Pic: Sven Martin/Sportzpics

Day 5

At the end of Stage 4, Cannondale Vredestein looked to be in a very comfortable position at the head of the Absa Cape Epic leaderboard. But there’s no way of telling what’ll happen next in a big stage race, and a series of punctures meant that Roel Paulissen and Jakob Fuglsang lost almost half of their 18 minute advantage during Stage 5.

On paper, Stage 5 didn’t look overly challenging despite its considerable length. But the rough dual tracks of De Hoop Nature Reserve had other ideas, with rocks and deep sand forcing many riders off their bikes. Sharp rocks and thorns were a constant threat to tyres, and Fuglsang flatted after 40km. An iffy valve adaptor meant that two CO2 cartridges failed to reinflate the tyre, and it was only the loan of an adaptor by fellow competitor Rune Hoydahl that got the job done. And then the replacement tube turned out to be holed too…

Impressively, all this mucking about only took Paulissen and Fuglsang seven minutes, but that still gave them a lot of work to do to get back in touch with the leading group. Get back in touch they did, though (giving Hoydahl his adaptor back on the way past), but their misfortune wasn’t over. 18km from the finish Fuglsang got another flat, and this time they had no spare tube, no adaptor and no cartridges left.

So it was that the Bulls team (Karl Platt/Stefan Sahm) took their second stage win in a sprint against Hannes Genze and Joschen Kaess (Alb-Gold Mountainbike), with Stage 4 winners Bart Brentjens and Alban Lakata (Dophin-Trek) coming in less than two seconds later. Fourth was South African team MTN Energade (Kevin Evans/David George), with Cannondale Vredestein coming in fifth with only three tyres between them – they’d swapped wheels and the stronger-on-the-day Paulissen had ridden the last 18km of the stage on a bare rim.

“It was like riding on a drilling machine, and I can still feel the effects of this afterwards,” said Paulissen after the finish. “We didn’t have a clue how far we were behind – our gut feeling told us it must’ve been more than 18 minutes, and we were sure that we would no longer be overall leaders. But we kept going, which was definitely the right decision. We were thrilled when we reached the finish line only to find that we had lost a mere eight minutes.”

The day’s results left Cannondale Vredestein holding on to their overall lead, but now with less than ten minutes lead. With Bulls and Alb-Gold Mountainbike only seconds apart, and three stages still to go, the overall win is still up for grabs.

In the women’s competition, Rocky Mountain’s overall lead was slightly eroded by another stage win from Trek/VW WSD (Susan Haywood/Jennifer Smith). “Slightly” is the operative word, though – Trek/VW won the stage by two minutes, leaving Rocky Mountain with a lead of the best part of an hour. The men’s competition proves, though, that anything can happen…

After five stages, 90% of the 1,200 riders who started the Absa Cape Epic are still going, although only 80% of the original teams are still in the race – the rules allow riders who’ve lost a teammate to form new teams (although they won’t appear in the results).

Stage 6, from Bredasdorp to Hermanus, is 130km long, with the big challenge being the 14km climb through Salmonsdam Nature Reserve.

Full results at www.cape-epic.com.