Stage 6 | Live Broadcast | 2022 Absa Cape Epic

[Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] it's the most competitive motorbike stage race in the world it's the pinnacle of the epic series it is the absolute epic hello and welcome to the 2022 edition of the absolute cape epic the 18th edition of this great event and we are progressing down the line we are on day seven stage six of this incredible journey around the beautiful western cape but neil gardner is alongside me chatting about today's stage which is going to be another superb example of mountain biking around a beautiful part of the western cape stellenbosch is the focus today is that well there's some beautiful trails out there today and we're um excited to see how the pros handle it and of course how the amateurs enjoy it it's a little bit of a reward for them today and uh now that the professionals will have some fun here and this is your backyard gerald so you'll you'll also be um getting a bit of fomo there out on the trails it's exciting to see these riders on these trails we know well here but uh they've got a lot of kilometers in their legs some uh 537 kilometers 12 000 meters of climbing the legs are tired the body's tired it's all about uh applying the mind today as well well we saw some we saw some tired legs just getting tighter and tighter throughout the week but that didn't uh change the racing yesterday we saw some thrilling racing uh a very exciting finale in the women's sec in the women's category and uh and the men's a multi-dimensional day where we had a stage win from uh a team that was in i think ninth and on gc it was a all south african team great for the south african fans and just attacked the perfect moment so some great tactics there and of course the animators of this week have been speed company racing and we expect more from them today they have been fantastic the debutants at the absolute cape epic well the race of course started at lone sort of the prologue in stage one then all the way transitioned to greyton two big stages in greyton before transitioning to stellenbosch yesterday and this is how that day unfolded [Music] [Music] it was a cold night really rainy but we could have a good night sleep [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] it was the best ride of the week i think [Music] [Music] we are actually very pleased with our legs our performance how we are doing and i'm looking forward for tomorrow hot windy and we thought we were cruising and having a friendship and we thought there's going to be a breeze and then they kicked us with some [Music] the absolute epic to mountain biking is what the tour de france is to road biking it's long tough and is the most prestigious off-road stage race in the world the western cape is south africa as the host and with its spectacular landscape and breathtaking trails it is an event like no other the attraction is huge for both the best in the world and very keen amateurs to win this eight-day stage race speaks volumes for skill and tenacity but for some it's just to complete the course the teams of two will cover a total of 681 kilometers and climb a whopping 17 000 meters on this wild african adventure today is stage five and the course takes the riders on a transition from ellen's cliff through to stellenbosch it's a story of three parts a huge kick from the get-goes the riders are straight into the rusty gate climb frontier pass and the final punch over botmus corp it's all linked together with undulating trails and punctuated by plush single tracks into stellenbosch the riders will cover 115 kilometers and climbed 2400 meters on the start line for the last time in greyton third in the gc is 91 songo specialized matt beers and chris blevins two minutes behind is speed company racing in second place gail gaga and lucas baum competing in their first cape epic and in the yellow zebra leaders jersey is canyon northway the world numbers one and two in marathon racing andreas cervolt and martin storsek the start gun goes and there's trepidation in the air stage five is always decisive and this year the tension is palpable canyon are almost seven minutes ahead but anything can happen in the south african wilderness the gap from second to third is just less than five minutes so it's all to play for straight out of the race village is the rusty gate time it's 500 meters of vertical to ascend so the riders are primed to strike straight away again it's the bold young germans from speed company racing that take the initiative and state their intentions right away again keep the pace high and have a two-minute lead they really want this stage win and to eat into the seven-minute gap in the gc heads down they push hard and barely look up in doing so they miss a course marker and go the wrong way it's a costly mistake and they have to chase back at the sharp end of the race in the african leaders jerseys are in buco type dev with marco uber and peter de toy they are feeling great today and really want this stage win now currently in 9th overall and 40 minutes off the lead so no danger to the yellow jersey into the final climb an imbuca type devil stretching the gap speed company racing have found the way and have rejoined the chase group including specialized canyon and bulls with schneller and 2016 winner uber but just 10 kilometers to go peter latoya is struggling to keep the blistering pace but he can smell the finish line in victory in stellenbosch they keep it safe and cross the line in just under four hours and five minutes another sixth all african team to win a stage on the absa cape epic just over two minutes later is the yellow jersey canyon north wave four seconds later in third are toyota 91 specialized who jump up to second in the overall speed company racing of a shotgun come in fifth they dropped to third in the gc by just eight seconds the men's podium for stage five has 91 songs specialised with beers and blevins second goes to the overall leaders canyon northway of sierra than stosic and a fantastic win for the young all african jersey holders to toy and uber a first for both of them the overall leaders canyon northwave remain in the yellow zebra leaders jersey going into the penultimate stage tomorrow just a few minutes after the men it's time for our uci women's category the orange leaders jersey 91 songo specialized sophia gomez via fan and hayley batten the closest rivals on gc bmc mtb racing with pauline ferran prevost and robin de crewett and faces roller in the africa leaders jersey candice lille and mariska strauss the racing starts from the line as lil and stras go full throttle heading out to the rusty gate climb the intentions are obvious today specialized and faces are keen to put some time into bmc and symtech za in the overall right from the base of the climb the two teams work together to set the pace and chip away at the 115 kilometers private client holdings the south african duo marie robbie and haley preen have passed whenever they have seen a weakness and have been rewarded with two podiums so far today is no exception they're comfortably in third it all comes down to the final kick of the race faces roller 91 songo specialised have ridden the whole race together they take the final water crossing with argentine gomez villafan leading the charge but it's her american teammate baton with a decisive pass of strauss that tells a story the orange gc leaders take it all the way home and cross the line in just under five hours five seconds later faces crossed the line lil just didn't have the legs at the end to challenge specialised client holdings marie rob and haley preen put down another fine performance and finishing third for the third consecutive day private client holdings marie robbie and haley preen celebrate in third place faces roller candice lill and mariska strauss in second with their fourth platinum finish so far they jump from third to second on the gc sophia gomez villafan and hayley batten of team 91 songo specialised take their second stage win and extend their overall lead to just under 16 minutes a day drama and excitement this is the entire route loans for a couple of days transition to greyton for two big loops in those rugged mountains surpass the tier of artists cliff river dams to stellenbosch and today's stage number six takes us in and around some of the most spectacular trails in the country for a 76 kilometer loop 2700 meters of climbing only stage one had more total climbing and so that is a serious challenge for these riders today as they leave the kutzenberg playing fields the sports grounds of the university of stellenbosch snake through the town of stellenbosch over portmos corp a brutal climb to wake them up with into the banuc valley deep into the valley across the river and then on to the famed and fabled trails of old bethlehem farm they are spectacular fast and engaging and then back up over the bottoms corp climb and then they might well think home is close well it's not they've got a glimpse of the race village to their right that they traverse the valley up to yonkers hookers they're a more famous area of mountain biking in south africa they ride the armageddon red phoenix trails and then drop down on the uh to the river and then up the other side of the valley and all the way back down to stellenbosch some new trails as well to explore for these riders before that little kicker right before the start they'll have to deal with that again if it comes down to it but i think that today it might not be a bunch sprint who knows there is uh the jagged saw that we have to deal with the riders today i can tell you neil gardner and i've been joined by annika langford welcome back annika thank you feeling all right feeling all right yeah good good good good um looking at that yeah so i had a brief chat with some of the riders just last night and today is really a day where you can go on the attack from the from the start gun because it's a lot of climbing a lot of trails if you can get away early on you and you're feeling good well you're in a very good position so that's what it looks like today four chain rings only stage one was tougher that was the fire fair ring day and the queen stage as trails go perhaps this is the most uh laden with trails today this is the general classification servalton stosek the world champion in the world number two in the marathon racing of canyon northwave lead by six minutes and 54 from the defending chap at matt beers and his american partner chris levins of toyota 1991 specialized two-stage wins for them edgar and baum have been the animators the aggressors all the way through the week early on in each stage they have won a stage and they're just eight seconds behind beers and blevins the race is on there becky and diaz have lost their hopes i fancy buff mega mo 20 minutes down uber and schneller south africa's peter the toy and marco you bear a sensational ride yesterday to victory and has vaulted them up from ninth to sixth place on the overall standings scherter and foster well they've had their travails all the way through this week and not only punctures early on and now last force in the last couple of days has been really struggling not quite on the form of nino scherter but then again whoever is he is the nine-time world champion and one of the greats of all time in the women's classification 15 minutes as the buffer batten and gomez villafain have over the faces roller pair and then the feral preval decrease well by if you review to go back on the week this is their day because they've alternated their days they've got three stage wins yesterday they fell way back lute and wakefield well they were on the podium early in the week unfortunately they are losing time handover first robbie and preen are the coming team they really have been strong three third place finishes perhaps today an opportunity for them to put pressure on luty and wakefield that's how the top seven look in the cm.com women's general classification so down at the start at the kutzenberg playing fields in stellenbosch and plenty of tension plenty of excitement at the home of mountain biking in south africa as these riders prepared to explore the trails around stellenbosch 76 kilometers 2400 meters of climbing and there was plenty of tension good morning martin uh what do you think will happen early on in the stage today is a lot of climbing super early yeah for us it's it's a good good thing i think we will have to climb and this big one from the beginning i think it will suit us so we'll try to control it from the beginning we'll do maybe some pace and uh yeah we are lucky that this is the only one stage we know a bit at least so that also can be like uh make us more confident for today and of course the gap is even a bit bigger than yesterday so uh i think it's gonna be a good day and do you expect some of the other lower teams that are potentially not in gt content uh gc contention to go and talk at the stage maybe yes but i think this one is that difficult that the power will decide and i i'm not sure if the if these guys save some energy through the days uh if they go they go and then i think there will be a battle with us specialized in speed company and looking ahead on your calendar the next race on your calendar is the four islands in croatia are you looking forward to that uh yeah actually i did it already three times so i know the race quite well it's a nice one and yeah i will hopefully we will compete there yeah it's not 100 sure yet but i hope that we can go there we look forward to seeing you enjoy the stage today thank you very much thank you thank you lucas you and your lit up the race again yesterday morning and had people on the edge of their seats and then had a little mishap can you tell us what happened there yeah i don't know what really happened am i still figuring out how much time we really lost we were already some guys so just about the time when the motor told us we're two minutes ahead uh we took a wrong turn either the our fuel to the to the um the signs were blocked by the motor or the motor led us in in the wrong direction somehow and we ended up in the middle of the apple field uh had to chase all the way back and even in uphill i think we lost about two minutes when we went back to on track so uh i mean you can do the calculation i mean uh one or two minutes ahead and then chase the the pack down which were at that point two minutes ahead of us so we were two four minutes faster uh than the rest of the bunch they were even surprised when we caught up to them that we came from behind they already they still thought we were ahead so yesterday we had uh with the chance that we were virtually in the in the yellow jersey unfortunately um it's not the case now we're 10 seconds behind the second but we we try again today and obviously super disappointing how do you motivate yourself to go out there guns blazing again today well uh yesterday there was a lot of swearing and cursing but now all the anger is out and uh i i try to channel the aggression into uh into moving forward we can't wait to see what happens today enjoy it yeah thank you thanks man good morning haley and sophia uh you obviously know quite a bit you've been told quite a bit about what to expect today in these beautiful single track trails yeah i think we're really excited this is almost hopefully a highlight of the week we actually we're here the week before the cape epic began and got to ride some of the trails out there we don't know exactly what we'll be on today but uh we have a pretty good idea of the terrain and i think we're really looking forward to it and it's a saturday year so there's obviously a lot more there's going to be a lot of people on route and a lot of support you're looking forward to that oh of course i think the more people you have cheering you on kind of makes you go a little bit faster and the sango kids are out here as well they were out there yesterday and are going to be here over the next two days cheering us on so um it melts our hearts and uh yeah we're ready to fight and take this thing home enjoy it thank you yeah thank you thanks guys have a good day call platz you are looking forward to today i can see yeah sure i mean uh today is the second last stage so we're close to the finish and uh today is uh a really awesome stage because we're doing lots of single track and i know all the single tracks and i'm really looking forward to ride them but where is your partner where is christopher actually i see him he is riding somewhere there behind always late at the start but he's never late on the climbs yeah i never late on the climbs uh so he's timing it perfectly for the last second you know now we're having lots of fun riding together and yesterday the last part in stellenbosch was great and uh yeah it's what can i say i mean we understand each other very well and uh that's a great thing well let the good times roll have a good one thank you very much cool have a good one we had a little chat there offline and you mentioned um you rode much of yesterday's stage with christopher and carl platt how was that well it's an honor to ride with the legends to be honest it was a great privilege because we we saw how they ride how they are doing and we kind of learned from them to be honest and i'm looking forward to be like them one day and maki baron and peter toy won yesterday how good is it to see all south african team win a stage it's also good because you know ever since i think it's about years we have seen like south african riders winning the stage which is quite good and i think there will be teams in the future can do that can do more for sure and the trails today is going to be super fun out there yeah the trailers i think will be fun then just the relaxing saving energy tomorrow is a big stage enjoy it have a good one thank you so much thanks guys have a good day [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] uh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] all right this is the start from kutzenberg this morning bright sunshine there was a buffeting southeastern yesterday and into the night but thankfully that's abated and they're heading off out of kutzenberg in truly spectacular conditions today for a day to savor for the mountain bikers well just by the looks of the ratio of the trails and the single track game it will be certainly a day for the mountain biking fans and the pure mountain mountain miking fans will revel in these trails some of the most famous trails in the world in fact certainly with yonkers hook they've got yonkers to look forward to got the idis valley trails and uh interesting we've got the melon trail and the stock condi trails it's gonna be really great to see how the pros handle it we've seen uh just from the early footage we saw some of the uh professionals doing their tricks uh doing some tail whips and uh it's gonna be a bit of a fun day but uh not necessarily for the for the riders at the very front of the field in general classification is still ultra playful and we go back to the women's category and that looks to be a very much in control the lead but uh not really in control of her destiny is uh harry and luty really struggling ailments and today is another bad day for them yeah and that's the kind of the a new fact that comes into play at this point in the race it's not only the challenge of riding your bike it's also everything else that can happen and if you're starting to feel weak it's still a long way to go so super challenging and i have a feeling we'll see some teams really start to fade this is the first time straight up bottomless corp they came down this trail on singletracks and there are single tracks to climb this but the key here is the yellow jerseys andres servalt already needing a push from martin storsek yesterday stage win is going up this time it is absolutely brutal and it certainly spread the field out very very early on and they're the two leading women's teams all together [Applause] [Music] once the race had headed over the bottoms corp early climb and thinned it out they headed down the fame boss trail on the banuk side of the bunner conservancy trails they're built by benedel a beautiful trail it is and uh two riders that got away fabian ravenstein advantage got away and the key there was the yellow jerseys servalt was battling he was at the back of the group stasek was in the front of the chase group and he stalled and slowed things down to enable civil to close the gap to him and which meant that group could all regroup in a little while the women came down with songo specialized and faces roller all together and well this man nino shirt was at home yeah as you can see he's truly enjoying these trails it's a shame that this team didn't have the best trip every year that we've seen and i'm sure they'll be hungry to come back in once again there he is down the old bethlehem trails that is absolutely spectacular lovely riding and who better to show showed off at this very best than the nine-time world champion well those are the tailworths we're hoping for from the nine-time world champion nina sherta he uh we could arguably the greatest of all time the swiss rider and uh he has won two absolute cape epic before once with the last foster and once with matthias sternerman in 2017 so his victory is coming in 2017 and 2019 not to be this year they are lying in seventh overall way off the gc and the gc still very much in contention all the teams in around about seven within seven minutes that's the top three teams today will be not a day too much of play it'll be very much business we go to the women's category and again whatever carbon copy we're seeing of yesterday's stage with the two leading teams faces roller and 91 songo specialized and interestingly enough enough we have the same two teams in the women's field at the front right now like yesterday and also what is quite crucial is that the final run into the finish line will be exactly the same like yesterday so i think they will uh save some energy for that because that is where we saw real drama happening yeah i mean it was very interesting about so many but big climbs and uh 240 meters of climbing yesterday and the shortest little pitch right at the end literally within a couple hundred meters of the finish decided the stage as uh the elastic snapped for faces royal as they tried to get over there beautiful simonsburg in the distance they'll skirt the lower reaches of that as they head down to ida's valley that will be a playground for the final stage the grand finale tomorrow but the mountains the picker up over yonko looking pristine today at a beautiful beautiful morning after the winds of yesterday have cleared may come later today but conditions absolutely perfect and ideal for racing mountain bikes today 76 kilometers 2700 meters of climbing and the general classification canyon northway of a 6 minute and 54 second lead over toyota 91 specialized speed company racing further eight seconds further back and in the women's race there's a quarter of an hour 15 minutes between songo specialized and faces and bmc 26 minutes back 20 minutes ahead of symtech who are in big trouble i think the team chasing harder private client holdings are getting stronger and stronger all week and uh this is uh now live pictures and the team of art aleman on the front there and fabian ravenstein and now they had been the animators very early on they went up the bottom of court climb uh like rabbits they really were william pirelli they're 50 minutes down on general classification so they're not a major threat to the general classification and well they're looking perhaps for a stage win today and why not and today is really the day to go for it because like we spoke about just before um because of all the climbing and all the the huge amount of single track on today's stage today really is a day to kind of go out there on your own because you can't really benefit uh like we saw in previous stages on being writing in a group so being out there on your own is actually the ideal scenario absolutely they are the masters their own destiny this is the melon trail just above the stark con day wine farm and it's the creativity work of a downhill racer power excellence nico velasco who lives on this farm and has brought his trail building skills here there are lots of different lines but these riders he's a downhiller and a gravity rider they love big air and big berms and big jumps well these cross-country and mountain bike marathoners perhaps a little more weary of taking those risks here but certainly enjoying the melon trail and the shade and the shadow of the yorkshire mountains as they head towards yongsan well there's so much at stake now for the top running teams the first three teams an overall victory at the absent cape epic especially and it'll be a day of just managing their risks but of course for the teams that are lying in second and third they will uh need to take a couple of risks just take a couple of chances if they want a chance at at that top step of the podium in valdevie you can see the uh the a-line there where the gap jumps and uh the like on this melon trail the uh the root for the absolute cape epic i think on this occasion why is he just deciding to avoid that and to send them down the steep vineyard roads this is now closing in towards the the critical phase of the stage you feel in yonkers hook where they'll be tackling some seriously big climbs and uh really technical descents the story of the day so far we feel is this that andrea sival sitting on the front of the yellow jersey pair here martin stozek managing and marshaling his world champion partner who is definitely struggling today oh it's quite clear it's uh they don't look at all the same like we've been seeing them all week and it's a yeah shame to see but it is part of the this race it is long it is brutal and there's a lot of factors that have to go right in order to be yeah strong in this race what do they have to do here neil in terms of their time and and who they looking out for here well if we look at the time check at the 37 kilometer mark that was at the old housework to culvert and uh at the at the 37k mark speed company racing and william pirelli and toyota 91 specialized we're all together and about a minute back was uh william really factories cameron orr and daniel gasmar but notably especially notably canyon northway for just under two minutes back i think lost almost two minutes already at the 37 km kilometer mark is not a good sign especially with the climbs to come we've got the yonkers hook fire road still it's a long climb up to almost in fact it is the highest point in the race and uh expect to see some uh even more time lost with that they have got a seven minute buffer let's not forget that uh they have a comfortable lead canyon north wave but if speed company racing and uh 91 toyota 91 specialized know what's going on behind them they will most likely have an idea that uh that sierra vault is suffering they'll be able to sense that they'll have seen the gaps early on in the stage and siebel seems to be struggling from what we we've heard is some some painful ribs um crash from uh from the early part of the race and it seems to be all be all adding up for the german rider german world champion in fact and uh looks like that uh the race is certainly swinging in the favor of uh toyota 91 specialists they are lying second overall lying third very close speed company racing and speed company racing will rue that wrong turn turning that they took we actually saw the the footage at that exact moment when they took the wrong turning of course was clearly marked there was a big red arrow on their left but uh clearly with the the fierce race pace that they were setting they didn't see it that it does happen it is up to the riders to follow the markers and uh it's very clearly uh that they are not to follow the motorbikes the motorbike sometimes of course have to go off course to find different routes to capture the race and to leapfrog the race up ahead some of the courses not accessible to the motorbikes that needs to be protected the the groomed single track is not suitable for many of the vehicles that cover the absolute epic so it's important that the riders follow the markings and don't follow the motorbikes and uh we're back with the e-bike the e-bikes can ride everywhere because they are essentially bicycles and the uh none other than stefan some a three-time winner of the race on the e-bike they're in yonkers now on the fire road climb up into the upper reaches of the the mountain now and it is really really uh not a particularly steep climb but it's a long drag up here well we're hoping to get some uh some comment from stefan summer when we cut back to him we'll we'll see if he's uh if he's able to talk to us if we have got signal or he can tell us exactly what's going on in the race because it certainly has reached fever pitch with the the william pirelli team up the road we did expect a lot from this team because they are always anime just seems to be the case that always the animators earlier later on in the race raven steiner having one stage i don't mind it says uh his debut at the absolute epic he's no no not new to mountain biking at all and the two are on a great day and clearly taking a leaf out of the book of the all south african pairing at yester buco type dev it's uh it's a bit of inspiration and they know with the overall gc they're out of contention and they will be allowed a little bit of leeway with the speed company racing and toyota 91 specialized letting them up the road there's the herstein castle which is high on the slopes of the mountains heading towards yonkousuk there's a nine-hole golf course up there if you fancy around the gulf but the route it's around the uh the beautiful castle and then into uh yonko quite a spectacular view all the way out over the uh the wine lands and no doubt the great view of table mountain in the distance you know we're looking at the picker up at yonko there is a bee root bee line here so these riders are coming down here this is nino shirt and last foster could be fun watching the these guys go down here nino is the second rider there four straight ahead of him you know it's easy to spark with the yellow helmet and foster with the silver and yellow blue helmet and forced a no stranger to uh he's no slouch on the cross-country circuit either he is the two-time european champion and uh his skills we saw him in 2019 more than a than a worthy part of today showed in fact at one point nina sherta had to ask him to slow down uh last foster really rising to the occasion and hasn't had quite such a good year this year but he it won't stop him having a bit of fun out on the trails today and i'm quite sure that they will really enjoy it they they love these kind of trails and like at all a lot of the other top riders they were here before the race had the chance to to go ride a lot of the these trails on this specific route today so they will know them quite well yeah they are scott sram 46 minutes back they did win stage two but they lost they lost 15 minutes yesterday so they've dropped way out of uh contention but they are they're riding and they're enjoying the the trials and perhaps targeting a grand finale stage win here at valdez v on the final day if all things are being equal if they're feeling in good condition but wait and see the women's race let's have a look at that so 91 song goes specialized and faces roller as you were yesterday all together and there are two minutes and 16 seconds ahead of bmc mountain bike racing pauline ferran prevost and robin de quit enjoying a better day today they also had uh they lost a lot of time yesterday private client holdings four minutes further back key for them is their progress in uh advancing to fourth place on general classification simtech za aryan luty and amy wakefield lost already lost over 11 minutes inside the first 24k so they've got a goal in mind have haley preen and marie robbie as they hunt down a fourth place finish here two third places in three third places consecutive days for the all south african pair that love to go a little better and get into fourth place on general classification oh we still haven't passed that uh 37 kilometer mark that is the symtex za team and uh they lost 11 minutes yesterday and look to be losing even more time today that fourth spot overall looks in uh looks under threat oh beautiful images on the fire roads of stellenbosch the pilot here in this helicopter jonathan and in fact skulk is piloting this jonathan's operating the camera and the mark liu and the profi in front in that other helicopter bringing you the close-up images of these riders as they in and out of the sunshine in yonkers the fire road drags them higher and higher and of course as you go higher and higher you get the opportunity to come down at speed and the trails built in yonkers are truly spectacular so they'll look forward to enjoying those very shortly and uh they certainly will be tested by the climbs though because they'll drop down and then they go back up to another a couple of levels and then through another descent and there's a technical descents the fatigue starts coming into play uh not only today's fatigue but the accumulated fatigue over the last uh six days of racing and of course then uh they've got to go across the valley and do more climbing to come down more single track yep it's up and down day one of those days the kutzenberg field immaculately laid out race village here in stellenbosch the donny craven stadium is the big rugby stadium salem bush football club also used that as alimon and ravensteiner they were the early animators on bottoms corp and they've gone out on their own in yonko preparing to tackle the single tracks that come they are the race leaders on general classification though they are in eighth place 50 minutes down good morning images of the erase village the teams camping in those uh red tents the dining marquis on the right-hand side and plenty of the top professional teams in those camper vans which make life a little bit more comfortable yeah if you're here not only for the experience of the race but you're here to to race at the sharp end of the field it really makes a big difference that you come here with a good setup you you have the support needed to so basically all you have to think about is racing your bike as fast as possible and we see i'm happy to see that more and more riders have that opportunity to to come here with this sort of support and especially here being at the venue in a campervan is very nice because you're close to everything and at the same time you can go into the campervan and you have everything you need also especially here on really hot days when it comes to recovery in the afternoon it's quite nice you can go there and just cool the room a little bit yeah little red tint in the heat of an afternoon is not the ideal recovery place after a hot day uh on the mountain bike here in the western cape but uh from most of the riders that's what it is and that's the absolute cape epic you deal with it well that's why they they go to the chill zone of course keep cool there keeping a it's all about uh recovering at the end of each day and uh the riders who are staying in the race village really get to enjoy that uh that great camaraderie the camaraderie off the bike and being able to rub shoulders with some of the world's best and when they head off to dinner they'll be sitting really at the table next to the greatest of all time nina sherta for instance seen some five times winners of the race some real legends of the sport and uh great opportunity for the amateurs to be able to really experience mountain biking at its best the outdoors at its best as well the slopes of stellenbosch mountain which presides over kutzenberger the greater town of stellenbosch the universities the schools it is a seat of learning stellenbosch and it is in many eyes the home of mountain biking yeah world cup here in 2018 on kutzenberg's track a day that annika you'll remember well i remember that day quite well it was a fantastic day a fantastic race actually i had a very tight battle with a rider that we see in this race right now pauline ferran perot it came down to a very tight battle between her and i and i have really good memories from that race also just yesterday i went to the venue the race renu and actually so the world cup course when you look up to your yeah to your left you can see parts of the world cup course and it brought back some nice memories well it's being used next week in a national cross-country race uh hosted by the polaros gymnasium school here they are hosting a national race there so all the best in the country all age groups will be there as well so it is still in use which is great news and let's hope one day we'll have a world cup back here in stellenbosch and in south africa because we would love to see them all racing around here of course we do get to see the best riders in the world erasing the absolute cape epic once a year and that's a pretty decent vantage point to get sunrise up above stellenbosch what a beautiful sight it is it is part of the journey part of riding the world is coming to ride the apsa cape epic and it is part of the epic series which is something that is developing growing bigger and bigger and more and more popular entries are rather like hens teeth to a lot of the epic series events but you can ride all over the world the four islands in croatia of course there are three events in australia there's the swiss epic rabunden in switzerland and of course close to spain and france there is the andorra epic say you should go and ride one of those why not to choose to ride the absolute cape epic and then head off to ride in andorra you'll get some proper climbing and a wonderful ride the world experience [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] and dora mounted by classic pyrenees in june july not sure you'd get an entry for this year's uh race you'd have to probably uh try to uh go you can still get an entry for this year as a race apparently so uh go for it why not so we look up into the mountains around stellenbosch for this event it is of course the absolute epic 2023 the entries open on monday the day after the combination of this year's event and uh it certainly has been a wonderful journey around the western cape we've had everything we've had intense heat over that first couple of days in laurensford and then a bit of rain and cooler weather and now just spectacular trails we're with our race leaders on stage number six that's fabian rambersteiner the italian champion on the front behind him the belgian champion about alimon they are leading the field by a minute and 49 seconds on this stage speed company racing are going well in second place at key they are quite well ahead of toyota 91 specialized in third we live here in the factory enjoying a good day today canyon north wave the race leaders four minutes and 24 down drama plenty well let's look at that four minutes 24 right now because the four minutes 24 to william pirelli is not as important as the the time to speed company racing and uh it's around about uh what looks like almost three minutes uh really a three minute deficit just under a three minute deficit to uh speed company racing they have seven at the beginning of the day so they've still got a four minute buffer on virtual gc so it could be very tight going in to the trails uh the final trails going back into kutzenberg and stellenbosch really important to see how sierra vault manages his energy and how stozak manages his partner over the obstacles of the day yonkos fire road and the climb up to the time take seven in yokosuka it's likely that the two will be able to manage themselves on the single check on the way down they will be able to keep more or less the same sort of pace won't take too many risks but uh they won't lose time hand over first but where they seem to be really struggling around the climbs and there's still a lot of climbing to go we've got an entire day of climbing in fact we've got 76 kilometers and 2 700 meters of climbing just to put that into perspective yesterday was 115 kilometers and 2 000 was a 2004 2400 meters of climbing so it's clearly that the race is highly concentrated climbing today on stage six but we see yet again the speed company racing going very early in the race and we have kind of seen them apply the same tactic a lot of days and yesterday they had different issues and they really didn't really was in their favor but it looks like today if they can keep everything together well they look quite good for moving up on the overall flying down the willie pirelli team out of the first section of the armageddon trail in yonkershawk it's a truly spectacular trail uh built by bennet nell who looks after these trails in uh yogasuk with great support from the specialised group and there's a speed company racing chasing them chasing are they look so you can just see from the body language there is an urgency to chasing heart but they're not necessarily chasing after the leaders the stage leaders they are chasing away from 19 from toyota 91 specialized and of course canyon northward they sense the weakness they sense there there's blood in the water with uh andreas seavolt and they're making it count now they have they've been animators and uh we could say disruptors they've been really putting it to they've they've been taking it to the other riders and they did say at the very beginning after that prologue they're not here to take part they're here to take over and uh perhaps we're a little bit cynical about when we reacted to that um especially after a really short stage like the prologue but uh they've proved that they have lived up to that uh they've lived up to that statement yeah not just one or two days but it feels like every single day they've been going so strong so they are a serious threat for the overall lead right now absolutely bart allen and uh fabian ramensteiner they drop down onto the zooland section the trail does go straight on there but it's not quite as technical as the zululand section in a couple of jumps and uh berms for them to enjoy as you see almond flying over them he's clearly the man who who enjoys the technical descents a little more than ravensteiner he's ravenstein a marathon specialist and aleman just enjoy loving those trails the yellow jersey still on the fire road and this is how the virtual leaderboard looks right now the race would have stopped now they would hold on to those yellow jerseys but their lead of six minutes and 54 would shrink to 428 291 specialized would also gain a little bit of time 6 15 down really it's between those three teams and really this whole race you feel uh depends on what happens over the next hour and a half or so as they head towards the finish at kutzenberg it all it really all comes down to whether the speed company racing can keep it all together i'm pretty sure they learned a tough lesson yesterday both when it came to being super sharp constantly you have to be so focused all the time really make sure that you constantly go the right way and this this point in the race your your whole system is just super fatigued and that's that's when it's uh yeah it's very risky risky that you miss the science but you need to stay more focused than ever with that beautiful rock face so uh intelligently built into the trail and uh the drone zone gives you a bird's-eye view of this wonderful armageddon trail in yongsuk yeah it is going to be a race right to the end for andrea servalt and martin storsek you catch a glimpse of them now on the armageddon trail and speed company racing are the team applying pressure most unexpectedly at the start of the week they have one supporter in their team and that is uh lucas palms father in their single camper van and they do their own mechanic work or they did send their shocks off to be serviced but otherwise they the riders themselves are looking after their bikes very different scenario to this the 91 has toyota 91 songo or toyota 91 specialized team who have uh like uh scott and a whole lot of other teams a big backup crew looking after all their their needs so a new dynamic this is uh raven steiner and uh here's part aleman now they've come out the bottom of zululand and they turn up again for a long uh diagonal drag up to the top of the route now stefan is with us stefan how are you going there what's what are these two looking like yeah we're having the most fun of the week i think just just amazing trails we just wrote down the armageddon which is an all-time favorite it's a bit loose and dusty but so much fun these two ravensteiner and alaman looking very very strong today targeting this the stage when yeah i think so they initially initiated unfortunately not uh clean connectivity with stefan just at that moment as they head up this climb it's a drag of about three case and then they'll turn right along the fire road again and another descent down more amazing enjoyable single track toyota 91 specialized there just caught a glimpse of matt beers who'll know these trails like the back of his hand he lives in cape town but spends a lot of time out here uh riding and learning these trails enjoying them you really have to ride them they spectacular trails they're challenging and they engage you and uh at a high speed they are an absolute thrill i'm sure i would imagine they are they truly are of course it's a little bit different when you have to race them especially this late in the week you don't hit the trails as smoothly as if it was on day one and you were fully recovered but now we'll have a lot of tired bodies and arms and minds out there it but still especially towards a long week like this it's a little bit it feels a little bit like a getting a treat towards the end of the race yeah we've heard that andrea servalt is struggling with the effects of it of a rib injury he suffered earlier in the week and that sort of thing you you have the injury and you think you can get over it and you know they they won that stage on the stage one and they were yellow jerseys so you just i suppose hope and believe that you'll get over it and get get uh get riding strongly again it's not quite turning out that way for him no but one of the key things in this race really is never ever ever give up things can look very dark but it can all turn around just in a short period of time so super important never ever ever give up because things will turn around again we can see there from the helicopter just uh geographically how big that gap is and it'll play it'll prey on the minds of matthew bears and christopher blevins that speed company racing really are getting getting it all on today because it's just uh we're running out of days in fact if they want to make inroads into that lead and if they want to live up to their promise of taking the race taking it apart i think it was a little adaptation of their of what they said they we we adapted what they said they don't want to take part and we thought well let's just uh change it a little bit and call it taking apart but actually what they've really said was they want to take over and it's clear that they are taking over guess maya and or from william braley factory racing this is a team that we've seen throughout the throughout the history of the absolute epic towards uh certainly um the last few years we've always seen them animate the latter half of the race gearsmeyer as well guest mario has won the grand finale before intermiranda dramatic stage attacked and ripped the race apart and uh expect to see him uh also animate today perhaps and uh let's also remember that tomorrow is the grand finale and a highly prestigious stage to win we saw nino scherter taking it uh taking an easy day another easy day if there is such a thing at the absolute epic and no doubt he'll be saving his energy for tomorrow as well so tomorrow is going to be an exciting day but today seems like it's one for the breakaway um for the compatriots of the team we see right now um and uh that would be aleman and ravenstein of the two respective national champions and champions in the marathon discipline both wearing their their their marathon colors or and their national colors excited to see how they last throughout the stage they had a big lead in that uh at that time check and we saw them at the 47 kilometer mark they're already quite a couple of minutes ahead and we're going to be keeping a very close eye at the time check at around about the 58 kilometer mark to see how much progress they've made super good day for the villa pirelli team in general we have the team number one in the lead a comfortable lead on the stage so far and we have their second pla team with the cameron orr and daniel geisler here in third place today so good day for this group of writers yeah we've seen in the past uh willie purely they were under a different trade name but the likes of samuel porter mickely casa grande ravenstein has been here before they've at this part of the the race they've often come into their own and found their way into the uh onto the podium so they're in familiar territory and not only in the terrain but also in the state race two teams inside the top three but very much two races happening in front of us here we've got the the race for the stage and that's willie pirelli seemed to have that as their goal today ravenstein and aleman having started the day at 50 minutes adrift gizmo and all cameron all who's riding his first and all the irishman they are just uh less than nine seconds behind their their teammates so they seem to see an opportunity to gain some time here scott schramm are four minutes ahead of both these teams so they'd have to ride really really well to get the better of shirt and uh his partner foster today but then the other race of course is the general classification and that's the big focus here for the canyon northway up to 91 specialize in speed company racing and that's happening behind this lead pair speed company racing here they go i think they have lived up to every promise and every expectation here they've certainly uh taking over and taking apart this race in an emphatic style yes they might not win it but they've certainly got it the great support and following and justifying you so they really are uh animated exciting riders lucas palm a former junior world champion he won their title in maritzburg in 2014 and gail gaga they've been friends since they were teenagers racing against and with one another in germany and here they are racing in the biggest and the most competitive mountain bike stage race in the world in the absolute cape epic and taking it to the established hierarchy of the absent absolutely epic the likes of toyota 91 specialized and the bulls and scott sram they are there showing them a clean pair of wheels it's fantastic to watch well it's uh just to remind ourselves about the time gaps uh william pirelli's ravenstein and element they are up ahead and that was of course at the 47 kilometer mark before they climbed all the way up the yonkers fire road so a lot has happened since then we are unable to uh just from the sheer remoteness of the regions we're unable to bring you live time checks but the last time check was at the 47 kilometer mark and we're going to be seeing exactly uh what that time check is the 55 kilometer mark but uh with william pirelli one minute 49 ahead of speed company racing and looking back all importantly at uh canyon north wave at 4 24 there's one two and a half minutes ahead and uh with that buffer of uh seven minutes it's starting to chip away at it but they still they still look like they're in control of the race although they are very much on the back foot the german and the czech rider this is the red phoenix trail as they drop down into the base of the yongsan valley different sort of trail different type of surface to armor get much a little bit more flowing not too many switch packs and not as rocky in certain sections as the armageddon trail quite a bit of breaking holes here but they've been working really hard to maintain this trail it's difficult in summer with the dry dusty conditions there's lots of riding on on these trails so they do get uh beaten up but benedel and his team have been working so hard in order to get these trails in great condition for these riders and this is the lower end of the red phoenix trail now drop right down to the uh the circle road the circle put as it's known here and then across onto the valley trail before crossing the river this is the leaders as they're heading down to the bottom of red phoenix we see element in the belgian national championships jersey of the marathon discipline and ravensteiner and the italian and uh the riders are living up to their promise we expected great things from them in the latter half of the week and uh that lead it looks comfortable although it's uh their real um biggest threat is the battle for gc going on because they know how fierce that is and they know how close it is and of course with speed company racing aiming to get a gap they're not in their speed company racing aren't necessarily chasing william pirelli they're trying to escape the uh the likes of toyota 91 specialized and of course put more time into canyon north wave but knowing that the way they race they're no doubt also looking you know if we can if we can win the stage we'll certainly make time on the yeah yeah just writing very very strong i'm impressed with it it seems like every single day it almost looks like they're getting stronger and stronger they have this ability to go to dig really deep to go on the attack and they still managed to recover from it i think yesterday we saw them having to put in two or three huge efforts first they went on the attack then they went on the attack again then they had to catch back after taking a wrong turn and still yeah they finished within a reasonable time from the yeah at the end and they had a fall girl uh had a very heavy four he had dirt all the way up his left side of his back so that was in the perhaps a little bit of panic in order to get back as you might have heard at the start of our show uh lucas baum saying yes it was quite a lot of blue air yesterday they let it all out after the frustration of taking the wrong missing the turnoff and they've put that aside and they're focusing all that energy on trying to call back time on the general classification and well if they get to within it three to three minutes tomorrow it's a shorter it's the shortest stage of the week but my word it could be the most dramatic grand finale day of all time well we've seen on the road cycling that uh certainly in the tougher france that the last day is a perhaps you could say a bit of a procession and then a sprint uh sprint at the end there will be no such thing tomorrow at the absolute epic we can absolutely guarantee that not only with the likes of nino shota and the protagonist looking for a stage when no doubt that's who we've got our money on but of course the general classification battle will still be super close after today there's no doubt about it and uh we've seen in even in 2007 as far back as 2007 the race was very close to race change shoulder the the leaders jerseys changed shoulders in the men's category many times and it was all down to that grand finale focusing and uh roll paulson they were in second spot and they attacked on every climb and eventually they called the truce but only late in the stage and uh relinquished that will acknowledge that the bulls were the better team on the on that particular year they came back and won in 2008. allison and frugal saying google sang then went on to the road to road cycling a very successful campaigner on the road having won at two monuments and a bit of a bit of a breeding ground for uh for great cyclists and um fantastic but in fact focal sang even showed then that the skills do transfer between mountain biking and road biking and other sports too and they're keen to know what's it there seems to be a foot out there let's just hope that there is nothing wrong no they seem to be back on the gas this is a really good egg they seem to be on the pace again now it's a flatish section flatish section known as valley 2 along the base of the valley with the river on the right-hand side and then they'll cross over the river the other side but you can see they are holding nothing back and their their synergy has been remarkable all the way through of all the teams pretty much they have not left each other alone at any stage this is very true yeah it looks like they're super well matched and knowing each other since the childhood of course they've been doing so much writing together and so it's actually the perfect leading to a race like this where a factor like knowing each other and being able to work together plays a massive role it's testimony to the fact that that could the two-person team dynamic could be one of the most important components of uh performance at this race we know already that uh that the speed the company racing team are not um they don't have as deep a backup team um or support team you could say they don't have um massos they don't have physios they they've really there's there's one person who's helping them do everything and as we talked about earlier they are repairing their own bikes minor repairs of course minor services and but still it seems that the most important component is a very attacking attitude for these two and of course that all-important dynamic that that symbiosis between the two riders and also a factor like they're going into this race particular race for the very first time sometimes like it gives you a little bit extra motivation fire and adrenaline yeah i can remember that from my my own career that often whenever i did some sort of race for the first time you know then the motivation was just a and the firepower was just a little bit bigger because you know it just made the adrenaline pump a lot so looking at the trails now and we are with the race leaders the stage leaders of the day and on the front is having robin steiner and uh followed by bart allen the belgian national champion and they took a bit of an opportunity earlier on the stage to make an attack they were initially with toyota 91 specialized and uh speed company racing they have left them behind with an acceleration and now they're out on their own looking to keep that gap it's a great day to do it with all of the single track that we see not the open roads that uh where typically other teams could collaborate and cooperate and use those open roads to power ahead it is a little bit more difficult to close these gaps on the single track so they've attacked exactly the right point they used that as a springboard they opened all that that the early parts of the race is a springboard to launch their campaign for a stage win yeah it really it it was it is the perfect day to to go on the attack because behind them there's a lot of tacticals for the overall going on you can rest assured that toyota 901 specialized will be looking to speed company racing and with those two teams having more an eye on each other it's the perfect moment to go on the attack there are toyota91 specialized and look who's just behind them hunts becking and jose diaz they just hanging on all the time in fourth place overall oh the buff mega mode team 20 minutes adrift but they're just keeping themselves in the frame their closest rivals behind them are team bulls who are uh seven minutes adrift of them and hanging on to the back wheel of for these two riders uh chris blevins and his partner matt pierce the defending champion is not a bad thing as they snake along the valley two trail across this you caught an image a little bit earlier of the race leaders on the boss lace climb and they're doing one section of the boss lace climb before heading up on the district road up to the top of the fire descent which will be the last of the trails in yonkers hook before heading back towards the stellenbosch it's a fast short but very very hard day this for all these riders particularly with the amount of climbing coming at the end of this hugely demanding week across the river a right turn a little kick and they'll head up onto the horse lace single track very very shortly so these two teams to 91 specialize and uh buff mega mode just uh maybe trying to do a bit of work here to close the gap that buff megamo's sons moving up alongside the big strong teammate of his whilst uh the indications are that uh beers and blevins just abiding their time for the time being they are well 13 minutes clear of this pair on gc so not a real threat that's for sure with so little time to go left on this stage they're on to the lowest that reaches of the boss lace single track climb well we saw hunts baking and jose diaz overtake the 91 toyota 91 specialized team and uh just looking back just to remind ourselves we always like to see what kind of progress the writers are making and the reading maybe a little bit too much into it but let's look at toyota 91 specialized at that time check there were three minutes 44 down it seems that buff megamo who were behind and buck megaman were actually riding with canyon north wave at the time of that time check uh it seems that buff megamer on the move they were moving forward in the uh in the stage today and they're on a good day but uh it's either that or toyota 91 specialized are on a bad day so we'll all will be revealed when they reach that uh that 54 kilometer mark at the next time check we'll know a little bit more about how the race is unfolding but it's clear that uh buff megamar on the move and canyon north wave are still very much on the back foot losing more time to speed company racing robin steiner and alaman just heading up the fire road climb to the top of the fire hut climb uh if i had to send there is an option here going up a single track line but the route director deciding to use the the fire road as an option and now you'll get the full perspective of the climate it's not a particularly steep climb it's a it's a drag where they switch back at the top to take them onto the upper section we're with the race leaders william pirelli on stage six of the absolute cape hit because 76 kilometer stage with 2 000 400 meters of climbing guy today and fabian reverend started the italian champion the marathon champion on the front and vanta almond the belgian marathon champion and they are attacking today's stage in pursuit of a stage win they are not a factor in the general classification the overall race breakdown they are some 50 minutes down as they take this it'll switch back on to the upper reaches of the fire road that'll take them to the fire hut descent stephan sam is the man on the bulls media e-bike there stefan they're climbing very impressively this pair looking good yes it doesn't look like they are slowing down a little bit maybe uh about almond from the body language not as strong as in the in the early parts of the stage but still performing very well together as a team they keep looking down can you can you see they keep looking down can you see the other one we can see them we can see them especially also you can see the chopper always so you can see them line up and they are crawling up the single track but it's very difficult to to make up time gaps for the riders the short sharp stage so they're pretty much in there pretty much in the in the blind yeah oh no no relaxing time we just catch a glimpse of the speed that uh stefan some is riding uh behind the 28 this period so they are absolutely charging up that climb and i think that most mere mortals would struggle to reach even 15 kilometers an hour so just to get an indication of how much power the williap really team are putting down now and also putting down the power very much so very much in sync speed company racing's edgar and baum another day of animating for these guys and uh it's really it's it's great to see this from the from a racing point of view from a fan's point of view because they all the traditional the old guard of the race seem to have fallen by the wayside we've got the newcomers the likes of matthew beers christopher blevins and uh they are really putting huge pressure on uh on the the on the canyon north wave team and of course uh willia talked about it already but william team they are always on the gas towards the latter half and they are not disappointing us but all eyes on speed company racing and that time check keen to know exactly how much time they've made up on on their rivals the canyon north bay team the team in yellow and of course we are seeing two races out here today we're seeing the race for the stage and we're also seeing the race for the gc the race for the gc seems to be going on about third fourth fifth spot and there's the riders will be looking out for so it's gonna be difficult for us to cross back from right from team to team but uh this team right now are at all to gain for this gap that they've got right now if they can get up to the uh the william team and cooperate with them that will help them gain even more time on yellow jersey here we are with the yellow jersey right now the picture's breaking up a little bit but it's clear we can get a good idea of the body language siebolt is being allowed to set the pace so it's not to create gap that symbiosis is working really well they're taking a bit of a take over there it looks like uh martin stozek is just helping him with the pace a little bit but really important that they are still very much in sync in the symbiosis of the team even though they're under major pressure they're still doing okay and now we're here with the speed company racing again and they we saw they just set up both of them at the same time having a little bit of a drink even though today is a on paper a relatively short stage you still need to be super careful with hydration and with nutrition because if you empty yourself today without refueling tomorrow it can be one of the hardest days ever but we also just before what we saw with the speed company racing when they climbed up the fire road was the body language they were just on it they were hammering away out of the saddle and it almost looks like just based on the body language and maybe they're starting to to close the gap just a little bit to the leading team here they are on the last little section of fire road before heading down the fire hut the descent the last of the single trails inside jungkook there's a river trail running outside the gate that they'll traverse before we're heading into stellenbosch but this is the last leading to the last of the darnel single track sections but sandy up there as well which makes for uh some tricky writing as we saw yesterday some of the writers in fact ravensteiner was involved in a little off with munoz moreno of team dmt who is not riding today thiago ferreira's partner one of many casualties in fact just by the start today 384 of the original teams are still riding in the absolute gateway pick it's a nutritional race all the way down the field it doesn't matter who you are and how well you prepare the race can upset your best laid plans that's for sure but of course it's always um a shame when you see the race being too affected by people having to withdraw so yeah we saw also last year some of the some of the teams like the canon northway for having it to withdraw on i think it was day three just when they were gaining momentum so it is part of the game and every time you come to this race you know how to prepare and every time you're here you get wiser and wiser so it's a yeah it makes you it gives you more experience and sets you up better for a potential next cape epic dropping down onto the last of the single trail sections here in yonkers hook the fire hut trail there's a section a little bit higher up that's a really technical but this uh these two sections flow with lovely switchbacks and a couple little jumps as well in them a really wonderful expressive piece of trail remember that uh jonkersuk was bedeviled by fires just over a year ago believe it or not and the rehabilitation of these trails has been nothing short of spectacular the time that uh not just uh traveler bennett nell and all other trail builders in the area got together to work here but volunteers and all manner of people came and helped out to restore these trails to their current uh superb condition really really good workers so they fly down here ravensteiner on the front uh now aleman following his wheel and stefan psalm grinning from the here behind on the e-bike absolutely loving it he lived in stellenbosch for a couple of years stefan so he knows these trails very very well of course that's of course a three-time winner of the absolute epic in his time uh with karl platt we talked about the trails and uh you could pick almost any trail in the stellenbosch region um and uh there's a story behind it and we've got some great stories uh certainly we've been you saw us head to the idis valley there's a great story behind the idis valley and it's all about the upliftment of the community and great story there where they're creating a future where the youth from disadvantaged communities can create a describe as a better future and a balance between a balance in life and just using the trails as a great opportunity as a springboard for uplifting communities and we see here the italian national champion of the marathon discipline fabian ravensteiner a well-known campaigner at the absolute epic with a great record here and we expect to see good things of them uh throughout uh throughout even we expected more from them yesterday but uh they've had a couple of uh difficult times it's uh clear that uh today they are having no difficulty at all holding off the world's best race uh mountain bike stage races look a lift shortly under the bottom section of the fire head trail another fast furious descent here not too rocky at all nice smooth trails big wide berms and a chance to let the brakes go wonderful racing by this pair as they chase a stage victory into stellenbosch we're getting down to the business india once they leave yongsuk it's uh well as the road goes about seven or eight kilometers to kutzenberg they don't follow the road they'll follow a riverside trail and then a a farm road before a brand new piece of single track that very very few people have written at all in the yonkers drift estate so that is going to be a challenge and in that there's one very very steep climb before we get to the final kicker that we saw yesterday so uh it's all work to be done for these riders they'll know they've been in a big mountain bike stage race or stage when they get to the finish today that's for sure robin steiner and aleman aleman has been in some pretty decent format second place finish a big stage race earlier this year in europe and uh so you support that for me like the speed company racing men have put uh some excellent preparation work into their lead into the absolute epic it's clear that this was their target because the form that they've seen really if you if you're really out riding some of the very the very best in the sport the matthew pierces and the uh christopher levinsons of the la of the world and of course nino shirted they did have issues however if you're riding at this level they've clearly targeted the absolute epic in 2022 as the peak of their season and uh we're back with the race the stage leaders at the moment just a little bit about star wars we've actually been here five times before the absolute cape epic and 2004 the very inaugural event we were in stellenbosch and uh just uh looking down to the list of winners in stellenbosch christoph souza has the most wins coming into stellenbosch and occur and he won one stage in standard watch by our records i think so too yeah in the year i was racing with uh anna van der brecken but christoph has never won a world cup in stellenbosch here we go this is the checkpoint here at the bottom of the firehead trail they'll drop through here ravensteiner and his partner alamance straight through and head for the exit gate of yonko the race leaders on this stage stage six six and i think what we just caught a little glimpse of here was at the side of the road a sign saying 10ks to the finish line and it's always a when you if i'm not mistaken that definitely there was a sign is counting down the kilometers to the finish line and they they will come towards the ladder at the end of the race or the end of the stage and as a as a rider being out there in the front you've done so much hard work and it's quite delightful to start seeing those signs because then you know you're getting closer and closer to your ultimate goal speed company racing's ultimate goal is a place a little higher on the general classification they're making every pedal stroke count here this pair lucas baum and gail gaga from germany they've been just such entertainers they've done the unexpected they've gone contrary to uh normal uh tactics here at the absolute epic they've attacked when everyone's thought wasn't quite the right thing to do but uh they've played their own trial here and it's been fantastic to watch and they are giving every effort into trying to put themselves in a position to maybe maybe have a have a shot at the yellow jersey honor on the final day yeah who knows who knows it actually all depends on the kenyan northwave team and we see that it looks like in that team it's a seyvald who's struggling at the moment and the big question mark will be how does he get through today's stage and how will he recover for tomorrow and how will he write tomorrow that is a super key it's going to play a massive role for the overall here well we're looking at the 62 kilometer time check now and william really they're having a great day out they've been maintaining that gap like we predicted with all of the single track they've had to contend with of course we have seen some open road climbs but with a single track they've maintained that advantage of around about a minute and a half just under a minute and a half over speed company racing they take a little bit of time to get some fuel and of course we spoke about it earlier anika said that you're not only eating for today you're eating for tomorrow and drinking for tomorrow to make sure you refuel so that tomorrow is uh you're still able to perform at a peak and all eyes on that time check to see how far back the third place team and the fact the leaders the overall general classification leaders we're going to be keeping an eye on how they're doing on the stage and also on overall we have a virtual leaderboard no doubt when it comes up with all of the racing fans the fans of canyon northwest looking to see how much damage control they're going to need to uh going to initiate um on their campaign they still have tomorrow to go one more stage after today but uh they'll take it kilometer by kilometer they won't worry too much about tomorrow they'll be looking to just limit the damage today and we're looking at now daniel gasmaron and uh i mean or of the william really factory team he uh you could say we were never able to say whether or not uh one team or the other was the backup team and one team was the was the leading team of this team they've always kept the fans and they've kept us guessing and they seem to arrive with two more or less evenly matched teams and i guess that's their race tactic everyone's got a different approach to the absolute cape epic and their approach is definitely to keep the uh to let the trails decide is what they say we're always a real cross-country races second in the british championships last year so he loves those trails that's for sure guess my of course a seasoned marathon racer with a fantastic record both here the upscape epic and around the world as a as a stage racer so here are buff mega man hunts and jose diaz fourth place overall and seemingly fourth place on the trails as well today as they head towards their finish at kutzenberg it's a solid day from them they have not been able to shoot the lights out through this week but last year they won three stages and not quite been able to dominate in that manner but it's been a solid performance by them as they've ridden them stronger and stronger on this stage they've got past the toyota 91 specialized and they were with them at the base of this valley before the climb and further back you can just catch a glimpse of the yellow jerseys now with 91 toyota 911 specialized so there is the change the yellow jerseys perhaps getting a little stronger and the beers and blevins perhaps taking taking the heat so we can see here the the yellow jerseys are keeping a close eye on toyota 91 specialized i believe they will be quite happy riding with them because then they know exactly where they are but the thing is they have no idea of feeling where speed company racing is and they are far up the road five minutes at the road so five minutes to william pirelli but um most notably there are three and a half minutes over three and a half minutes to to edgar and bomb speed company racing it's a remarkable performance by these two germans the fact that they've just come in every single day and they've attacked perhaps a bit too much conventional wisdom would say that they went a bit early yesterday and they did pay for that effort not only with the wrong turning it was unfortunate and but uh it's really all credit to the speed company racing team who just are the absolute disruptors they're brash in the group they aren't uh they're here to race they're not here to make friends and uh they have really taken the race apart and the big surprises of this year's speed company racing and the uh established outfits of the toyota 91 specialized outfit and of course canyon north wave arrived with a much more bolstered backup team and of course the support team they have left nothing to chance ralph megamo had a really good day uh in fact had a good year in 20 20 21 last year five months ago and they've not got they've been on the podium this year but they haven't won a stage yet but uh they look to be improving a little bit throughout the day they had a bad day yesterday they lost plenty of time with themselves more or less out of contention for the top three um 20 minutes back but that is the virtual gc leaderboard so it's clear right now if the race were to stop now canyon northway but still have a comfortable buffer over speed company racing but three minutes 23 it's not a lot of time if you've got damaged ribs and if you're ailing if you're losing if you're losing two or three minutes on a stage like this which is only 76 kilometers long i'll be looking to limit the damage and hopefully recover today and live to fight another day tomorrow they've turned off what uh is colloquially known as the kirikou section and they at glencon have turned left into a section that very very few mountain bikers uh uh will have ridden of recent times instead about way way back this was a trail from stellenbosch all the way along the river into yonkersuk but it has been closed off for many years but opened up for this race a special trail built on the left-hand side not specifically for this race but opened up for this and built by the multiple exterior former world champion conrad stahls of stahls trails he's one of the many many great travel builders in this part of the world and stefan you with us yes i'm with us yeah that uh you can wipe the grin off your face now you've got to do some work you've got to go uphill after all that lovely single track appeal is good for me the flats are a problem because the guys are so fast we just hit the flats with minimum 45 kilometers per hour and that at the end of a brutal stage it's really impressive now this is a trial you've never written i'm sure no for not this is brand new stuff the type above the yonkers drifters states it looks steeper i mean the camera doesn't give us a real perspective how steep is this yeah it's about 10 to 15 which is okay but the terrain like the ground is very still very soft in patches so it needs to be ridden in but probably after the day it will be okay absolutely that's uh stellenbosch mountain up ahead of them so they haven't got too far to go and this pair have a lead of a minute and a half over the team chasing general classification speed company racing but they look as though they've got one thing in mind here ravenstein and aleman all the element on the front there taking a bit of pushing now again looking stronger he's looking stronger seems he has recovered a bit but also if once you pass the 10 kilometer sign and you know it's just the last little uphill this one you get more motivation and we're just looking for feet the speed of the um of the of the riders right now almost up to 15 kilometers an hour on such a steep section the riders are absolutely charging they make it look so easy but absolutely it does not with the e-bike of course having uh a few extra 100 watts uh just to keep up it's clear that aluminum is absolutely on the pace and we're back to the women's section it seems like a carbon copy we said it's a carbon copy of yesterday's stage the two uh overall general classification teams the first two spots are together and it's a bit of a stalemate although it's clear that they are not going slowly charging on that climb and looking at the split times at the 45 kilometer mark emc mtb racing are five minutes and 51 back with private client holdings also holding steady they are looking to get up to fourth overall uh with an ailing aryan luty um losing plenty of time early on in the stage and of course yesterday losing 11 minutes the semtech team and we can see these two teams here they are matching each other quite nicely it's not quite obvious that one team is much stronger than the other if that was the case i'm quite sure that we will not see them together so they're matching each other quite well in the recent days we saw that it was a little bit of a difference in strength within those two teams it looks like at one point mariska was a little bit the weak one and also sofia in the in the specialized team and what we saw from their team partners was that they were they were capable of transferring some of that extra power and energy they had to help their partner and i think in this case or scenario right now if one in the team is feeling stronger than the other actually you can help your partner and like that you can open up a gap to the other team but we will see fireworks uh very soon in the women's race as well and we're seeing fireworks certainly in the men's team already on this second last major climb and we talked about the gradient stefan said that it's between 10 and 15 it does max out at 17 percent which is very steep when the trail surfaces are not smooth and the traction is not great but we're gonna see them get over a little bit of a plateau a little bit of a lumpy section and then the descent into the uh kutzenberg stadium they'd have one last little kicker to go and uh taking a look back we can see just how far back down the trail the speed company racing guys are a little bit of a gap between them perhaps just leaving a little bit of a gap so that they can keep their own rhythm right at their own pace but symbiosis we saw earlier on and always just uh it's one of the things we do look for when we look at the teams and how they're riding and look at their body language just to try and gauge how they're feeling is just how well how symbiotic they are as a team but it's clear that this is a steep section which rider will most likely take their own pace and guide the guide themselves and guide their own way through the tricky trails that we see here especially trails this deep and also at this point you can rest assured that these two riders that we see in picture now they're not gonna throw everything away so they might just hold back just a little bit there on this descent because it is still a very fresh and new uh trail meaning there's a lot of rocks uh popping out and leaving just a little bit of a gap to number if number two rider should well it could be a good idea to leave a little bit of a gap to the leading rider just simply because ambition is better and there's less chance of hitting a sharp rock well beautiful trail high up on the slopes of stellenbosch mountain making their way back to uh stella monsieur as i said it's a virgin trail in terms of uh an event and riders as many riders as this riding it it's been around for about uh two years but uh not open to the public but most of the trails in stellenbosch on the stellenbosch trail fund have done a wonderful job in maintaining the trails not just the cycling trails the footpaths the hiking trails and the light all the way along the easter river and uh they really do a fantastic job in ensuring that outdoor activities like mountain biking trail running in the like and hiking uh are done in the uh most uh beautiful places in this western cape it really is lovely tapping out the rhythm david rabensteiner and looking for a second stage win and in fact on the verge of a second stage when we saw when you talked about the rhythm that rhythm is an extremely high rhythm they're topping at 20 21 22 kilometers an hour in this section and uh as we said it make they make it look really easy they're their bodies are steady but they are out of the saddle and they're pushing the pace they are letting up this is riders at their maximum at fever pitch as we reach the finale of the uh stage six of the absolute cape epic it's a prestigious stage to win and uh great opportunity that these two riders took early on in the stage to make a breakaway to take advantage of perhaps two teams or three teams watching each other on the general classification and it's all to play for now and with that minute and a half gap and speed company racing on their own it looks likely that uh barring mishap this team right here the belgian and the italian both in their respective national championship jerseys will take today's line on us and if it stays as it is now they may well move up a couple of places on general classification they're eighths at the moment but umbuco type devin scott sram gluco around 13 minutes on gc ahead of them scottsdale just four minutes both of those teams are over well buca typed f12 and it's down and scott's ram shoot and foster 14 minutes down so there's a good chance that these two will jump into fifth place for sixth place at least behind the bulls who are at the moment well nearly 23 minutes behind at this pair so quite ahead of despair so quite a long way ahead but the the motivation is for the stage when today but the result of this performance will be an improvement on general classification for vat aleman and fabian ravensteiner it's highly likely that they won't be looking too much towards that and generally the top three spots overall are the the coveted spots because that's time on the podium and your name and lights and uh certainly if you want to get your name and lights a stage when the apps are capable is highly prestigious and that's that'll be their target for the day that'll be primary their primary goal is to to win the stage and just spare a thought for the stage winners yesterday ambuco type dev peter de toy and marco they are they've lost 12 minutes today to the leading riders on the stage today and but they of course had a fantastic day yesterday they emptied the tanks and winning the stage in all and all african win in the men's category let's say first look at this trail it really is cool it's a really nice looking uh trail up above the road that winds its way to jungkook and now into the vineyards and they will not quite be able to see the race uh finnish village but it's just over that shoulder of the hill ahead of them there so they are very very close to the finish a little bit of work to be done though still and what are they these two riders are having out grabbing the chance uh when the two other teams were kind of looking more to each other they they realized okay this is a this is our moment we need to go and here's one of the two other teams that i was talking about and to know toyota 91 specialized uh they have a tight battle for the overall er but they were so so close in gc with only a few seconds apart so it's really open for that second spot and the overall gc but the thing is this is not a good situation for them because the speed company racing is yet again carrying a lot of speed and they are far up the road right now yes definitely the uh matthew beers and christopher livings are losing time to speed company racing and clearly the stronger riders on the day and we really keen to know what's up with the yellow jerseys and where they are on the stage we know that uh andres sivolt the marathon world champion was struggling today he damaged his ribs earlier on in the week and today it seems to be all catching up with the german rider and uh of course again they've still got a comfortable lead in the overall general classification so almost seven minutes and uh that's uh looking under threat today at the last time check before this climb before this tricky steep and single track climb a new section of the race it's uh they had a little it hadn't come down that much they always not lost but they've still got to get past the last big obstacle of the day and uh keep the damage to a minimum yeah brilliant uh fight unfolding here look at this as they fly down this trail and uh there is the first team so raven steiner and alimon and uh well the chase group is uh speed company racing they're the team that seek to benefit most out of the general classification here and if they're able to uh close that gap it was so well it probably closed it by about two or three minutes on cannon northway but they'll need a bit more than that but this pair are heading towards a stage victory fabian ravenstein advanta aleman of william now it's uh we see them wearing different jerseys and we've talked about already a lot but they're the respective champions in their discipline normally the uh the teams are expected to wear exactly the same kit or at least highly similar kit right but that does form an exception if you are the national champion in your discipline get away your very proud moment where you get to where your national colors indeed and now we're approaching the finish line and these riders will know the course very soon because we have that little kicker that had took a lot of victims yesterday and it's soon to be approached luckily it seems like these two rise here have a comfortable gap they don't need to worry too much about having to fight out a tight battle up that little little kicker and they can approach it on their own and actually i think very soon they will be on it just around this little left hand turn and then it's the final kicker of the day and this is the chasing team speed company racing girl gaga and lucas baum they have been the igniters they have been the fire lighters throughout this week and they haven't disappointed again today as they chase an unlikely glory here at their very first absolute bet they're quite spectacular i see both of them are not wearing gloves now that lucas baum was wearing gloves early in the week maybe it's a personal preference and maybe it's getting too hot you need to maybe ask me about about that and then quite interesting we got the information on the social media channels that the speed company raising and actually this was not a massive goal for them this race because they struggled to find the fundings to go and only last minute they got the fundings and now they're here and they're just absolutely killing it here they're going so well so a lot of teams they have a different need-in to this race now they're actually just cresting this little kegel climb it will be downhill from here and you can see they they know they have it they're already starting to celebrate a bit yeah a little high five of the youngest sustaining trail side there from fabian ravenstein as they fly on this last little gravel road and pass the stone pines and in towards kutzenberg and glory on stage six of the absolute cape epic a win for but alaman and fabian ravensteiner drops the foot just to make sure it's safe and sound around that last sketchy corner and a look from ottoman say come on we've done this we've got a couple hundred meters and we have put our names and lights as we wanted to do at the absolute cape epic william have really taken this stage by the scuff of the neck they did so on the very first climb up by bottomspot they showed their intentions by attacking up their they were caught eventually on the descent on the backside of van hook but managed to escape again and have not been seen since they have been outstanding not far behind them speed company racing holding nothing back their goals a little different to those of aleman and ravenstein and the stage win is not what they're chasing they're chasing time time against the canyon northwave who are in the yellow jerseys as they get just gives baum a last little push down this descent every second for them will be of such value on the green lawns on the grass fields of kutzenberg it is vat aleman the champion of belgium and the champion of italy on his wheel fabin ravensteiner and they are absolutely over the moon with this performance they're going to take a stage victory here a second stage win for fabid ravensteiner he won in 2018 at the grand finale in travail to be with this time it's into stellenbosch and kutzenberger it's the stitches stage 76 kilometers it's done and dusted for fabbed ravensteiner and van allen of us they turn in and celebrate a wonderful performance they took it by their horns and they have dominated the stage victory to william pirelli in three hours 16 minutes robin steiner and aleman you think that won the world championships or to them they probably feel they have because a stage like this today against the competition in the field is a really really impressive performance it's a big goal for this team the absolute epic and they come always very well prepared they normally come with two teams and they did again they're missing samuel lapora he did not uh arrive at the race due to health issues he decided to step out and that's where uh was initially scheduled to ride with uh with ravensteiner and uh that last minute replacement to ride with daniel gersmeyer and the second place team on the stage today a fantastic day out and again disrupting things really shaking things up speed company racing looks beginning time on their rivals it's still all to play from their general classification and they will not let up until they cross that line they might just give themselves a little bit of a celebration as they cross it but uh that finish line is all important because they'll be looking up at that clock and counting the seconds down to when the leaders of the uh leaders of the general classification the yellow jerseys arrive they've already lost over three and a half minutes and uh just a quick look back and they'll quick fantastic uh performance they've held nothing back once again and abound little fist pumps with this stage winners and uh they are leaving nothing to chance getting everything in order to try and get themselves further up the general classification so let's hear from the stage winners with the jazz kush fabian vote what a ride yeah today is a really good day for us we feel good in the first climb we attack immediately on the first out on the top of the first climb and keep our base and two tips comes back the german guys and also the specialized and we ride there in the group we we look to save some energy there because also our teammates was just behind of us so we cannot push and then uh the the germans attacks in the before the second fifth zone and uh we can keep the pace and then after the uphill we was a little bit stronger and can go away front and uh then we go all always outpace and uh can go alone all the time and tell me did you guys look at the stage earlier in the week and and set a target on it yeah we knew that the the race here around stalin wash was better for us because it's more technical and we like it more so yeah we had it on we wanted to do a good result here especially because this week was not what we expected so yeah super happy that we can take a stage win and we are just happy and tomorrow is another chance that we will try again tomorrow and tell us a little bit about the trails it looked really fun out there yeah today was super funny a lot of nice single trace flowy secret race technical single trace a stage with was uh yeah uh i think it was one of the best stages of the epic what i do and this is my 6k epic so yeah i really like it well congratulations and enjoy it this is the number two team daniel guest maya and a cameron charging to the finish they will probably know now that their uh teammates have won the stage so it's been a very very good day for the willia pirelli camp and here they come daniel gasmere and the young cameron all from great britain from northern ireland in fact and they've taken third place so william ferrell top and the third place three minutes and 50 seconds back the clock is still ticking back to the canyon north wave pair just to william pirelli well they've had their best day by far they finished third on stage one but a stage win today let's go down to the finish in here from speed company racing [Music] so look ask your beautiful ride out there to to ride back onto the onto the podium onto second this is what you wanted to do today after yesterday yeah for sure it was uh redemption time uh after two days of bad luck a miss turn a lot of minutes lost there um i think for from me i'm in the virtual leader jersey and maybe i'm uh we're in the in the leaders jersey of the hearts here in south africa uh let's see how many minutes we actually got um but i'm super happy although today i just took it took a ticket on the high speed train of georg uh he was super strong and i was just following him and let's see how many minutes we get now and some beautiful trails out there and beautiful lines through the single track yeah super nice i mean this stage was the only stage we knew a bit because last week we had been here for a bit of training heat acclimatization the younger shake is so hot it's crazy today it was okay but last week yeah and i mean we tried so hard last days and we are i think we are the most active riders and everyone was watching us and today it was also super hard to get away because they didn't want to let us go so yeah super nice day and you talk about the heat you both have now not riding with gloves is that because it's too hot ah it's i think it's a personal preference thing uh they were struggling a lot today uh i sometimes i like it with the with the gloves sometimes without uh enjoy the afternoon well uh the characters and they know what they're doing out here they have gained a lot of uh support and a lot of fans that's for sure gail gaga and lucas baum the stunning stars from uh germany they've already done a fantastic job and i can tell you andrea sivolt and his partner martin storseka finished a tough day that just rolled into the finish line in fifth place five minutes and 32 behind robin steiner and avant aleman in about four minutes and 15 as matt pierce and chris blevins roll in in sixth place they have lost a bit of time in their battle with speed company racing and they haven't been able to make an impact on a canyon north wave six minutes and 13 seconds behind the race leaders and uh speed company racing are definitely going to be in second place at the end of today's proceedings and going into the grand finale tomorrow it's setting up that final stage a real dramatic dramatic one yeah we will see so much firework tomorrow we can see that today the speed company racing managed to pull out quite a lot of time on the leading duo and tomorrow is another day and if they can gain the same amount of time on the the leaders well they will be the leaders in the end well sievolt and stozek certainly saved the day they looked like they were really suffering in the very early part of the race we saw very bad signs from andrea sevolt just really off the pace but they've managed to limit the damage to around just over four minutes to the speed company racing team which gives them probably around about three minutes uh of an advantage going into the final stage and toyota 91 specialized well uh they will be in third place and chasing a second place finish tomorrow having finished in six minutes and 18 behind ravensteiner and aleman so that's the stage six results a superb classy win for the william pirelli team attacking feeling good on the first climb and relishing these trails around stellenbosch and taking the win in three hours 16 minutes over the 76 kilometers of trail laden go ride around stellenboschegger and baum a minute and 15 back the speed company racing pair and capping a really brilliant day for the william pirelli team the factory team cameron orr and danielle gersmeyer three minutes 50 back in third place becky and dear solid in fourth and then it's the yellow jerseys and toyota specialized beautiful stellenbosch on a glorious day here it really is a spectacular day for the riders to enjoy the very best trails that this beautiful part of the world has to offer and we've already seen the top six teams complete the 76 kilometers blindingly fast a really fast stage again so so fast it's been quite impressive to see a team like the speed company racing how how consistent they have been throughout the entire week and then the the of course the villa pirelli team today really coming into good form carrying so much speed and we can also see that because of all the trails and because of all the climbing today it all really is spread out quite quickly and the canyon northwave teams seem to they've held on to their lead if we look just do some basic calculations uh looking at those results now canyon north wave still will hold on to the lead it'll get it'll be a lot more slender going into the final stage and with speed company racing definitely on the upswing at uh we guess around about the two minutes uh two minutes 42 minutes 45 or so we still waiting for those official time checks and in the third spot not such a great day for toyota 91 specialized matthew beers and christopher levins we'll find out more about how they've been faring and what exactly why they were fading towards the end of the stage but they still have third spot uh pretty much secured but they've still got a lot of work to do and if they want to aim for that uh top spot in valdevie and just to confirm that uh after the 91 specializer bulls came in and willia 7c force 2 what a day william having today another team inside the top 10 in olihem and marco rebelgyati so it's all happening here at the absolute cape epic on this stage six we're expecting something really really exciting and we certainly had it today with the william pirelli team at taking the stage win the stanwash university uh playing fields kutzenberg it is and it's the race venue and village for stage six today a dramatic stage six 76 kilometers 2400 meters of climbing around the uh mountains and trails of stellenbosch and we've seen the leading races already crossed the finish line fabin ravenstein and vanta aleman the italian and belgian champions respectively of julia pirelli have taken the stage win today in the three hours and 16 minutes which has moved them up to sixth place overall but the general classification looks like this it sets up a dramatic final day of the grand finale andreas servalt and martin stasek the canon northway pair had a really tough day today they limited their losses to five and a half minutes edgar and baum since the opportunity and they threw everything in to try and claw as much time as back as they could they managed to vault from seven minutes of drift to just two minutes and 45 now in second place they go above beers and blevins in third place 7 40 now for the defending champion and his american partner becky and diaz fourth of the day and fourth overall rock solid by the buff mega mode team 20 minutes and 14 seconds down uber and schneller of bulls in fifth now ravenstein and aleman in sixth and oh and gesma completing an excellent day for william pirelli and a good week as well another team inside the top seven yeah we really had no idea that this will be the scenario today and you can rest assured that this piece uh the speed company racing they will start from the very first uh from the start gun tomorrow to fry try and find those two minutes 45 seconds because that's all they need to take the win the final win yeah wherever you are tomorrow uh make sure that you put aside the similar time tomorrow because it is going to be arguably one of the the most exciting dramatic grand finale days on record in the absolute bet because very much so the general classification is still in the melting pot as we're watching the ntt masters leaders and they don't come much more decorated than this pair karl platt and christoph sansa sars are on the front of that pair unfortunately just losing images of them climbing up towards the last single track descent in yonkers hook they're some way back of the the elite races now but they're still very competitive and that's the beauty of the absolute cape epic it offers opportunity for all age groups different age groups to bring their racing uh pedigree and their experience and get the red mist descending and uh release the uh the racing buttons and that's what they're doing they're really cool now this is the women's race with faces roller in the red apps african jersey leaders colors of canvas little and brisker strauss and with them the perennial race leaders they have been for since uh stage number two the specialized pair of uh hayley batten and sophia gomez villafan of 91 songo specialized and they've been together virtually since the off it's amazing to see how well match these two teams are we saw them yesterday battling it out all the way to the finish line it was super super super close and i have a feeling that we'll see the same scenario today of course specialized they feel a little bit more comfortable on the overall lead they have around 15 minutes so i don't think they'll be all too worried about losing the orange jerseys now what we're seeing today is more a race about the stage rain of today's stage what we can tell you is that you might be asking what's happened to bmc mtb racing pauline faran prevost and robin de cruz because you'd be expecting them to be winning the stage because that's what they seem to have been doing this week every alternate stage but they're having a better day than they did yesterday they're in third place today uh they're seven minutes and 14 seconds down when we last we checked at 54.5 kilometers private client holdings 9 24 down in fourth place at this stage and they will be eyeing out a place in fourth place they're fifth on gc they'll be eyeing out fourth place uh and uh ariane luty and amy wakefield who are having a really really torrid day today just hanging in and trying to get to the finish as a true champion ariane luty just holding on we heard her speaking yesterday saying that yes she's not 100 by any stretch of the imagination but had taken medical advice and been advised that she would not do any permanent or serious damage if she was to continue but perhaps just to ride it a little bit easier it seems like they have completely swapped mindsets on their ambitions in this race so going from you know really targeting this race i know that aryan and amy they really target this race like full time they they want to to take the win and now they have to deal with some unforeseen issues and they're still here and i'm pretty sure that the mindset now is to get through and if they manage to recover well from this race actually it can be a really good platform for the rest of the season so i think i feel like they have swapped this perspective on this race yeah so i mean it might look all dramatic from a distance but uh they are very comfortable with the way they're going about this let's get we have to change our ambitions completely change their focus get through the race and use it as a good base and just focus on on getting to the finish line at valdevin and you see a lot of writers get it right and when i say get it right i mean get the recovery after the race right because if you do that actually and if you're a cross-country rider who mainly focuses on world cup racing which is a completely different type of rising riding from what we see here if you get the recovery right after this race actually this can be a platform that can see you right so strong in the the stronger in the shorter races too the trails of the youngest took in all their glory today it really is a special day to be on the mountain bike here in the young circle weather is great and it's looking in pristine condition these riders getting the best of them today that's for sure they've been lots of work's been done on all the trails in the this part of the world the trail building teams have been quite outstanding that is uh the ntt masters leaders sarsa and his partner carl platt what a what a delight to have this pair riding together they seem to have had a lot of fun out on the trails that's how you get through just down the top of the quarry trail the right ahead just giving a little bit of space and when you have a man like that on your wheel the size you've got to give them some space well great spirit shown on the trail not uh not um just letting the the faster riders through and we wait for the women the women category it's uh riders we're looking at right now and uh in resplendent in their orange jerseys 91 songo specialized and the front we see hayley baden she's leading the way down the trails and clearly enjoying a day of these great single track sections that we've seen on the on the screens all morning and uh sofia via now just uh following suit with the south africans in hot pursuit for sure the the knight wants a sango specialized team here will try to do everything they can to shake off a faceless ruler before the finish line because if you can go into the final few case and not having a your competitors breathing down your neck it's always a much nicer feeling so right now they are using the terrain to their adventures to try and see can we open up a gap right here well they're coming down the quarry trail now the last of the descents of the uh the uh side the fire hut as it's known it starts as a big quarry at the top of the rear the top of it but it's known as fire and look at this is just beautiful to watch isn't it hayley batten is so at home on these trails she's so at home on these trails i know that sophia and haley they were here last week as well they had the opportunity to go and scout a few of a few of the trails that were that are in the race and um for sure it's a massive advantage to to have that knowledge that being said right now they're racing against a local team who rides these trails all the time so it helps to have a little bit of insight on on the trails it makes a difference well lady baton is a cross-country racer of the highest order second at all stratton third of november last year so she's very very at home on these sort of trails and we'll be looking forward no doubt to the world cup season in brazil not sure if she she must be going there or not yeah actually i checked with some of the teams just last night and one of the conversations i had in particular was with both haley batten and chris blevins because originally they were not planning on going to brazil for the first world cup which is in only two weeks because it takes a lot of recovery after this race and added to that also the travel it's not an easy trouble but actually they are going and i've been chatting to them a lot about the getting the recovery right because oh yes i've done it myself once raising the quebec and then having a world cup just two weeks after so this is the podium the men's play-doh willie parity factory against mine or and uh speed company racing girl gaga and lucas baum enjoying the limelight once again on the second step of the podium they are of course stage winners they won stage three earlier this week and they are right in the frame coming down to the business end of the pretty pretty absolutely first stage win this year for william pirelli's fabian ravenstein on the left there the italian champion and his belgian uh champion in the marathon about dalaman and uh the william pirelli team enjoying a fantastic day in stellenbosch today three teams in the top ten and a two in the top three and for ravenstein a second stage win at the world's most competitive mountain bike stage race and well off that paytm at that podium as canyon northwave who are the overall general classification winners and uh not having a great day out we we saw the earlier we saw the uh ailing it was um andreas sevolt was uh was the rider that was struggling out of those two and uh all be um interesting to see how tomorrow goes but the day definitely belonged to the italian and the belgian as they celebrated going across the line clearly really enjoying their new bikes they've got new bikes this year and uh it's a same outfit new sponsors and uh clearly a great deal and of course back to the the overall general classification podium and this is after all but one stage after stage six the canyon north wave team still find themselves in the lead it is a slender lead back to speed company racing there is a two minute and 45 second gap and toyota 91 specialized in third spot at seven minutes 14. tomorrow will be an absolute hum dinger up they step to take the acknowledgement of another solid stage not their best but uh they really really kept it together today and uh martin score second andrea servolt at 5 32 on the day but they are still in the yellow jerseys canyon northway and they are the team who still hold all the aces as ah this pair and they look as though they may well have got away just leaving jungkook now sofia villa fan and haley batman have used that descent to open up a gap on faces roller yeah we saw just before that a tiny little gap was opening up on the trails in this team's favor and now that they're down on the flat more fast rolling part of the course it looks like they go into time trial course time file mode just doing everything they can to kind of extend the lead so this is a brilliant writing from this team who also will know that at the very end of this stage this little kicker climb will await them they were quite successful yesterday that's exactly where they made the winning move but today if they could go there on their own that would be quite a nice scenario this is a little section on the entrance or just the exit of uh jungle so called the dentist it's got two lines you come in down the bottom and you come out on this section nice and fast engaging um not completely pristine and tidied up it's got its areas that might trip you up if you're not aware but these are the best riders in the world who cope with that very very well indeed so they are heading towards the finish it's just 11 seconds between the leaders 91 soccer specialized and faces roller as they left uh yoga but on this particular part of the course you can see those little trees a narrow trail and vision can be quite difficult it's hard to see the team in front of you and for faces roller having this team ahead of them not within visual contact uh is more tricky if they are capable to see them it makes it easier to keep the pace up absolutely there is a carrot and an incentive but yeah this one is in and out of the trees he's so popular as it's a beautiful little trail to end your ride if you've been in yoga it's uh becomes a little unrideable in the winter with the rain and the river down the bottom it bursts its banks sometimes and it becomes very slushy and muddy but none of that now it's dry and pretty hard packed hayley batten and sofia gomez very fun you were talking about their preparations ahead of the world cup and and uh you were guiding him and giving a little advice about how to prepare off this and the recovery what what would that be well it is actually a matter of really trusting your gut feeling a lot constantly feeling how your body is doing and then sticking to that i remember in 2014 i did the quebec and only two weeks later was woke up in peter marysburg and and i stayed in south africa and i remember after cape epic you know because she goes through such a massive effort i was feeling really really bad i was so tired i was not feeling good at all and i remember just one week after finishing the cape epic there was a local um xc race actually here on criptenborg and i did that race and i feel i felt horrible you know but the best thing i can say it felt like you know getting a problem slap in the face but that kind of turned things in my body a little bit from going into this deep uh recovery mode that i found myself in my body started to realize ooh okay now i need to get going ever so slowly again but it's all about staying calm believing that you you must stick to your recovery rest as much as you can and then only applying a few very hard very intense efforts and then you can find yourself flying on race day well there's an xc race here a week's time on that glitzenberg world cup course for this pair if they were they're around but at the moment they're just focusing on getting to the finish here they've opened up a little gap on faces roller looking very very impressive again for another stage win indeed they are they seem like they are the most stable race a stable team in the women's category every single day they've just been going strong they didn't have any massive hiccups or issues they were stable all the way through and that's why we see them now in the yellow in the orange jersey and actually having a comfortable lead of around 15 minutes on on gz to the cha to the team behind them now chasing them down yeah heli batten using that little single track descent off yongsuk the quarry track fire hut as it's known and just opening up that gap with her supreme descending skills and uh sofia villafan sofia gomez villafan is she went to the olympics last year she's she was a performer there she's the argentine national cross-country champion so she's a serious uh racer but uh i think there's any doubt that haley batten's the the superior single track and technical writer here but villa gomez villafair has really shown incredible focus and determination to to stay with her and to follow the lines and to do the work when when required yeah we really see how this team has just gone grown together to become a tight unit throughout the this week and every single day just riding better and better together they for every stage they complete they gain a lot of knowledge on each other's strengths and weaknesses and what worked with the teamwork what didn't work and how their competitors are riding so now they have a lot of knowledge there the base of the knowledge of this team is is quite big at the moment and that's why we see them riding so brilliantly together very cohesive indeed as they swing through the kirikou section here on the uh left bank of the easter river which leaves yonkers down to stellenbosch and very shortly they'll get to just before they come out of this kitty croc section and onto the road they'll turn left uh through glenn connor and head up onto that tough yonkers drift trail the first time this has been used in a race and uh their first little kicker up there will be uh a little uh surprised because no one has ridden this uh trail before by those men's teams have gone through eight of us here so it's not something that any rider would have been able to prepare for and come and pre-ride if you like it's just uh coming up now uh on the left-hand side that and the government is very familiar they'll take it in this right they are in race winning mode right now oh and left here and away they go they are truly flying yet again today and they will also have the inside they will have every single night in within the team they'll do briefings on what to expect the following day so they will know to to watch out and be careful on this last little climb and descend that's not where you want to lose the stage wind because it is quite rocky and if you put your tires wrong yeah it can be disaster charging along on the flat road at the moment on the farm trails and then it'll be a left-hander and head up onto that steep climb the finish is close by in the cm.com women's race haley baton as they turn left they're just looking back at sophia gomez villafan as much to say how you feeling but also just just you go ahead i'll keep pace with you as they go at this steep and loose climb yeah you can see that haley is probably the stronger of these two women and she's taking that responsibility to her and really in nursing or making sure i don't think severely needs a lot of nursing but just every now and then making sure that if there is a climb and haley is feeling better she lets sofia to the front sofia is very strong but if haley puts it too much into the red yeah that can be the recovery for tomorrow can be difficult so it's all about pacing and here you can see they are doing it just perfectly yeah and that the way they're riding will give you a perspective on how tough this climb is as they make their way up but this from the helicopter shot you don't get the idea of just how steep this time is and look down and that will be just giving them an idea as to where this pair are the chasing pair uh candace lil and mariska strauss are on the low slopes of that climb now well it's the game coming down to the last little kickers as we saw yesterday coming into stellenbosch the race took a couple of turns one of them was as they started the single track climb up in when the puzzle for the line ahead of the single track took place and that was won by uh the 91 songwriter specialized team and eventually they won the stage on the final kicker as well we're a few kilometers from the finish of the stage stage six of the absolute cape epic 76 kilometers in all on this ride and the women's race is reaching a climax now with the race leaders 91 songo specialized probably around 15 to 20 seconds ahead of this pair of candlestill and mr strauss who are in fact not that far behind uh well maybe it is as they ride away we'll see where the trail goes up here but uh they're on the final bit of single track it is a tough climb up and then they're on to a contour trail at the top of this but they've got about what do you reckon 20 seconds 15 20 seconds something like that but most importantly what we see here is the visual contact between the two teams it makes all the difference both for faces roller here chasing down if you can see your competitors it's just that much easier to continue to apply pressure and also if the specialized team becomes a little bit more tricky you need to keep your nerves cool even though you can it feels like it that they're right there with them but you need to believe in the in the fact that you are the stronger team and just stick to your own rhythm instead of looking too much back we saw these two teams together on the descent they spent most of the stage together and having left the others behind and having spent the day together they uh we really expected to see another carbon copy of the of the dramatic finale we saw yesterday with the attack just happening in the last couple of kilometers but clearly haley batten and uh sofia villafana are very keen to get moving earlier and not leave it to chance not leave it to the final selection and uh it's really all about racing is when you find an opportunity to to really where your rivals are showing a little bit of weakness that's the time to attack and now that they're about to to reach the final tricky descent of today the question is how much are this team here in the 91 zangara specialist willing to to risk because we know it is a tricky descent so many rocks and it's easy to to get a flat tire so it'll be interesting to see the the race going down this this final descent here well it's as i've said earlier the first time this trail has been used it is spectacular wonderful wonderful addition to the trial network in stellenbosch and uh the ryan is certainly enjoying it carl platt and christoph souza the ntt masters are racing there just behind them is alone leopard and that is thiago ferreira the former world marathon champion who lost his partner yesterday uh but uh platt and they say he's not allowed to engage in any of the racing he'll just be following these two legends uh as they make their way towards what seemingly is another stage when and securing their hold on that ntt masters jersey well tiago prayer will be used to riding with karl platt and the 2016 uh thiago ferreira was dicing with carl pledge really shoulder to shoulder karl platt's final victory it's one of those last of um of five victories at the race and thiago herrera and his greek partner perkiss elias definitely doing uh really they were battling each other all the way through to argo ferreira in fact winning a stage that yeah different circumstances at the absolute epic um slightly more relaxed uh atmosphere for uh christoph sauser and uh and karl platt and of course in the lonely in the lone leopard josie thiago for having lost his partner just uh enjoying the trails of today i think is the order of the day yeah and if you want to uh have this opportunity to come and enjoy these trails and give yourself uh a week of unprecedented mountain bike stage racing then why not consider uh entering for the three after cape epic entries disappear in a flash so they open on monday uh just a day after the race ends here so for the 2023 for a whole year to prepare get your mind and body and your hearts in order to prepare because mark my words the commitment to prepare for an event like this is fairly broad it's an all-encompassing one when you want to decide to ride a race like this oh yeah indeed it is just when i came here a little over a week ago um i met a guy at the airport who was actually he's with us here in this race and he was so excited because he said you know what i've been training for this for three years so because of covert and everything he had to move his entry to to this year and he has just been comparing so intensely and now he is finally here and he just couldn't wait to to get going so lovely to hear those stories yes well let's hope he is still going and making his way towards the finish i mean that is the nature of uh this race it is one of the uh toughest around and uh yep it it can play the full with your best plans and all your preparation can be ruined by yeah a mechanical whatever it might be but if you can get to this stage of the race and enjoy these trails and enjoy the sensation of sensing that the finish is closing on then it certainly is worthwhile right up high above for the uh yester river here on the yorkist rift trail this is hayley batten following the will of her partner sophia gomez vera fan the argentine champion and they are riding like champions once again on this spectacular trail really is beautifully carved out of the mountain side here the bench cut single track i know that it took a lot of hard work and uh clearance in order to be able to uh build this trail by conrad stahls you can see how the fire devastated the one side of the mountain there a year ago and it stopped just short here on this side but the trail survived and here we have a really good visuals of the actual gap and it also means that the faces role that they are capable of seeing their competitors just up the road and the question is how hard will they push on this part of the course to try and catch up we saw yesterday when it came down to the final little kicker just before the finish line actually it was a specialized team who had the upper hand so we'll see how this unfolds are we coming back to that and will it all come together and we'll let fight the weirdest thing because it's that final little uh 100 meter 150 meter kicker that could decide uh the stage here they've still got some work to do though uh candice little and mariska strauss in order to close that gap they'll be trying no question about that 23 seconds there's the the gap as they snake along this rolling single track very soon they'll get a chance to enjoy the rewards of their effort and that's what it's all about at the absolute cape especially a day like today with the single track it's about effort and then the reward afterwards and in today's loop course there is plenty of reward with some magnificent single track we've seen on camera and of course the riders will come back with smiles on their faces and maybe it it's they'll be they'll certainly be tired but uh they'll be rewarded with some of the finest trails in in the world you could say faces rollers still have a lot to work for we counted the gap around about 15 20 seconds or so and still uh i still have a big gap to make up and will they take big risks on the descent to catch up or will they just consolidate and keep their their second place and be happy with it and uh not trying to of course with risk comes an infinite possibility of uh infinite time loss where there is just uh really if you shred a tire at this point or a breaker derailer or something like that it can really be disastrous so it's all about uh whether or not the riders will risk everything on this on this uh last ascent just before they reach kristen kutzenberg definitely and looking a little bit in on the women's field in general we saw the private client holdings team carrying so much momentum here towards the the latter half of the race of the week and right now they're lying in fourth place but we saw them taking several podium spots just the recent days and remember that these women uh marie robbie and haley preen they have to they have to manage all the training in between being a full a full-time worker student and i think that's you know they come to this race and now they have the exact same amount of um time for recovery in in the afternoon that maybe they normally wouldn't have and that's why i think now here towards the end of the race we see them getting closer and closer to the front well yeah maria and actually were the big merchant bank and uh haley work studying towards an engineering degree but also committed athletes and getting the training in between work and studying so fantastic credit to them and they have ridden themselves in all likelihood today i would think they may well move up a position into a fourth place meanwhile sweeping down the last bit of the descent out of the yonkers drift trails the race leaders on the stage and in the general classification heading towards kutzenberg's finish line hayley batten and sophia gomez villafan of 91 songo specialized beautiful riding by this pair totally committed and riding in sync all the way through the week we've seen mishaps throughout the week and uh with that it's not mishaps have influenced the uh the overall outcome of the race but of course these two really showing that they're worthy of those leaders jerseys and uh be interesting to see how stefan views things uh he's out on the e-bike following the riders stefan can you hear us yes i can hear you so tell us a little bit about uh how the racing has been going so far at the moment i just can tell you it's such a pleasure to ride behind those two in the in the it's unbelievable how how cool they ride down the trail like as a really i as a unit taking the same lines really composed everything under control what's the trail surface like there stefan it's a classic western cape hard pack with slippery stones on top so you have to be very careful with every with every time you touch the front brake there's a possibility that your front wheel will slide but they're managing so good and stefan can you tell us a little about what's uh happening behind with the faces royalty i was i was checking behind a little bit i think they're still on the same gap like 25 to 30 seconds probably difficult to to come back to the front since we're now yeah almost back to the flatter section and then the last little kicker as you've been discussing but i think there shouldn't be any problem for those two thanks to uh stefan some out there riding behind this the race leading team 91 songo specialized they'll head out of the trail at yonge's drift on the vineyard road hook a lift and literally uh no more than a couple of hundred meters they'll be uh on their way home is so candace lill leads mariska strauss on the descent for faces roller yeah about 20 seconds or so is the gap to the leading team here and it looks like for faces roller it's going to be another second place finish as sophia gomez villafan and hayley batten storm towards a third stage win now really tucking down on the handlebar just going into as much aerodynamic position as possible and time trying the way to the finish line here we're back with the bmc mtb racing not having the best day-to-day today it seems like it's once again robbing the horde who says drawing just a little bit to follow the pace of her partner pauline ferran perot who has yeah really surprised this week i mean she's riding so strong she was very open about that yes she's here to race but she's also here to kind of use it as a part of her preparation for the season and she's just embraced the challenge even though she also had a good taste of what this race is all about when i think it was on stage one feels like long long ago already where she really had to suffer and and they lost a lot of time on on the overall pc but she came back from that very strong and now she's clearly the stronger in this pairing they won three stages as well and perhaps putting the the groundwork down for future assaults on the uh absolute cape epic in in years to come as she is obviously committed to a big campaign on the cross country and that she's such a versatile rider for the cyclo cross road titles marathon titles cross-country times all the like better she'll be back i'm sure we're on the back wheel of hayley batten and sofia gomez villafan you can see how steep this little kicker is uh it's a it's a piece of road that runners riders and walkers and dogs know very well in stellenbosch and it never feels this tough but then again you don't get to it when you've written 75 kilometers at express pace like these two but look at the effort being put in by sofia gomez villafan and haley batner over the top the last hill is done and the finish is just ahead for this pair impressive riding they really are riding it like a unit a rock-solid unit like we've been discussing and touching on many many times um remember this is their first stage together so they had to learn as they go and they have have a very steep learning curve it's it's impressive to see i wonder what these two are thinking about back to yesterday when they were within the touching distance of uh the orange jerseys and the elastic snapped on that little section now and uh they now cannot see them although they're just over the hill uh sophia gomez villafan and hayley batten down onto the flats now past the indoor cricket school and then they'll be onto the fields another exemplary performance by 91 songo specialized from a few days out we realized it was going to take an enormous uh effort by faces roller and perhaps something underwater happened to this team if they were to lose the hold of the jerseys and they haven't let that happen once or we've seen in the race that anything can happen and it's a direct contrast to the race leaders in the men's category the women's category they're very much in command of themselves and in command of the entire race they've distanced their rivals already even before that final major climb and they're just keeping the momentum going but in the men's category we saw aggressive ultimate martin stozek hailing throughout the stage and losing time for the first time we've really seen them having a having a weekday but it all belongs to the 91 song specialized team yet another stage when they've pulled it out of the bag and it's uh they did made the move a little bit earlier this time uh on faceless road they were riding together most of the stage and uh yeah villafain is uh getting to lead the lead haley batten through to the stadium and uh another celebration for these two absolutely sophia gomez villafone and uh hayley batten put together a superb ride they're one stage one there is second third and fourth places and then one stage five but they turn the final corner on stage six they look behind the glass he faces a long way back first pumps all around a victory again for 91 songo specialized hayley batten and sophia gomez vilefan the orange jerseys are the queens once again on stage six of the absent cape epic and the faces roller in the african jerseys on the field now not far behind them another brave ride by mariska strauss and candiceville runners-up yesterday do have a course stage win to their credit stage three but uh second place yesterday second place today again for strauss and lil and consolidated their position in second place on the general classification as well well written by strass on the left candle on the right you know now they're starting to have they've done many stages together so they are they're tight unit yeah and it's it's good to see how they really have a yeah i could go here this race and they i'm sure you know one day they can i have a feeling they could go for the overall win in this race yeah i think they've just got us to to to try and ensure that specialized decide that uh maybe they're not going to come to the wrestler because the specialized team have been so dominant over the last few years in the women's race uh six and looking like seven races let's go down to the finish here at stellenbosch and hear from the race winners hey hayley sofia another perfectly executed game plan out there oh yeah that was crazy as a battle of the trails out there i think because there was so much single track that was i think one of the hardest stages we've ever done actually this week because uh it was just like go go go all every climb and it was such a good battle with uh the other team today was yeah it was pretty pretty dang hard so could you tell candace and mariska know these trails super well i mean they know everything we've ever ridden this whole week and we actually were based here in stellenbosch the week leading up so we rode that whole trail system at the very end and it felt so freaking good to like finally know a trail that we're riding and you could tell that once we know a trail we could create separation and yeah once we hit that last flow trail it was game on you gotta go go go and uh yeah that last climb was awful uh that was really hard but i have a champ of a teammate that kept me motivated and uh yeah crossed the finish line first and another five thousand ran to the song of foundation congratulations another perfect job thank you so much yeah and thanks for everybody cheering that was awesome that was amazing and once again huge thanks to the specialized crew for all their work this week uh we're super excited to be on the step of the po on the top step of the podium for you guys yeah thanks guys well uh she lives in the united states in utah does uh uh sophia gomez vino fan but the argentine champion and the haley baton from the united stand they are the race leaders and really a credit to their countries and to their team as well there's afsa oliver munich and nick lamini the road racing star nick lamini a number of grand tours to his name he's finished last year with the quebecer team and he's now writing his first absolute cape epic and well he's written more kilometers on a mountain bike in the last uh six days than ever in his life and he's had a pretty decent mentor in oliver munich i think he's writing his 12th episode epic so uh they've been having a great time of it on the road i think nick has been punishing oliver mercilessly and then oliver's allowed nick to just set the pace sometimes on the trails although i'd fancy that on some of the more technical trails oliver would have just said listen i've got to have a bit of fun up front here good to see they are close to home as well and they've been riding in around the top 30 which is a pretty impressive performance by this pair that's for sure there's no doubting the engine of a rider that's done several grand tours and uh it's just something that happens to the body when you do those kind of efforts and uh riding on the road at the very highest level nicola mini certainly got the engine to carry this team far into the race and uh let's hope we'll see a little bit more of him throughout the years to come he's still with the continental team uh the africa's team so uh he'll be doing plenty more work on the road but this is a a really good option for him an opportunity for him to uh get his uh teeth into some mountain biking why not start with the absolute epic it's great to see the skills transferring and also just the the riders having a little bit more freedom nowadays and the road teams are a bit more encouraging than previous years it's known as a perhaps a very traditional mindset when it comes to teams and pro teams especially and uh many of the progressive pro teams uh encouraging the riders to try different disciplines like gravel racing and of course mountain biking i saw it last year with uh with borah hansgroh sending a team and it's great to see some of the roadies uh flying their trade and putting down some power on the trails of the western cape all right let's go to the finish and hear from the second place team in the cm.com women's category today candace and mariska super hot battle out there again today yes absolutely i've been you know it's been such a cool battle yesterday and today um and really good for women's racing to show the action to make it exciting and hopefully we've done that and yeah we just came off second best today at the end and obviously you know these trails super well and was it good fun out there at the same time did you take some time to actually enjoy the riding definitely enjoyed it didn't really see anything except the wheel in front of you um no it's stunning trails and yeah really fun battle out there today and what's the plan for the grand finale tomorrow almost at home attack i mean we literally have nothing to lose so we'll maybe try we'll definitely try for a win tomorrow again yeah put it all out there we look forward to seeing how it all unfolds thanks so much take you out there candace little mariska strauss putting their cards on the table for the grand finale it is really is the stage everyone wants to win if you're not going to win the overall uh then have a have a go and even if you are going to win the overall you want to have a go at winning the winning grand finale as well it's a special it's a very special stage to win because it is unlike any other finish in this race just the amount of spectators the whole run into valdivi and it is it's it's quite unique and um yeah it's something you want you want to have on your uh yeah palmares and the emotion flowing around the about the lifestyle estate tomorrow is just incredible because finishing this journey uh yeah it's something that only those who have done it will be able to identify with that's for sure yeah i i believe that every single time i went down that finishing straight um i just had goosebumps all over and that's when it really starts sinking in sinking in like what you just conquered and it's not a walking in the park park this race it is brutally hard and when you get to the the final finish line it is quite unique yeah i mean that's that's an interesting point because we're watching one of the finest uh women cyclists of all time paulie and pharaoh praveen here robin de cruelt riding with her and uh you know we as as a layman and as observant as fans and spectators he's like oh well yeah it's what they do is they ride mountain bike races or they ride races and it's you know you move on to the next one but but this is particularly hard and particularly challenging and and and therefore uh rewarding when you finish it um it is so intense so when you start the race you kind of enter into a little bubble with your whole setup team with your race partner and you can't really compare that to anything you find anywhere else in in your working life or sporting career so it is super super unique because um sharing something so intense with someone creates a a type of font that you can it's hard to describe you don't need to come here and experience yourself there we go when we see that uh for pauline fran provo riding with robin de crute and robin de curt has said that this in fact she said that before the race started this will be her last absolute epic and orleans first so great to look forward to seeing pauline for rampava at the race again and we did see the experience campaigner decreed saying that uh on stage one after stage one that uh faram provo got a taste of the epic and highly definitely an understatement because ram provo absolutely the lights went out on one of the climbs and she had to pause and regroup and of course they lost several minutes that day putting their hopes on overall general classification pretty much on the back on the back burner and it didn't stop them winning three stages throughout the week they won the prologue the following day they had a very bad day and the following day they had a great day so clearly showing that uh they have the firepower that uh pauline foreign will come back and no doubt focus on consistency because consistency is the key to winning this race it's all about having uh just try to measure your efforts all the way through pace yourself and of course if there is a bad day if something bad does happen it's all about how you manage that uh that disaster and finding a partner that matches your uh ambition your capabilities your your skills so that's all part of the package when it comes to putting a team race winning team together and they have proved to be a a good match here i think on a personal level they they share a lot and it's almost more important that you that that you click on a personal level than a purely writing level and it seems like these two they are having the time of their life here actually well bringing it home with uh profi and mark in chop brilliant image of the right is a dramatic image isn't it as they finish stage six of the absolute cape epic uh pauline ferran prevost and robin the crew of team bmc mtb three stage wins to their name they had a tough day he finished third today down the finish line on the lovely lush fields off klitzenberg it should be bmc but well it's beautiful she will be enjoying every moment of this a little fist pump with pauline current revolt as robin deferred completes another stage on the absolute they think she's got one more to go and if she says true to a word which you know she will just never be her the third place today for team bmc mtbs pauline ferran provo and robin de quit four hours 12 minutes and 16 and they finished today behind the stage winners which of course were 91 tango specialized and the face is rolling second 11 minutes and 11 seconds behind yeah a solid performance we know that robin has been struggling a little bit with the gastrointestinal issues the last couple of days and being having to recover from something like that while you're pushing your body to the absolute absolute limit it's not easy but it seems like she's kind of find a fountain rhythm again which is which is good to see and just to yeah just confirm the results of the today's stage we have of course from 91 sun go specialized in first position followed by lil and strauss from faces roller only 39 seconds behind and a little bit further back we have varan perot and de hort from a bmc racing team in 11 minutes 11 seconds after the leaders of today so that is the way the general classification looks as well songo specialized faces role and vmc in the top three there might well be a change behind them semtex that a in fourth and a private client holdings in fifth there was 12 minutes between those two teams at the start of the day and there's a lot more than that now as private client holdings are in fact entering the finnish area right now they're on to the playing field so haley preen and marie robbie are private client holdings uh putting together another fantastic day today they'll finish fourth today on stage six of the absolute cape epic and not only will they finish fourth today but in all likelihood they will move up from fifth to fourth on general classification as well private client holdings and just reward two for what has been a really fantastic second half of the week for this pair they did lose 17 minutes on stage one they may reflect that and stage two's 22 minute loss as they two big costly areas but then it's half an hour already there but they've come storming back here haley preen and marie robbie oh private client holdings 13 minutes and 56 seconds down and once again we have to i have to really express my admiration of these two women because being at race like this takes a lot of preparation and they have to do all that preparation next to studies and work and that's impressive now i find myself kind of on the other side of pro racing and i must say you know after a long day at the dental clinic going out on a bike and and doing the training is not always easy you just don't have the same amount of energy and also you don't have the same amount of time for recovery and it's those things that makes it a big difference absolutely preen and robbie finishing fourth today and uh their day is done now we are back at the uh yonko hook trails and uh well it's one of the problems of uh mountain biking yes you will have uh i'll try to get a full file of these trails and uh it creates a bit of a backlog behind him i just want to get past and continue riding on you're on the armageddon trail here in yonkers hook you might want to move off the trail ryder coming behind you sir here we go beautiful conditions to ride the trails in today in yongsak stage six of the absolute cape epic is underway still a long way to go for the majority of the field but the leading men and women's teams are in top four in the women's teams 91 songo specialized the race leaders faces roller the african jersey holders bmc mtb racing and private client holdings all have completed their journey around the 76 kilometer course just over four hours in one minute for the race winners in the women's race today on what has been a trail laden day so many trails for these riders and if you don't uh enjoy today as a mountain biker well then you might have to look for an alternate because it really is a fantastic day to explore the trails and express yourselves and if you are unfamiliar with trails that that perhaps a little bit difficult for you well this is one of the ways to learn and to uh to get experience in riding these trails this is the armageddon trail in yoga that big rock is one of the great features of this uh trail ride up onto the rock and then rock it down into the trail once again so you see quite a few tire tracks on that rock using it as a bit of a wall ride kb ryder is really enjoying themselves on the uh on the yonko hook trails and uh exciting for uh for us and sitting in the studio to watch it but certainly getting a bit of fomo wishing that we were out there on the trails and the mountain viking fans watching on tv will probably feel the same at absolute epic 2023 just to let you all know that entries open tomorrow at three o'clock central african time and of course century entries sell out in seconds so it's have your fingers ready on that mouse on monday on monday so you can start trying to end it tomorrow and maybe get your fingers warmed up because it is like that i can tell you it is like that uh there's plenty of uh it's almost like trying to try to win the race or avoid a time limit if you if you uh are trying to enter the race because there's such demand on on riding this race and why not it is truly spectacular and it is a major achievement to complete the journey of the absolute cape epic over the eight days it is uh uncompromising in its belief it is one of the toughest challenges on a mountain bike or anywhere in the world i will have to agree with that it is simply because of the distance and the terrain and everything the heat and this race throws a lot of challenges at you but i can tell you that when you overcome all these challenges which is possible it is the best feeling ever so i can highly recommend giving it a go sense of achievement and satisfaction at uh and crossing the line here and receiving that prized medal is really really fantastic and of course the memories of riding trails like this and getting down to the bottom of these trails very very special very different type of conditions trails to those who would ride in europe or perhaps elsewhere in the world i know in more mediterranean climates maps the trails are similar but uh you know this is a unique experience riding uh in the western cape days one and two intense heat we had and then we went out to greyton it was the incredibly tough wind that riders had to deal with those are the conditions and the uh the weather issues that one has to uh deal with out on the trails but today in near perfect conditions couldn't ask for better couldn't be a better day to ride a mountain bike for sure and uh hopefully even if you're riding at the very front i've enjoyed today's stage and uh so we saw 91 songs specialized really take it to the others and take it to the faces roller team but just looking back at the entity masters category we've seen karl platt and christoph salzer an unusual pairing because we've seen them as rivals and now together great story for the race and putting eight minutes 52 seconds into the all south african team uriah and duvenard and the spaniards the fit to bike natural berry team 15 minutes back i can tell you that these south africans are sonic are now in second overall they they lost huge time midweek and they're only 35 seconds behind fit to bike national berry at the start of today's stage so they've vaulted into second overall as well in the entity masters they are the defending champions the task of winning the title again this year was made a little bit uh difficult to win the carl platt and christoph saza had a cup of coffee and decided they should ride this one together let's go down to the finish and hear from team absolutely smiles today there weren't so many smiles yesterday at the end of yesterday's stage no surrender to absolute epic so i've had two tough days nick's got me through and now this today was uh superb nick is a mountain biker through and through took him uh six days he's in tell us a bit about those trails we were rallying down there i was i was um but yeah i feel yeah if i if i look at the difference between the prologue and now the massive difference i wasn't really confident coming uh this side of the world to stalin bosch i was here before the epic just to come see what the trails were like and with the with the dust and the loose sand um yeah that was very terrifying but you know when you when you're in the game you've got your car and you can't um you can't hold back so i was flowing nicely much faster than i was but yeah there's still quite a lot of room for improvement and you guys are competitive i mean you were looking at the gc yesterday straight after your stage and you were like checking the times the racing spirits just never dies right yeah you always want to limit the damage but i think today is going to be flipping amazing so pumped and on stage one we had a great day and we're on our own the whole time today we were on the stage on our own basically 85 90 of the way to superb i send nick up the hill he carves it down i catch him then we clap the uphill he goes off and then catch him again it's a great strategy and um maybe the maybe we need two weeks of racing so that type of strategy on today's profile worked kind of perfect because there's so much climbing these short steep climbs yeah i mean they work perfect they work perfectly like all you said we just basically used the strategy we used on the prologue where i go up the road and go at my own speed on the single tracks and then he catches up and by the time he catches up i'm almost out of the single tracks and then we just keep it going that way we uh we limit all the losses we'll go and recover and enjoy tomorrow thanks jace thank you thanks guys holly munich and uh nick lamini team absolutely and the leaders in exara jersey are home as well [Music] jersey which is what their goal is and some wonderful prizes for them as well scholarships children's school scholarships from grade 1 to grade 12 is the one of the prizes and if that if you don't have school going children you can opt to take a a tertiary education scholarship through studio which is really fantastic those offers they also get to go to the baka academy in belgium to hone on their cycling skills so the xaro caddy academy breeding and bringing riders through and we saw we've seen a couple of riders who've won that category before it's only under 26 is the the age limit for the xaro category once you reach the age of 26 you come and ride the uh open categories and lo yonder tomorrow and lorenzo roof won that category before are racing very nicely indeed inside the top 35 teams in the overall today let's go back down to the finish and hear from all those uh star finishers fair dream imperial cannondale racing you guys had a storming day today today it was easy and fast because my partner was too strong today we managed to finish today and tell me these are your home trails you really enjoyed it out there today yeah it was liquor so we stayed in yonkers and yeah we managed to relax from the start and my partner yeah he is the first guy on the single track and now we watch liquor he was racing together yeah and how good does it feel to finish with so much crowd support here in your hometown you always like my mother and my kids and my girlfriend was standing there and i was so sorry but it's nice yeah it's nice to have support here on your backyard and what do you guys expect from tomorrow's racing i think tomorrow expect to finish in india because it's the last day enjoy it we look forward to seeing you out there thank you very much well that is uh the wonderful pairing of lorenzo leroux and lyanna torvangunia from stellenbosch lorenzo does live here on the right next to the gate at yonge silk and and in fact he's a beneficiary from kiro schools of a prize winning the uh wines to wales event a couple of years ago in the xaro category one of the prizes was a scholarship from grade to one to grade 12 for children his partner donated his prize to him so he could send both his children to the kiro school so that is true uh real value those prizes for these riders heading to the podiums for our women's top three today there they go second place faces a roller stage stage winners 91 song specialized and bmc another solid day for pauline ferrano prevost and robin the cruit of bmc mtb racing 40 seconds behind the screen already they'll walk away from this event with a great deal of satisfaction at those efforts for sure one stage win and a number of second places but second on gc faces roller [Applause] strong finish by the pair who managed to actually make the decision of today's stage i think maybe five to ten days before the finish time so not a tight finish print but a strong strong finish by this team so they have won three stages as well a really really good performance by haley batten and the sophia gomez virfan they're certainly not in the shade any longer they are right up front in the glaring light as the race leaders in the juvita orange leaders jerseys and we'll see them in those very very shortly that's what it means it really is a sense of great satisfaction achievement in crossing the line first particularly here in stellenbosch somehow there is a magic about mountain biking in stellenbosch and uh winning a stage in this town is is a great feeling not that any of the other stages are less important but there's just a sense of real achievement there's a big crowd there's this town is steeped in mountain biking uh fighters come from all over the world and spend months and weeks living here and training here enjoying these trails and preparing for their years their professional years so once more with uh just the grand finale to come it is the 91 songo specialized pair who will take those orange jerseys onto the start line for the grand finale tomorrow they've got a comfortable lead now of over a quarter of an hour and uh that should should that old thing anything can happen in mountain biking but it should be enough for them to uh get to the finish in the elderly with uh the race win that all will unfold tomorrow that's for sure and as they did yesterday there's the home of the song dot info charity and they do support these riders every stage when they've had they've donated the uh prize to the songo initiative it's up in kai mundi they've got a clubhouse there they've got a bmx track a pump track and these youngsters getting a chance to be part of the action here at the absolute gate epic it's wonderful and uh the tonga program was very much part of the fabric of the history of the race and one of the founders is christoph souza together with song professor and uh in 2008 in fact uh really came about when christoph zaza was looking for a partner worthy parker to ride the race and found boris thunder in [Music] we roll back to the start of stage six in stellenbosch a 76 kilometer 2400 meter climbing day a really really tough day but packed with trails and early signs there that we would see a similar pattern to previous days with the speed company racing putting themselves up front early so did the bulls but they would fade as the steep ramps of the brutal climb up the port miss copper tacatol this is well before bought biscop but already there uh their little climb starting to spread the field now they're on two bottoms copenhager and bomb of speed company racing starting to do what they have done so many times the early signs were not good for canon north way of the yellow jerseys with the world champion andre seville needing a push from his partner you can see them way back down the hill down there and they were starting to lose time as early as the first six kilometers on the stage earlier the um the william pirelli team were already making a their presence known as the start of the side of the field and the all african apps african jerseys are having a fantastic day yesterday it's probably suffering from that effort but very clear that uh that highly motivated is speed company racing we saw at the front the yellow jersey whereas perhaps just not uh that urgent on the front with martin stozek uh we'd hate to say blocking the trails but certainly keeping the pace under control and a bit of impatience there from the germans to get past and uh watching nina's show to really make the most of the charleston celebration he's highly uh he's a highly decorated rider nine-time world champion but doesn't stop him having some fun out on the trails of stanbosh and yellow jerseys under pressure today and uh again you know showed her really showing us why he is the greatest of all time in cross-country mountain bike racing yeah the trails on old bethlehem farm this the other side of the the mountains on the banuk valley built and created by conrad stolz but maintained by van and bossman and the bethlehem team and they have been working tirelessly they'll be so proud of seeing the best riders in the world on these trails as they snaked out towards carmo and the checkpoint here had been there from previously through zork fleet and the group was all together william pirelli as well as speed company racing and 91 the toyota 91 specialized pair but the absentees were the yellow jerseys and struggling uh uh the andres sievo the uh the german rider the german in fact he's a world champion and uh really showing that he's not on a good day it'll all be about managing the damage for those two and these two riders that we just saw there that was scott's ram hadn't had the greatest week but uh see what they do tomorrow the impatience we saw earlier on from ravensteiner meant that they made the attack they made a move and moved themselves away from that uh that threesome that three three team group that we saw and uh making it count and making it stick knowing that they have plenty of trails to go and it would be a very good time for them to attack but with speed company racing also with a lot to gain on the overall general classification they were on the charge as well and around about a minute and a half back pretty much consistently throughout the day good day for the william pirelli team because this is cameron or daniel guest meyer in third place with their premier team up front and this team in the middle kege and lucas baum they have been perhaps the most cohesive of the leading teams throughout the week they've never been more than a few inches from each other's wheels on the flats and following each other a couple of meters apart on every bit of trail it's been wonderful to see they were putting pressure trying to put as much pressure on canyon north wave on the general classification knowing that andrea sivalt was having a hard day they sensed an opportunity to gain ground on the yellow jerseys who were snaking down the armageddon trail meanwhile ravensteiner and varda aliman the italian champion and the belgian champion had pinned their ears back and we're heading for a possible stage victory well we saw the yellow jerseys earlier in the in the picture and that they seem to find their rhythm throughout the middle point of the stage and managing the damage and uh leaking time but uh better to leak time than to uh to shed time and uh if today would be their bad day or if today would be their only bad day they did a pretty good job of it so jose diaz and unspeaking of buff megamo had a solid day today they had a slow start and started writing themselves back into the frame and into fourth place meanwhile on the new yonkers drift trails rocky and uh rough they were but uh beautiful riding for all the riders bart aleman and fabian ravenstein alderman had gone through a bit of a power the outage in the yonkers section but it come back strong according to our man on the bike there stefan some and they started uh rolling down towards the finish at kutzenberg knowing that they had this in the bag the william pirelli team last little pitch up onto the crest at kutzenberg high fives all round this pair were chasing but not quite close enough to win the stage that wasn't really their priority and it was for this pair alimon and ravensteiner of william pirelli they uh often as a team come good late in the after cape epic and they've done so again today a second stage win for ravenstein as they take stage six in stellenbosch in a very impressive fashion and they certainly enjoyed the uh occasion in stellenbosch well ridden raven steiner and aleman debris a new partnership and a very cohesive one at that but the riders with a lot to gain were speed company racing and they sensed blood in the water with the yellow jerseys and another fantastic performance from the willier pirelli team getting first and third on the day so stellenbosch hosting the best riders in the world on stage six of the most competitive mountain bike stage race in the world the apps are capable as the women's field left one team light today i'm afraid with the the live cycling team losing one of their riders casey armstrong not able to start today so uh sarah hill having to ride on her own meanwhile the race lead in the very secure pockets of 91 song goes specialized not a good day for ariana luty and for amy wakefield their priorities changing from uh trying to get onto the podiums to just try to survive through the eight days here and some of the question marks on this field today is would robin de hood and pauline be able to bounce back from a little bit more challenging day yesterday we do see them having the tendency of coming back strong whenever they had a hard day but once we came to the the climbs and the selection started to happen well they had to settle into their own pace and that kind of left the 91 sangha specialized team together at the front with the faces roller team and that led us guessing will we see the same scenario like yesterday where they battled all the way to the finish line ending up in a finished print and still on the trails in younger sirk the two teams kind of it almost looked like they were working together and we were wondering when would one team try to go on the attack with a specialized team securely in their orange jerseys well they don't have to take too many chances and and that could kind of leave a little bit of pressure on their faces roller team here once we got to the trails it was quite obvious that the 91 sunker specialized team they had done their homework they knew the trails they flew a high pace down these trails and were actually able to create a gap down these trails flying through the dentist trail here just outside the yonkers hook they were in command now they had sensed an opportunity for another stage when to add to the two they've already won and they were making it count were haley batten and sophia gomez virfon they had about 30 odd seconds over candace lille and mariska strauss and the final little kicker after the river crossing at the esta river they turned left up that kicker and it was a charge for the line a really impressive performance again they have been outstanding they've not put a foot wrong and it's another really really good performance by this pair sophia uh gomez villafan and the hailey batman wow clearly keeping the pace as high as possible they know they got a bit of a gap on that single track section and uh with the all to play for towards the end they will keep that they wanted to keep that power up as uh as long as they could and to extend that gap because they know that faceless rotor would be highly motivated to win another stage and it's all about the heat of the racing and just uh making sure that uh leaving nothing to chance and taking the advantages when they can they certainly did that they took the opportunity and they ran with it and they made it stick meanwhile we can see that the gap is not really closing down even though faces roller they do everything they can to try and catch up meanwhile at the front this team was not holding back at all they just looked stronger and stronger throughout the stage one thing that we also see that they execute quite well is the teamwork so whenever one rider is feeling a little bit stronger she just manages her power well and actually is capable of transferring some of that extra power to a partner and in the end it makes all the difference third place were bmc mtb and pauline ferrero provo just a little bit uh ahead of uh her partner robin lucrette the final little climb we saw was a decisive factor in stage five's stage not so today because this pair had a comfortable lead sofia gomez via fun and hayley batten riding to a third stage win and consolidating their hold on those orange leaders jerseys once again here in stellenbosch a delightful scene for them as they celebrate another beautiful ride today the teamwork is absolutely outstanding as it was for roller faces roller taking second place just 39 seconds later and third eleven minutes uh later pauline farah provo and robin recruit finishing third on the stage to consolidate their hold on third place on the general classification there we have the battleground of where it all happened today and a lot did happen some shifts on the owner overall general classification once again and uh really just a fantastic day out for uh for racing in the men's and the women's category spectacular view courtesy of our drone pilot as we come sweeping down the yonkos valley give you an idea of the fire roads and the trails that are bound in this part of the world it really is a very very special part of the world to ride bikes and the race village all set up to host the riders today as they roll towards the finish the penultimate stage the general classification with one stage to go in the cm.com women's category sees hayley batman the sophia gomez via fun of 91 songo specialized lead candace lil and mariska strauss by 16 minutes and 29 seconds they've extended that lead by just under a minute on today's stage ferran prevost of bmc mtb racing 38 minutes back robbie and preen are now in fourth place their hard work is paying off meanwhile around luther and amy wakefield have had a tough last few days they got through the day today which was their goal and no doubt tomorrow will be the same let's hope that they feel a little bit better and feels stronger tomorrow and they can perhaps mount an assault on fourth place who knows it's only four minutes back to to rabi and preen so one day to go and the 2022 absolute cape epic the 18th edition of this incredible event see a voltage stosek the margin of uh advantage to them is just two minutes and 45. we'll be scrambling through the record books to look back to see when last it was that close going into the grand finale beers and blevins 7 40 back and well it's all about those three going into the final day well there's a simple answer to that gerald it has never been that close going into the grand finale at 2 minutes 45 the next closest time was in 2007 so that was 15 years ago with karl platt and stefan some holding a three minute 33 gap over the cannondale frederstein team and that was ralph hollison and jacob so it will be an absolute humdinger tomorrow and there's no doubt that speed company racing will go all out they certainly will it's going to be a beautiful culmination two weeks racing in the 2022 absolute cape epic rolling down oh and guess what a really good day today shirt and foster bounce to drop back down to ninth place after leaking more time today fever and fenta have been quietly maneuvering themselves into the top ten rotten swenson out of the top ten and bontakuna detroit the second all africa team but they're a long way behind the the bucco type dev team and then de bele and salala well they look as though they're writing themselves to victory in the xaro category in the top 30 fantastic racing for them what a day it has been here in stellenbosch as we've said the racing of the sharp end is nothing short of world class for the very best riders in the world in action but of course thousands still making their way to the finish here on stage six hopefully they finish in one piece and they can launch the attack of aldevi tomorrow so beautiful look at that breathless day today in stark contrast to the wind that was howling around the stellenbosch yesterday yeah it just shows the variety of the climate here and and and the terrain so yeah it changes every single day and as a writer it's quite nice to get a little bit of different type of riding in absolutely and in totally different conditions every day and that's what this event does it challenges you on so many fronts confirming that platinum salsa now have a 44 minute and 50 second lead over craig around andrew divine age of restonic and they have just a slender lead over the spanish fit2 bike natural berry team and that'll be a race tomorrow it's intense racing all the way down in the classifications the mixed saw big change yes they're not at the overall leaders but in the second and third and the grand masters has been a pretty intense battle as well that's what we'd love to see and all the way down there for riders who will be looking as we heard uh oliver munich and uh nick lemini saying they look at the general classification who's a few minutes ahead of us who's chasing us what are we gonna do tomorrow to maintain our position in this it's a races race this well they call it the most competitive mountain bike stage race in the world it's not just among the top riders it's on all the various categories and even for the privateers who come they all look at the the they'll look at the result sheet at the end of the day and they'll see their friends or their rivals or the riders they see out in the trails and uh they'll see how they're faring against against each other well rolling into the finish these riders they've these have had a really good day these are strong men and women who are finishing now after the 76 kilometer challenge around this uh beautiful trail network of stellenbosch it is quite simply breathtaking the riding opportunities that are available here the bells are ringing the riders home here at kutzenberg as they cross the line at the end of stage six one to go another big tick today because this was a day that loomed large at the start of the week as one of those challenging days with so much climbing and the second shortest stage of the race at 76 kilometers tomorrow is 68 kilometers but still a small matter of 2000 meters to climb as they go the other way around the simmonsburg mountain and the trails of murati to enjoy tomorrow and so much more as they make the way to the valdavi grand finale and the finish of this great journey today was certainly a concentration of climbing and of the trails and really a true mountain bikers course today we saw a transition day yesterday with a lesser concentration of trails and in fact a welcome respite for some of the riders who've been street greyton greyton just to recap is the one of the roughest trail roughest areas in terms of trails and the trails are very rocky and very loose and very and very dry and expanding two loops of greyton the riders were grateful for that transition day and they could so they could get into stanley bosch and enjoy some of the best trails in the world well the penalty the ultimate stage the grand finale is upon us tomorrow and stellenbosch to valdevie with as i said just a small matter of 2000 meters of climbing they'll ride through ida's valley and then simonsburg still to come those climbs are steep up there on the upper sections of simmonsburg then amazing journey through those wonderful trials of murati zootopia and miranda's great creative juices are flying there because he's given the riders something to enjoy it's a drop down on the other side the northern slopes of simonsburg they'll ride through marianne wines and then fred and let's they also get to ride through babylon's touring for the very first time farms and landowners opening their gates to the absolute epic it's a challenging day most of the challenge will come on the first section and then they fly down to valdevie and the grand finale to be fettered and welcomed home homeless of champagne into receiver medals and the accolades they are fully due after completing this eight day mountain bike stage race there are few harder challenges than this on a mountain bike and to finish it of a champion regardless of where you finish well they call it a hero is welcome and it is certainly certainly well deserved um for anyone finishing this race from the very back end of the field to the front let's talk about the front because that is going to be the key tomorrow and and just looking at that profile only 68 kilometers 2000 meters uh less than three minutes the gap uh anika i mean this is this is your chance to win the race if you sitting at second place the leaders are 245 they're showing cracks the previous day what is the plan hmm well to kill full gas from the beginning it's quite easy planned because we can see they managed to attack quite early in the race and actually pull out a big big gap and tomorrow they don't have the longest stage in this entire race it's a relatively short stage so they will need to start clawing back those or like reducing those two minutes and 45 seconds right from the very beginning so it will be one of the most intense final stages uh in the this race history i have a feeling absolutely epic living up to it they are chasing canyon northwave who won stage one and have been defending that uh yellow jerseys but today showed the first uh serious signs of frailty as andrea servolt who seems to be struggling we believe from painful ribs suffered in a crash on stage one so that's the crux of the race tomorrow and uh behind that there's also the story of toyota 91 specialized who are only a few minutes behind the speed company racing so they will want to be putting pressure on them so the racing's going to be red-hot all the way around those 68 kilometers in the in the men's race well exactly it's not just a two-horse race it's uh it's three teams you're really in it and uh of course the tax tactics will play into um into really who's prepared to win the stage because of course if you have a scenario where you know shelter for example or or last and last faster if they are looking to win a stage they're going to make a break for it really early on and if if a team like speed company racing can cooperate if they can get in touch with that marauding team with that team that has their focus on the overall they can or on the stage when teams who are looking for the overall will look to latch on and form an alliance with them because of course the agenda is to win the general classification and uh someone like a team like nino shota and last foster may really be keen just to to form that alliance in exchange for perhaps a little bit of a lighter sprint we'll have to see exactly how it all uh that all plays out but the battle for the overall and the battle for the stage when the prestigious stage win of the grand finale will no doubt mesh and all be interlinked tomorrow and we look forward to seeing how it all unfolds a lot of contenders for tomorrow's stage in the mints category also i think we should mention the villa pirelli factory team with their daily skies maya and cameron orr having a lot of momentum today and i feel like they're getting stronger and stronger so don't count them out at all and we saw the south africans having a great day on yesterday's stage so perhaps they're also contenders for a stage when it's all up tomorrow and in the women's race fall faces roller off the over cordovan are back behind 91 songs specialized so it is looking increasingly likely that that uh control over the women's race 91 song specializes is going to be extended to a seventh year five titles for anaker here and then last year forest against and this year haley batten and sofia gomez villafan have this race in their hands tell you all about it tomorrow don't forget to join us because it's going to be fantastic drama from the final day of the 18th edition of the race that measures all the abso cape epic will be with you all the way through it so be sure to be right where you are now till then cheers [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] you

Channel: Epic Series

Views: 87,372

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

Id: FVyQxOOxBPw

Length: 209min 56sec (12596 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 26 2022