Pic: Karin Schermbrucker/Sportzpics

Day 3

Stage 3 of the Absa Cape Epic presented by adidas packed not just a tight sprint finish between three teams, but also the surprise departure of the overall leaders. Burry Stander, half of the South African/Swiss team of Songo.Info, suffered from a knee injury and had to withdraw at the second waterpoint during Stage 3. That also meant the end of the road for his teammate, World and European marathon mountain bike champion Christoph Sauser.

That left the way clear for the Cannondale Vredestein team of Roel Paulissen and Jakob Fuglsang to take the overall lead, but it was a close battle for the stage win. Karl Platt (Bulls) was actually the first rider across the line, but the rules stipulate that the official time is taken from the second team rider. With teammate Stefan Sahm suffering from gastric problems, he was a few seconds down, so Cannondale Vredestein got the nod just a second ahead of the South African team MTN Energade (Kevin Evans/David George), with Bulls (Karl Platt/Stefan Sahm) another five seconds behind.

Despite the stage win, Jakob Fuglsang said that he hadn’t had a good stage: “I especially struggled with the technical climbs and loose rocks, but fortunately Roel felt strong. The stage was partially very flat, but quite hard as it was very bumpy at times and I don’t particularly like that.”

Stage 4 takes the field from Riversdale to Swellendam, opening on rolling hills through farmland before launching into two substantial climbs, then back into forests, a selection of river crossings and a sting in the tail in the form of short, sharp forest climbs.

Full results at www.cape-epic.com.