Namibians excel at Absa Cape Epic 

Namibian MTB riders excelled at the Absa Cape Epic which was concluded on Sunday, winning two podium places. 

The eight-day race, consisting of a prologue and seven stages, is regarded as one of the world’s toughest MTB stage races and covers about 700km of riding and 17 000m of climbing in the Western Cape, with more than 700 teams participating from all over the world.

In the Open Women’s category, Namibia’s Jacky Shipena and Jana von Backstrom came second overall in a time of 50 hours 56 minutes and 10 seconds, finishing 6 hours 7 minutes and 23 seconds behind the winners, Jennifer Burtner and Callah Robinson of the United States. 

In the Open Men’s category, Namibia’s Martin Freyer and Tristan de Lange came third overall, finishing just over an hour behind the winners, Mark van Zyl of Botswana and William Piat of Mauritius, who completed the race in 30 hours 32 minutes and 53 seconds. 

South Africa’s Matt Beers and Tristan Nortje, meanwhile, made history by  becoming the first African pair to win the elite mens category. 

For Beers it was his fourth Absa Cape Epic title but it was Nortje’s first, while it was also the first time that an all-African team had won the elite men’s race. 

They completed the eight-day race in a total time of 26 hours 55 minutes and 51 seconds, with Luca Braidot and Simone Avondetto of Italy coming second just over a minute behind, while Luca Schwarzbauer of Germany and Samuel Gaze of New Zealand came third about three and a half minutes behind. 

The elite women’s race was finally won by the South African champion Candice Lill after she had finished second five times before. Lill and her Dutch partner Alessandra Keller won in a total time of 24 hours 32 minutes 38 seconds, with South Africa’s Hayley Preen and Canada’s Haley Smith coming second nearly an hour behind while Katazina Sosna-Pinele of Lithuania and Giorgio Marchet of Italy came third.

Namibia’s Vera Looser and her Dutch partner Rosa van Doorn were well placed, lying third overall after the third stage, but a bad fall by Van Doorn about 10km before the end of the fourth stage put an end to their race. 

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