're about to head off the rain starts how are you feeling about that uh we are used to the rain in europe so it's no problem for us well good luck guys we'll see you on the trail our last team to leave the start [Music] and they roll away for 20 kilometers of the prologue ahead of a week of racing around the western cape every team either on the route or having finished the prologue now and racing over the next hour or so it's going to be flat out we all know carl platt is a five-time winner of this race and we were speaking to him before the uh before the event and he was singing the praises of simon schneller saying what good for me was how talented he was and this is coming from a man who's ridden with earth huber he has immense respect for his cuba having won the 2016 race with him but he was really behind simon schneller so expecting big things from this young german rider so we're gonna catch images of these teams as they make their way uh along this trail again the weather is changing all the time so uh the one thing that will probably be the same is that it's going to be uh slippery and muddy on that descent and some of the little bottomed out uh climbs as manuel bruce make their way along the mountain road just to glance over their shoulders to see where the other teams are you won't have that opportunity for the rest of the week because everyone's going to be around in a bunch of a lot of the time true true so this is a really really yeah specific feature of this course is that it gives you a lot of opportunity to actually get a feel like where are we going how fast are we going comparison to the earth on one side you know and then again you don't really know and do you want to know sometimes you don't sometimes you do depends on how you feel right now i really expect because of the sun is out that the the course is going to be so much better like faster rolling so this it would be less sticky might not might still be slick somewhere but not as sticky as we saw previous with the women where you know when the rain stopped it got really really sticky so lim and the produce yeah they just keeping an eye they probably can see the uh team that started uh after them just uh out of the corner there i had specking and jose diaz coming up the climb constantly uh glancing down and there they come there was a minute between them when they started all focus getting those time checks as they go through the timing mats and updating on the actual racing out there as they make their way around this 20k route we always uh look at the prologue with the interest because we often see a surprise team in the race uh surprise team doing really well in the prologue often placing in the first three a team that we didn't cite in the beginning of the race and uh this year it seems to be team bmc ktm viero and zanotti who have crossed the first time check ahead and in fact they've even gone through faster than the buff scott mountain markings hunts backing and jose diaz and looking even further down the list having passed that time check is in eighth place as pargo eurostiel we did expect to see them showing a little bit quicker through that time check and the first team buffs got a mountain bike it's in the third spot that's enrique marcella vergara and jose maria sanchez ruiz very good performance from them the canon north wave mtv team [Applause] their running time at the moment is just under 10 minutes and i'm counting and the fastest time of the time check was 12. so they're chasing 12 minutes 25 hopefully there will be for them they're hoping they'll be doing a bit better than that and uh proving their form from the marathon world championships yeah i mean this is sort of in contrast to we're watching laura and cena and the women how they you know this is their game our hour and a half maximum if it go hard for these uh marathon specialists yes they'll give it absolutely everything but as the days get longer so they will get stronger and and come into into their own but there are very few and you are one of them who was able to to uh straddle both of those at the very highest level and win a cross-country and a marathon world champions when it when when absolute epic won a world cup in in the same year what's where's the where's the recipe what's this magic there um actually my training never differed that much whether i was preparing for a cab epic or a world cup and making sure you know that the shape is is absolutely tough of course i will do a lot of bass miles leading into the cape epic because you really need good bass and a good endurance and that kind of i could build on that so once we got to world cup racing i would tweak the training a little bit do more short high intense stuff but you know still have the same base that i was using for the cape epic so for me it always worked really really well combining those very different uh kind of efforts yeah so hybrid combination yeah there we go uh you are alluding to that bmc ktm combination 1225 through there the fastest starts exceeding the pace here for uh sioux vault for a moment on cue he says this is mine and world champion goes to the front yeah especially here in the lower parts of the the climb it's it's very rolling it's not like one consistent climb so if you can take turns at the front and give the your partner some rest it really really helps for the the overall combined effort um if you can grab two seconds here two seconds there you know it really adds up in the end and these tactics have been discussed they would have pre-written the course they'll know it and they would have discussed exactly where pretty much where each of them will make the effort or go a little bit by instinct you can you can feel when you're out there you can feel if you feel like okay now i feel recovered i can see my partner is his his pace is dropping a little bit now it's a good time for me to go to the front to you know really make us the most efficient swinging around the bend and going very well in the very different cadence for the two riders yeah i always find it tricky to choose the right gearing like the right chain ring for this course because it has some extremely steep sections where you need a lower gear but also once you get around that man's tree and you go into the more traversing and really fast rolling tar going towards plum pudding it's so fast rolling that if you if you're using a two small chain ring you you will likely spin out on that so it's really like a fine balance between having the right gear not too hard not too too too easy well this is the team we've been watching uh and even in the pre-race predictions canyon northwest mountain biking they are 16 seconds back at that first time check very telling point in the race to see where the pure marathoners are going to be doing and really impressive performance from team bmc ktm of vieira and zonati and the key is uh these rides will know only too well that their their strength is still to come but just to to ensure that they don't get completely out of touch and uh have a mishap but again the bulls team here just again switching around the front end bull's team martin frye and simon stepjon they hit that time check at fifth spot there are still some teams to go through their time check but they went through it in the fifth and fifth place it's an impressive day out for them if they can keep that position to the front is cape town opens up almost for the first time today on the right hand side of these riders they won't be too interested in that or it is about now is focusing on getting maximum effort and the maximum result out of their efforts on this prologue it looks like the course is really drying up nicely you can see the women at this point were like covered in what on their like backside and here the guys are still yeah very very clean and very dry because by now so many teams have been through the trail so there's a nice track written in all the mud it might be cleared off you know the main track so it's all about you know staying on that main track and riding fast and efficient the lines will be fairly well defined you talked about the muddy erasers it's always interesting to see when the riders finish who the dirtier rider is of the partnership and who the cleaner is yeah it tells you an idea who the stronger partner was on the day the cleaner rider would have been on the front and through to your face the clothing will be the one doing the following so the buff squat pad this is regard and ruiz heading up to deadman tree i think this is and they'll get a great raw as they go up around the corner here big crowds have gathered up theirs again this is uh a spectator free zone the absolute epic for the week but uh if spectators made their way out onto the mountains and the trails while they do serve their own risk and uh hopefully you'll mask up as well so as they head up to the top of the climb the top of the course buff scott mtb two pair enrico another maria in fact they were to the first time check in fifth place there are some teams still to go through this time check which you've just seen now in the screen and now we're following team canyon north wave and through that time check they the first time check they were in fourth spot and uh just got news out on the course that 91 songo specialized are the fastest through the first time check at 12 minutes and four seconds that's 21 seconds ahead of the next fastest team bmc ktm with puff scott mountain biking in third that's hans baking and jose diaz 36 seconds back and the 91 tonga specialized fairer jordan saru of france and south africa's math beers and this is ravenstein on the front and poro following his line out of the saddle even won the italian championships quite easily as well couple weeks ago so they go through marathon specialist these two and various teams to support them over the years but uh they've only brought one uh team this year grande so up on the road above this is the insect science combination of kyle cfpf and vake and alan gordon see from here in the western capital and gordon from up country and that little rise that they're going up right now even though it's on very smooth tar is a steep little section of road possibly up to 15 and uh just interrupting the rhythm of the riders uh there'll be some really flat fast sections and then a steep some steep kickers that they've got to get up and still maintain their momentum what we're not seeing is too much wind it doesn't look as though there's there's uh too much wind up there no it doesn't look that it looks like that uh i remember the previous years once you got to the the top of the climb and had to do the traverse you would go into this massive headwind and it was really all about being aerodynamic and fast a lot of teams you know you tend to to kind of sit up a little bit once you reach the top because you think oh i made it i made it up the climb and but you know you can gain so much time easy time if you actually stay focused and keep the gas on during the terrors and into the headwind on board our e-bike with martin stozick and civil andrea world champion in the marathon discipline is the second rider here just important to note watching their cadence especially um especially sierra bolt's cadence he's pedaling at a really high rate and this is advisable for any rider who's doing a stage race it keeps your legs fresh if you try to push too big a gear you tend to get more fatigue legs throughout the week so the idea is to try and keep the cadence really high rather put the pressure on your cardiovascular system that means the cardiovascular system can recover really quickly but legs recover slow more at least a little bit slower than the cardiovascular system and it's a common practice on the road to see higher cadences in the stage races let's see about being highly aware of this tough climb up there yeah it's very different and every ride is different every rider has a different uh oh yes oh yes uh for example you see uh adelhide morit in the the women's field a little bit similar like always like a really really low cadence i mean i've been riding with her and against her over the past 10 years and she's been writing like that always and she was also always really really strong so you know sometimes it's also like a very like a personal preference is like what suits your system and i mean if she's been training that for 10 years that's that's how she is the strongest and she should maybe not try and change it look at the riders coming down plum pudding now [Music] [Applause] it's certainly dried out appreciably over the course of the morning yeah it's interesting watching this normally you would this would be like a big puddle of dust like in the air especially if you came down there and a few teams just rode it just before you you know there would be so much dust in the air especially if you like with your teammate you'll be on the wheel of your teammate you you it would be actually sometimes really hard to see the line because there would be so much dust writers don't have that challenge today [Music] let's see uh team dsv pair we had a late change to their their lineup it must be said nicole costas was due to ride with jacques van riensberg but unfortunately picked up tick bite fever so matt caser drafted in at the last moment to ride alongside jacques johnson van rensburg who started out on the mountain bike headed onto the road and had a great career riding for africa's team around the world to various world tours as well now back on the mountain bike this is jordan saru and matt our pierce on the standings the fastest team on the course at the moment neil yes the fastest team at the time czech are the 91 sangha specialized team and we'll be watching to see when they hit the next time check which was recorded for us in uh according to our timesheets here at 28 minutes the fastest time was bmc ktm but there's still many of the containing teams still to go through that point black bears is the marathon champion he did go to the cross country world championships at uh early this year but uh it's not really it's not his strength to be honest um but it was an experience for him and uh with the absolute epic in focus he decided not to go to the marathon world championships i'd rather focus on this so it's again this is a hybrid combination of a cross-country specialist and a marathon specialist and again as to the dynamic of what is a very different absolute cape epic in uh 2021 as parker eurostill one of their combinations flies down they've got two peter detroit full base that could well have been them i think and i fancy this might be filtered and then the they're behind them and wuko john michael bear tristan de lang a very very handy combination this i think about the south african riders is that they have used this as the pinnacle of their season and they haven't had many other peaks during the season they've been focusing on the absolute epic so one of the dynamics of the race is that it is appearing this year in the latter half of the year at the end of the season or at the end of the european season at least and uh no doubt that'll play a big role in the differing forms of the riders another talented young combination this vessel and tristan nokia 20 vessel is 23 and they could be in the race for the apps africa jersey very much in contention those of you might not be aware alan hathaway the south african champion the cross-country champion of south africa i was too broken with simon andreas and unfortunately simon andreasson uh underwent uh an emergency appendix operation and so i had to withdraw he did race last weekend on saturday i think he and he'd only arrived at 84 so sadly not able to to race this year it would have been fascinating to see how they went to utmost cross-country specialists but uh it isn't to be so they're not in the field there's mates and fair haines headed towards the dead man's tree time they're going to get a roaring ovation as they go up here very familiar side to south african mountain bike followers with parge eurostill team and look at it they are getting cheered as their goosebumps you can feel them from here i think yeah the absolute epics prologue it's all happening as the elite men are on the course and finishing bringing down the curtain on this first day of a week of racing [Applause] and it's clearing up as well which is all good news for everyone involved in the absolute cape epic it's part of the pond parcel of mountain bike racing and any sport is dealing with the weather um but in in mountain bike racing it does play a big big role because of the mud factor and discomfort and whatever it might be you're used to the coal down again everyone always says you must be used to gold because you come from denmark it doesn't make doesn't mean to say that you like it necessarily i prefer more warmer weather to be honest it takes a lot of energy out of your body dealing with the cold and for me especially i i always had like really problems with my hands they get numb so easily when it gets too too cold so i really that's really a challenge for me i i don't prefer it to golf the five-time winner carl platt often refers to the rain as his kryptonite he really doesn't fare well in the rain he likes to wear his sunglasses and that's another factor if you're a rider who likes to wear who likes to have eyewear on at all times and if you're riding in the wet uh it'll get covered up i might really easily so this is just another level of discomfort apart from the numb hands if you can't have your eye aware and you get rain in your eyes if you're not used to it and um you remember in 2014 carl platt crashed very almost an innocuous crash as crashes happened throughout the race and that just proved his undoing he happened to fracture his kneecap when during that crash he continued riding for two stages on a fractured kneecap and but it was his undoing he did eventually have to retire from the race so indeed conditions can play a big role yeah i mean we're seeing the bulls here and i can just tell you that uh you might be wondering where carl platt is where alban le carte is they're not far from us actually at the finish here they've just finished and they're riding in the masters category the 40-plus category and they posted a time of 49 minutes and 17 seconds um so are leading the masters by a reasonable margin um the bulls legends they are and well multiple former world marathon champion and albert le carter and carl plata and they the stories that they can bring from their cape epic travails are fascinating and what they can give to these younger riders in terms of experience and knowledge and know-how is invaluable i'm sure the squad was certainly second to none in terms of organization the bulls team were one of the first teams to bring a backup team to the race and their level of organization set to set the tone in fact for the race it really it was they set the benchmark for how um how to approach a stage race from an organizational point of view um their logistical spreadsheet i think um just arranging all the equipment and just to get to the just to get to the start of the race is impressive [Music] furthering the race and um and their organization has stood them in good stead throughout the uh throughout their campaign and throughout their 15-year campaign off the race i mean this is uh part of the specialized team and you were part of that team for many years and talk about an infrastructure and a professional organization they don't come much more so than that as well no and it's as a writer you cannot underestimate how much it actually means that you you have this kind of setup around you it really brings you know that calmness and security that you need to to focus on on what your job is is at this point how much say do you have on your on your equipment and your bike and and obviously set up was important to you but but generally around around the park so how much say did you as a rider have um a lot actually i i get to decide everything tires tires pressure suspension really everything is is done according to my preferences so yeah a lot but of course you know you don't go to the pick with a completely new setup you you you go with the setup that is tested a lot you don't want any last minute changes or any last minute new features you go with what you know and just on the start line is not the time to test new set of equipment what aside the world marathon champion andrea silvolt and martin stasek of cannon north wave riding up to dead man's tree here on the prologue of the absa cape epic and there we have a very interesting time split uh 28 42 14 seconds faster than bmc ktm impressive performance there they're showing their experience and their class in fact getting better as the stage goes on it is only a call it a 45 minute stage uh last year's winning time was in 43 minutes but they'll be looking at spending 45 minutes out at full effort and their experience showing here we have 91 songwriters specialized at that time check one minute 14 back something must have happened to them no they are ahead my apologies one minute twelve so something has happened they've turned on the turbo boosters they have indeed saroo and beers and matt beers looks not far from here he'll know these trails so so well and uh he's a he's pretty good strava hunter he loves chasing those but he's uh such a trainer as a dsv team come down the thumb putting descent shotguns for inspect and that case up safely done [Applause] to finish the old south african combination yeah there's a race within a race that is going to be very very interesting is the race for the african jersey so many very competitive teams and see this is the crucial crucial point of the the course that i was talking about here you can really benefit on drafting on your partner and really making see here that is rolling through really dividing the efforts that you're putting in to make you you use the most efficient a wall because if you gain two seconds here two seconds there it it really adds up in the end well this is beers is real strength he's a roller the highest order in south african terms so he could be a serious serious help to jordan suru on the on the flats of which there are not too many set over this uh relatively speaking over this next week but um he'll play his role that's for sure they are on that uh right above cape town here beers he's uh well six foot five tall and uh so he'll provide a nice uh cover for jordan ceru and again we talk about that team dynamic they seem to be challenging really well as a team they're not proven at all in stage races so they'll be finding their feet and today would be a good a good way to find their feet and they've certainly proved that they have the firepower and that symbiosis that we've talked about so much as being such a big factor in the race they look like they're getting uh they're finding their feet with that only fifth ride together that's all you know all in the last week what wonderful to see these youngsters watching the riders come down plum pudding here beautifully done no that's lachlan morton behind of the if education nippo team he's pausing a brief moment just to make sure his partner kenneth karaya is with him kenneth a mountain biker from kenya on the up and up but he's just 25 but in the following in the footsteps of kenza david kincher is a very famous rider at this race in the very beginning he was just playing a big role even at the front they would often attack and kendra's a big figure in mountain biking in kenya and in fact uh the local newspapers when karia beat kindred was big news local martin mike race mariah was uh surpassed his mentor you could say yeah david king is one of those who who every every birthday he just gets younger and stronger he's amazing incredible writer these the italian trek prairie pirelli pair i've been rapping steiner and samwelli poro looking at the time check these this team we expected big things but not necessarily for them to reach the podium in the prologue they are currently lying seventh on the road around about one minute 50 back so we'll probably see a time check leaderboard quite soon but looking at our data they are one minute 50 back off the leading time the fastest time on the road at the checkpoint is 91 songo specialized sorew and beers yeah there we go niels potter 149 behind beers and saroo yes often one rider is very very comfortable and they're flying down here [Applause] congratulations just keep an eye make sure he's in tight sore does a turn on the front here this little pitch up towards the entrance into plum pudding you get look at the water flying out of the mountain it's so much rain have been a very very wet winter and very welcome it must be said here in the western cape here we get the camera view of stefan some on the on the lead e-bike he's been keeping uh i think i've just uh i've got that wrong it was it's actually thomas ditch on the lead mark uh thomas dutch speaks french and obviously jordan sarah also is a frenchman and um perhaps they're exchanging some words out there but it looks like jordan saru is on the limit without he'll be doing much speaking right now but taking the draft from matt pierce beers is powering along this smooth section not flat at all there are some kickers as we've said just taking a bit of refuge before he puts in some more effort so this is our last team out of the start at simon schneller in ursula they have industrial first day under the melt in terms of the riding done for the absolute epic [Music] time table mountain has been used as the prologue on day one it is a fitting start point in the fall a journey around a beautiful western cape which changes every year the route is different although this route was the route that was originally planned for 2020 and uh it was retained and kept in place but obviously one or two little tweaks depending on land access or whatever it might be but in terms of table mountain the fire but the entire route for the next week is the is what was put in place for 2020. so the riders and everyone involved they've known what to expect in terms of where they're going but if you're coming from denmark because christoph souza is coming alex malachan is his brazilian partner and uh they are coming home again another efficient job by legend yes yes i'm sure that this is a really good pairing like a the young eagerness and the excitement and reservation combined with a lot of experience it's a good dynamic i think there's 19 years between them from our calculations 48 minutes and 21 seconds for christoph zarza that most likely will be a top 20 for them um maybe so far along the route that they've been posting some good times in the top 20. so impressive from this team at haynes that's a pretty impressive time as well but not the fastest time yet and i'm not sure that they've had the best of their days lucky morton and his uh wonderful smile a combination that was strung together in the last week or so so first time ever they're riding together wonderful to have them riding will be a here one to uh to follow michael morton really looks like he's enjoying his cycling career not just on the road but uh with the uh broadening the horizons of cycling for the team certainly seem to uh seem to suit finishes off and this could be a pretty decent time as well for christian [Music] there's a shake of the head there it's a perspective on the first day the prologue is short and uh maybe things don't go quite according to plan but at all in the next few days will be history because uh most of these riders it's all about what happens over the next as it is the marathon stages bmc ktm 4504 in the hut at the moment i've got mtb in second place paige you're still two in third and uh that's the pair of peter de toy and phillip bass um type dev nana time vessel berta and tristan de lange i think it is who have come in in fourth place good performance there from uh from base who is touted not to be uh not to be the first ride the first team writer and uh you know good performance from them interesting to see how they compare with their teammates or guys come through but hot on their heels the bulls that's uber and chanel there's no question these gentlemen on the uh the borah team are chilling with the wheelies meanwhile behind them the marathon may not try to finish off there that prologue and uh yes i think we've just got a real perspective on where priorities lie for those two teams yeah it seems quite clear it's clear they're here to to enjoy themselves to again like the ear of education first team to broaden their horizons but uh something tells us that uh there will be maybe that racing spirit will come through later on in the week when they really start to hit their stride they may have had a bit of a relaxing time getting here and this season has certainly started to came to an end on the road but these guys are races they're young races they'll be keen to uh to show their stuff at least one of the days we can expect to see them close to the front martin frye and simon stephen opposed to the second fastest time the bulls team just in there um finishing now uh second fastest behind the bmc ktm pair 45 36 31.7 seconds behind this is and again that's just an example of how quickly and how easy it can go wrong on that little section it's all safely down uber leading schneider that's the bulls one team if you like so uh fine steve john 45 36 at the moment second fastest looking ds 4608 and this is ravenstein and portal and the world champion andrew sivalt and martin stozick powering into the finish here this will be very very interesting to see how this kenyan northwave mtv pair go as they roll in to the finish and store 10 seconds slower than the bmc ktm pair on that yet but i think they will be when it updates bmc ktm 4504 the fastest at the moment servalton starsec 10 second slide 45.40 and beers and saroo i'm still looking for them neil if you could you see them anywhere on yours well in our time checks we did see that uh they were over a minute one minute 40 ahead of team bmc yes so it looks like from what from our data we can see that the 91 songer specialized crew have in fact won the pro we still wait for the official results but unofficially we can say that it's likely that the team of jordan saru and matt beers have won in a team at a time we're roughly around hoping for to give it a guess let's say around under 44 minutes or so it's a very fast time for the south african and the frenchman 4504 bmc ktm and this is so philippa colombo who did race at the world championships yuri zanotti italian 4504 the fastest uh team bmc ktm at the moment on our statistics canon north wave mount back in second place 10 seconds back and then balls to fry and steve john but this uh needs to be updated i fancy with the uh we're still waiting for those official results but uh it's it looks pretty clear to us right now that 91 songs specialized have won the prologue and second place on the podium great ride from a dark horse team bmc ktm that's colombo and zanotti and in third spot we are looking at canyon north wave mountain biking that sierra vault and stozek one minute around about one minute 50 back columbo and zanotti doing their first uh absolutely bear picked there's the two young men 24 and 22 the emc ktm pair colombo was 17th at the world marathon championships well they'll be delighted with their performance today and putting their heads into the firing line in terms of the the rest of the week and again that's another factor that comes into this this prologue sort of brings teams out and those favorite teams or the well-known teams look around ooh who are they we've got to look after them what do they look what are they wearing what are they looking like it's always so interesting here after the prolac because it brings it does bring a lot of surprises and it does also tell a lot about what to expect in the week following but then again this prologue really suits the you know the more purebred xc riders and for them this is really the day that they can go hard absolutely they leave nothing behind today so confirmation now the jordan ceru and matt beers of 91 songo specialized are posted the fastest time of 43 minutes and 24 seconds which is a minute and a 39 ahead of bmc ktm with andre sivalt and martin stozek of canyon north wave mtp in third what a ride by the uh the specialized pad yeah really really good ride but they seem we can see that they're really well matched and they the way they work together um they have a really good feel for it like when to be at the front how to be the most efficient and i really think this this combination brings out the best in both of them so poro and rabenstein are now making their way through the last section of single track sweeping through here you don't want to catch a rock with your pedal here and get it all wrong these two are super smooth and they will pop out onto the road very shortly in a flash indeed we are still waiting for the bulls team and for uh trek really to finish so it's premature to say that uh 91 songwriters specialized have won the prologue but out in the time checks their time they've been really the fastest by over two minutes over their um over their arrival so it's highly likely that they will be the prologue winners today well absolutely i think that period we're over 45 minutes already so they're not going to challenge jordan ceru and matt beers who are a very very exciting prospect ahead of this week's racing they are as we said i think a hybrid combination saroon is second he rode with victor garcia some years ago but this is the first time i think he's racing it and he's got a man who has local knowledge and good form and an engine of note so they are going to be in the mix they'll be wearing the leader's jersey i think we can safely say tomorrow so they will be certainly uh in the mix looks looks uh a little uh messy out there weather-wise but right where we are at uct it's dry as we have a look at jordan ceru and matthew beers who uh uh hannah kelly this year take us through this system really really good strength to be honest it really really has you can see like how they manages to really roll through and and help each other a lot i don't think they need to say much because i think they really can feel you know how the other one is going and kind of support each other in the best possible way it's a short effort to get to know each other they will have a lot more opportunity to do the knowledge based thing over the next couple of days but sometimes it doesn't take a lot to get that feel for your partner because you're out there the two of you alone you can you can see you know that's the small signs of the body language the breathing the everything you know you can see it so much more clearly when you're there with your partner than what we can see here through a screen absolutely you have that feel i'm just going to say that we're keeping an eye on where the balls are finishing up and the bulls team of huber and schneller have been posting some good times towards the latter half of the stage they've just finished so let's see what the leaderboards show at the finish we predict that they will be in the top three at the moment look at that at the moment the trick pirelli have just come in some early porto and fabian ravenstein at 47 14 349 down on suru and piers just to wait the time of the bulls and then all the teams will be in and dry uct yes it is as you can see a spectator-free zone as per the covert regulations put in place um well ahead of uh the latest uh update in terms of lockdown regulations but the absolute epic rifle i think sticking to those regulations and saying well in order to retain the integrity and maintain the safety of the riders and the crew who keep it a spectator-free zone throughout those who want to make their way onto the top of mountains do so at their own risk and ask to get involved in the race well you won't because you'll be standing on the trail side and watching but that's what the situation is here at uct and throughout the week of of riding as we head to series and then sauronsburg just outside tilbur and wellington cput's campus at wellington and then the grand finale the finish at valdovi in nepal which will be in exactly a week's time here in the western cape a beautiful journey a rough and hard journey it is for every single one of these riders but the feather in the cap for every single one who finishes the ride no update on the bulls yet in terms of where they have finished so the day for the riders now you've finished your ride annika when you've got to get out to the race village do you go now and then prep there what do you do later on how would you go about it you go now now as soon as you can as soon as you can if you're one of the top teams and there are some applications yeah after straight after finishing um interviews uh the drug free you need to do the anti-doping testing and so there are some applications um after the finish line and your the team around you try to make those applications as smooth as possible so you can you know start your recovery straight away but as soon as you got those things out of the way um you pack the cars or the team has already packed the cars and you jump in the cars and you you know you go and then you do you start your recovery really once you get to your next destination dinner good dinner yeah first you need to eat lunch as well yeah still quite early in the day so good lunch and then you you really you kind of you know you snack throughout the afternoon and then you have dinner again in the evening you really want to load well i mean you really want to show make sure you you constantly have some energy in your body you get you take in energy because you need to i mean you don't feel it tomorrow the next day if you eat too little right now but towards the end of the week trust me you will feel it so it's all about you know having that knowledge okay i need to consume stuff all the time and and having some good people around you reminding you in case you forget yeah i mean there's that dull maximum of eat today for tomorrow but in fact in the aftercare epic it's eat today for friday yeah because um yeah just keep keep feeding so usually two minutes and 23 seconds behind jordan soru and matthew beers who are the winners of the prologue at the 2021 absolute epicure at uct ahead by a minute and 39 seconds of philippe colombo and yuri zanotti the bmc ktm pair with uh canyon northway of mtb andreas cervald the world marathon champion and martin stozek of the czech republic in third place and they're just 11 seconds behind bmc ktm again opening up this race it is going to be absolutely riveting viewing uh all the way through the the week wherever you are wherever you might be you're watching uh you don't want to miss a thing here because it's going to be unfolding every single day there'll be drama and excitement confirmation of the results from the prologue today at the absolute cape epic jordan saru the frenchman teaming up with south african marathon champion matt vears for 91 songo specialized 43 minutes and 24 seconds super slick and a team already gelling despite having only really got together earlier this week filippo colombo and his party yuri zanotti in second place 139 down and 11 seconds behind them andrea servalt of germany and martin stochek northwest mtp in third place 150 martin frye and simon steve john ahead of their teammates ushuba and simon schneller by a couple of seconds 12 seconds then it's vegara and sanchez ruiz is a buff squad mtp leading the way they are up to african jersey it is peter de toy and phillip base of paigo eurostill two two minutes and 38 down ahead of nokia and puerto pike nano time a very young pair looking good becky and diaz in ninth place haynes and vieques not much between all these teams down there to pora and rapensteiner and our topic zaro pair lorenzo leroux and fair tree cannondale 13 minutes off the leaders a good day out for them all right let's head down to liesel who's catching up with the riders i think she's got the stage winners with her that's right the stage winners with me jordan and matt wow you're home turf and you really knew what to do out there well done yeah it's an incredible feeling i've been just like visualizing this for since i got the since i came so close two years ago and uh it's just it's it's absolutely surreal for me right now jordan you knew what to do arts on the route because you had a great partner how was that partnership out there well it was really strong in the flat section and yeah i was uh i set the pace in the climbing and uh yeah it's a perfect combination and yeah i couldn't be better today so with jordan setting the pace on the climbing did you manage that was that a good way to just set the tone for the next couple of days yeah i mean i know from watching him on the tv he's an absolute beast on the climb and i was just hanging out for dear life and then but yeah i'm glad it worked and i was just it just i knew this is what had to be done to get the win and paid off well incredible racing today well done guys we look forward to seeing you over the next couple of days good luck thank you so much they'll be in the leaders jerseys tomorrow matt beers and jordan saru of the 91 songo specialized jordan suru the former world champion in the cross country last year and matt pierce teaming up i mean there was an example i mean he's only watched him on tv really i mean he did race the world championships but at different ends matt didn't have a great seating there so he would not really have seen him um but yet the combination finding the sweet spot uh straight up yeah that's really the beauty of this this race you know something like this is possible because this race is is not like any other race and you can see a pairing like this works really really well and they bring what they already know and the experience they have into this partnership and you can see that it really works for them a confirmation of the results from our women's race the prologue here cena fry and laura stigger the 91 song goes specialized what a day they are having 54 minutes and eight seconds a minute and 33 seconds ahead of the all south african pair candice lill the south african cross country champion and mariska strasser faces cst and then ariana luty and robin de cruet in third place that top four is worth watching is a big gap from the fourth to the fifth place but those top four teams really look like they're in contention and it really the win could come from from any of those four it's uh we've seen so many disastrous things happen and i think back to stages like ultra races like in 2014 when literally every day in fact every kilometer there was something new happening so teams in contention now those top four look really good for the podium exactly i think neil touching on what one of the many facets and elements that makes this event so enthralling is that anything can happen at the moment you might not see it because it'll happen somewhere out on the trail but it adds to the drama as we head down to the finish and there's a world champion and his partner talking to liesel and his partner right here on the finish of the prologue of the absolute cape epic how was it out there guys ah it was nice it was it hurt a lot because it's a short distance and you have to push all the time but yeah in the end i think we did a good race i think we had a good pace yeah but unluckily we maybe lost something in a downhill but we tried to take care about the bikes and the tires and as a first day so i'm happy yeah now neither of you have done an epic before was it everything you expected going into this prologue for not really because we are like long distance like poor marathon riders so we just try to have a safe and like safe race don't lose too much time and yeah be careful well it's the next couple of days that are gonna count in your favor yeah now i have uh well we have even a better feeling i think because we didn't expect to be on the podium on the prologue and we expect to be strong in the long like in the longer stages so now the the motivation and feeling is even better and we're looking forward for it and the pressure is on to stay on the podium how was the communication between the two of you out there yeah as andy said before the start uh we spend a lot of a lot of races together this year so we kind of know with each other and yeah we just need to if something happens you just need to screen to your partner as loud as possible and that's what we do but yeah the communication was was good and we kind of like didn't even need to to talk much what was nice well we look forward to seeing y'all on the course as we head to sirius good luck guys yeah thank you we in the canon northwave team and and anika has been talking about that how there's a sense of relief um that they finished safely and they they've actually in nicely in contention so everything's sort of gone according to plan for them oh yeah totally totally uh and especially you know they have the confidence like okay we did not expect to do well today we did you know that brings even more confidence and motivation for the days to come absolutely well the university of cape town looking at picture here as the prologue with the absolute cape epic is complete in terms of the writing we'll have the podium presentation shortly when we recognize the fastest riders and present them with the jerseys they'll wear for the rest of the week of this wonderful journey that is the 2021 absolute epic historical buildings presiding over this uh what they call the green mile here at uct and uh it has provided more drama and excitement as the start venue for the eight day apps okay epic so journeying on to series till bach as we reflect down he'd been to have you been to uh robin island no never said i'm afraid you won't be able to squeeze it in on this trip just yet so let's look at these the categories which unfortunately we weren't able to focus on a great deal today we will pay them more attention through the week but uh the defending champions in the virgin act have mixed the starks well here they are again sebastian and laura stark 20 ahead of michael schneider bicycle garage mixed and flipped it there in third place so dimension data masters well what stands out for me is obviously we've got some serious uh firepower leading that category but craig iran and andrew duvenage two young men who are full-time working family men who commit themselves to racing at every opportunity but have a very very busy lives away from riding just two minutes and 16 well done craig and andrew and uh well there he is again bart branches another like christophe souza he loves racing it's in his blood and he's leading the grand master of the peter vessel and the book yeah but in second place 12 seconds it's going to be a good race there manny heymans and cast impressive some legends in the grand masters we've got three former winners on that uh on that board there and clearly the racing spirit hasn't left their blood yet uh part for instance and of course uh marny hammond's the winner of the inaugural aftercare epic in 2004. all right let's uh hear from some of these riders lisa's been catching up with them carl alban you guys were flying out there what was the course like actually the coach was really nice to ride so it wasn't too slippery it was okay and uh i would say we had we had good fun 100 there i think we it was we enjoyed it a lot it was the first day i didn't know how the ground is because of the rain but um it turns out like on the gravel it was really grippy but on the plum budding it was quite um tricky yeah so luckily we were we had some guys in front of us so we had to slow down a little bit otherwise i think carl would overcook this last corner carl loves overcooking things you love speed and going down there quickly you're no stranger to that root no i'm not a stranger to that root but um yeah you have to be really careful in that wet conditions because like albert said the plum hunting was really slippery but yeah you never know so we've been lucky today no crash and it was good riding now this was important for you this prologue as a team to figure out the the niggles team communication did that work out today also a hundred percent uh i think uh we've really matched good um carl made the beast at the beginning and i took the turn and i matched really good and he's really um he can read the curse very well in the downhills because i was a little bit scared when i saw all that mud on the on the guys that wrote in front of us and i thought okay that would be very challenging about it with him it's um easy here just to follow him and honest it's cool he makes writing look so easy so with your partner today yeah alvan is super strong i mean he's a he's a terminator he's a albinator and uh yeah so it's always good to have a strong partner and to follow the wheel so when i was a bit struggling i said i won you must go in the wind in front go and he went in front and pushing hard so it was it was really fun now next up is series how are we feeling about stage one we know the course more or less yeah from the first stage and i think i don't know how it actually turned from when we looked at it because it now it is a different season of the year and um but i think it will be quite demanding as always i think first stage is also tricky because you start in a in a punch and it's not like a prologue and we will see step by step we now we have to see how our competitors our rivals are in the field but most of all i think we should enjoy it and that's how it worked out today and hopefully tomorrow as well well carl and the alba nato we look forward to seeing you out there on stage one have fun thank you very much and i hope you have no snow in sirius it's gonna be cold we'll see you there if there's a snows one in one place in the western cape it is in series but i don't think we'll get that uh over the next couple of days but that's wonderful to see those two riding together they were serious rivals for many years on opposing teams when uh you know platt was a dominant rider he was a racing car at this christoph souza on the specialized team and then alvin le carter would come in as either a a reigning marathon world champion or a man gunning for the world championships later in the year he's had some bad luck over the years uh avalakata series particularly might stick in his mind from about 10 11 years ago when he his back wheel exploded but uh he's uh they're great characters and wonderful to have them racing and riding a hide here series has definitely got mixed mixed feelings for for alban he won in series and then he also exploded his wheel i'm shortly afterwards so again shows just in this race how fortunes can change so quickly you can be on top of the world and literally the next day a few hours later um the depths of despair is your race chances completely scuppered and we saw we saw in the course we had a photograph that was sent to us back from the course that was trek um that was raven steiner and ora ravenstein had a front puncture and had to stop to repair it so that what might explain the slightly disappointing result from them they were over three minutes back and uh probably if a front puncture takes a few minutes to fix that that could account for that so what lies in store for stage one 98 kilometers 1800 meters of climbing the trails around here something clean and uh the first of three dimension data hotspots at the top of the day's big climb the dead man walking climb there and then the land river technical terrain will be familiar to many mountain bikers in these parts of the western cape the pipeline and then from the esophagus down loop it's well i mean talk about two different races on two days you know from today to tomorrow so different so different really tomorrow i think we'll see a slightly different scenario and the question is is like when does somebody you know do something place an attack uh who's feeling good who's feeling confident it's still still a long way to the top of the really long climb so you need to pace it really well right let's go down to the finish lisa is busy chatting to one of the riders or a couple of the writers i think with mariska and candice guys out on the route you had a funny moment where you kept thinking there was someone right behind you what happened out there leo there was a few times because stefan the guy that followed us on the e-bike you think like you in racing mode and then all of a sudden you feel like someone breathing down your neck or there's like a presence there and you're like it's as someone caught us but it was actually just stefan most of the time so yeah i had a giggle about that and what a lot of people at home don't see is what happens afterwards you got off the bike you were full of mud you guys were you were covered today i think when you took your glasses off i could just see eyes and that was the only part of you that wasn't covered in mud what happens as you get off the bike yeah it's it's quite something it's our little exfoliation session um so that comes free with the entry no no no it's all free so ladies come on join epic it's really fun um no so you basically want to get cleaned up and especially on a day like today where it's a bit colder so you want to get out of your weight kits and out of the muddy kit and basically we just went to the absolute lounge and cleaned ourselves and our shoes and helmets so that's out of the way and can dry off for tomorrow stage and then yeah get in some clean kits and now we are here here we are looking clean and ready for stage one how are the nerves and what are the plans as you head into tomorrow i think having the prologue today kind of gets the nerves out the way you see how you're going to work together as a team and stuff so it's a nice little like pre-ride let's say to the main thing but we're really looking forward to the ride in series tomorrow absolutely with 1800 meters of climbing how are the legs feeling for that yeah we'll see tomorrow when we start well good luck we look forward to seeing you out there have fun and hope you know candace lil and uh mariska strauss in conversation with liesel fan of season they're a minute and 33 seconds behind the stage winners today 91 songs specialized cena fry and laura stiga the face of cst pair you can hear there's a nice energy between them there it's good good to have a vibe between you and uh that'll sustain them through the weeks with the dark times and the light times and i'm sure there are dark times in a race like this oh yeah it's just a matter of time before it comes because it i mean this is not a walk in the park this is really really tough and it really puts you on your your limit and how do you react towards your partner and your team when you're like so on the limit and so tired um it can also happen during a stage you know all sudden you got the nutrition wrong or you just like you overcooked yourself and like what do you do at that point and how do you maintain hope and spirit uh that you know every everything can change all the time you know the next second you see another another team struggling and you know you need to keep going the other thing is mechanicals who uh who takes charge of of the mechanical uh side of of of a of a team anika this is something that you need to prepare beforehand and it all really depends on on you know the mechanical so a good thing is to well that's always like my strategy like the one who has a mechanical you know sets sets the the plan like i need this i need to do this do that because if you both of you are trying to fix the same mechanical at the same time it can be a mess it's easier if you have like one dictating and doing just like calm and easy and that's how you are efficient another one handing over implements or for example if if you have a flat tire you can be the one plugging the tire and the other one head if you know finds the co2 in the meantime small stuff like that is super important did you practice that as a team yes we did it like a dry practice so we never did it like in a real you know in the terrain like under stress when you you know you have the competitors flying by your ears and you need to stay calm and but you try to mentally prepare yourself for that moment well preparing themselves for a lovely moment now are our podium placing teams as they will they've actually received their jerseys this is uh all part of the protocol prevailing here at the absolute cape epic in 2021 so mariska strauss and uh candace let's get the order right here cena fry's doing knows exactly how they operate the silver medalist at the olympic games we'll switch again no baby she doesn't as they go now so in third place the pair of uh robin de crute and ariane lutty [Music] all get up at the same time there we go so team salesman accurate to luty strauss and lil and the stage winners and the wearers of the orange leaders jerseys going into stage one at the absolute cape epic laura stiga and cena fry of 91 songo specialized a win by minute and 39 talking a time of 43 minutes and 24 seconds [Music] so there's not much between them a minute and the 33 bigger part between lil and strauss and fry and stickers we have another look at the superb performance by the uh here of the 91 song specialized fry and sticker really didn't put a foot wrong today not at all they really got it right from the the very first pedal stroke amazing to see and really just shows the class and yeah of these two ladies it was a day that suited them no question about that a short punchy day with 600 meters of climbing over 20 kilometers and they set out their stall very very early on passing teams comfortably inside the first five kilometers and taking turns on the front and putting it to bed very very impressively neil well it's harder to see who the stronger partner is we saw earlier with what's the uh grimacing a little bit behind on the wheel of uh cena fry but she certainly looks like she can hold her own stiga is no slouch and certainly when it comes to flat sections uh being a slightly bigger rider she would be able to put out a little bit more power and a really good match these two and uh well rehearsed even though it is their debut race yeah they come to the finish uh cena fry and laura sticker the swiss and austrian rider from 91 songo specialized they have put their names in lights in the men's race this is the top three in third place andrea servalton martin storsek of canyon northwave mtv in second place filippo colombo and yuri zanotti of bmc ktm and top of the podium joran soru and matthew pierce will wear the leaders yellow jerseys tomorrow going into stage one of the twenty two run after cape epic and that's the great thing about the race there's always a surprise on that podium and uh the surprise definitely comes from the bmc ktm team yeah colombo and the zanotti so the yellow jerseys on the shoulders of beers and saru things start to unwind here we'll just confirm those results again so ruin beers 43-24 in muddy conditions it dried out considerably for the men later on we had rain early in the day and in the preceding days but it's dried out quite nicely for them a minute and 39 behind them philippe colombo and his partner yuri zanotti of italy and then servalton stosek 150. and just 238 all the way back to seventh place top ten three minutes and 28 all quite quite tight close enough isn't it ends in burkas nokia and burt is second in the african team three south african teams so all african teams in the top ten onto kuning and detroit for insect science in 12th place horror and raven steiner lost time to a puncture and they will no doubt have to work really hard to make that time up healthy yeah that gets a dynamic to stage one they'll be disappointed in that for sure but they'll know very well if they're if they're prepared mentally for this race they'll know to be patient and that anything can happen and that that issue of the head with the front tyre could happen to anyone and probably will lorenz [Music] winners of the xaro category and uh will uh unpick their story which is a fascinating one as the week it's a great system nice to say that they are enjoying the glory at the moment in the xyro category as the leaders for fair treat and things will be changing perhaps because there's a very strong category in that fried sticker 133 they take into stage one lil and strauss faces cst just five seconds ahead of luty under it going into stage one so to our mixed category laura and sebastian stark very familiar with cape town sebastian works here on these very grounds at the university as a researcher michael and evelyn in third place in the next [Applause] masters and grand masters we may well see coming up as well very shortly wonderful to recognize all the categories but of course not to forget that there are hundreds of riders who are taking part in this wonderful event what makes it so special the pro-am style amateurs riding with with you pros what a privilege yeah it is a privilege and you can really feel the excitement um i remember you know walking around on the field and you will see these people like really being so excited like being doing exact same thing as the people they normally just follow on social media or tv it brings a lot of energy it's a nice feeling and here it is this is exactly an example of that two legends of the sport in uh avenue carter and karl platt and alongside them on their left craig orion the age group champions the masters champions jersey with threstonic partner andrew divinity and alongside them third placed rain lont and argo romeres from estonia third place in the masters great moment for uh for those riders to be on the podium anyone being on the podium with karl platt and alvin le carter would be uh would be happy and that's a great thing about the sport is that uh and even in fact the masters category is is highly contested we've had uh olympic champions winning the masters um just waiting for christoph souza to enter the masters category heaven forbid i'll tell you every other writer will retire before he's gonna again we'll see bart brengens on the podium there he is on the left there and the grand masters category he's a former winner of the race and in 2005 and uh multiple stage winner olympic champion he's been world champion and still got that racing spirit in his veins we have asked him in the past if he would like to race the mix category so he could actually have on his wall all of the possible jerseys he could uh win and we'll wait to see if that comes true on the right on the extreme right we'll see marty heymans 2004 winner he was riding with carl platt great to see him back on the podium and again it's another unique aspect of this event is that these are writers who've reached the very pinnacle of the sport bart brenson's and his partner peter vessel cst postal coaster now the fung the leaders in the grand masters mr spear and then money hayman's and cast and bressa back to our race i think it's money's 10th that's a cape epic and wonderful to have them back and racing and yeah they they're racing every bit as they're every bit as competitive as they were perhaps not quite as fast but that doesn't detract at all from the competitive element a lot of them have well in fact all of them have other jobs we've got uh mark brenton's has a trade team in the in the uci world cup scene he's also a commentator uh and a presenter on the on on tv racing and money hammonds owns a bike shop so we've got um it's definitely a it's not just a full-time cyclist podium but uh certainly a decorated one indeed so we we reflect now on those results the virgin active mixed the dementia data masters and the grand masters and some superstars in all of those categories as they head into the first big marathon stage in series tomorrow just under five minutes in the next two minutes 16 the gap to uh the restonic pair for the bulls legends le carter and flat and then just 12 seconds that is going to be some race in fact a minute and 37 and you can see i mean the quality of that well the historic quality of that grand master's categories you could just you know what's going to happen in that in that race fireworks all the way through the week so competitive lovely to see that's how they will go into stage one of the atsucape epic and you can bet that there'll be riders all around cape town in their vehicles on their way out to series check out where they finished in the category and who they need to finish ahead of tomorrow to move up one place and to be in a in a better position perhaps or what batch they might start in in the next day so liesel has been catching up with our leaders in the exora category loyander and lorenzo so yonder and lorenzo yonder you're no stranger to the zigzaro jersey having worn it a number of times in the absolute cape epic before how does it feel having it on the prologue with a brand new partner this time i think i'm so very very proud to win the jersey but you will try to keep the chase until the to the finish line yeah a lot of pressure having to hear your partner say that you're going to keep that jersey all the way through to the finish line how are you feeling about hearing that news yeah i know i also feel the same way he's feeling and yeah liquor he's a nice partner and yes we sing out yeah so you have written some events before but this is your first absolute cape epic together as a team how was the pro like for you i think prologue was easy for me because i was too strong i had a lot of energy but i get thrush but i don't mind about that it's surprising well it was quite a short distance tomorrow 98ks 1800 meters how are you feeling ahead of that yeah i know we we are marathon guys so we will sing laka out for it so either in 20k we will go yeah that is going to be the fun part and we look forward to seeing you guys giving it gas out on the trails good luck have fun thank you very much so thanks liesel catching up with lyanda and lorenzo who as i said lives just on the doorstep to yonkers right at the gate and rides every day into his work at south industries here and then in cape town and back again so that's just his daily commute using it to put uh training in but of course then spends a lot of time out on those trails as well um but they're leading the xyro category and that'll be one more category we'll be keeping a close eye on here at uh the absolute epic over this next week so a full week of marathon racing so let's look ahead to uh the next day and uh annika so let's talk about stage one quickly uh 98ks 1800 meters of climbing esophantain it's quite harsh out there but terrain will be different again because of the slightly different weather conditions now who do you see who do you see let's talk about the men who do you see coming to the fore there tomorrow perhaps um i still think that the specialized sanko team will do well because today was a good suite of them well but i really also believe in them in in the longer run especially matt who really has this this engine yeah i have to say them yeah neil i'm going to be looking out for the marathon as i think that the the canyon northwave team they're very experienced and they're in good form at the moment and i think they they they're certainly used to the the atricious races the the races that really are super tough i think stage two is is a very very hard day stage one maybe that'll be a precursor to stage two but i'm expecting to see great things from from that team andrew sivalt and martin stoseka are the canon northway team and in the women's race well if anything even more interesting because we've got a cross-country pairing leading the race and heading into the day in series here on a marathon stage so that's going to be a big challenge for them but they look up for it today they certainly showed that oh yeah for sure um and they're not gonna be fatigued or tired by tomorrow at all if anything you know today's effort maybe just you know opened up their legs so it's really really open at this point like super open i'm really excited to see how it unfolds tomorrow well let's see think that the women's section is super tight there's a one minute 38 seconds separating first and third and that will create a bit of nervous tension um during in the racing on the on stage one and that will play a role i think if any team is used to that nervous tension in that uh close quarters racing it'll be cena fry and laura stiga and so they will definitely have an advantage from that point of view at the same time candace lill and mariska strauss really know those trails well well the university of cape town has hosted the prologue once again here at the absolute cape epic some 18 months ago there was a a degree of depression and disappointment and anxiety around the world as events were cancelled left right and center travel was shut down and our world was pretty much turned upside down thanks to the coronavirus pandemic it's writing itself slowly but surely through all manner of means and this absolute cape epic is underway here in 2021 and it i hope is providing us all with a philip and a an encouragement and a positive outlook over the next uh well however far it might be because it is an energizing place to be and hope that to wherever you are watching uh being part of the absence of epic family be it via social media be it via uh television broadcasters or however it might be that it does the same for you thanks to neil gardner to annika langeville and to listen for the best season out there and everyone involved will be with you every single day so don't miss a thing of the 2021 absolute cape epic [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] you

Channel: Epic Series

Views: 229,197

Keywords: absa cape epic, cape epic, mountain bike, mountain biking, MTB, South Africa, bike race, stage race, uci, westerncape, extremesports

Id: SBJNEx95fzs

Length: 216min 47sec (13007 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 17 2021