Cape Town - Samuele Porro and Damiano Ferraro claimed the win in the men’s race on stage 4 of the Absa Cape Epic in Wellington on Thursday.
Just before the line, the pair who are riding for Trek-Selle San Marco, got off their bikes and carried them over the line in triumph, celebrating their first stage win of their debut Cape Epic.
The Italian stallions, the dark horses of this year’s race, are now third overall behind The Bulls and Centurion Vaude by Meerendal 2. The Bulls, however, have taken firm control of the race - and now have a 9 minute 44 second lead over their nearest rivals, Centurion Vaude by Meerendal 2.
It was a day of disaster for one of the race favourites when Kristian Hynek of the Czech Republic pulled out early after injuring his arm in a crash the previous day.
This left disconsolate Topeak Ergon Racing teammate Alban Lakata of Austria having to contemplate his eighth Cape Epic without a win.
The reigning Marathon World Champion has previously finished sixth, fifth, fourth, third and second and desperately wants to add the Cape Epic title to his long list of achievements.
That title seems destined for the Bulls German/Swiss pair of Karl Platt and Urs Huber after a stage in which they protected their overall lead.
The stage began and ended at the Wellington race village and was held mainly on the renowned trails network at Welvanpas.
With three stages left the Bulls will no doubt ride defensively to be in the yellow zebra jersey at the finish at the Meerendal on Sunday.
Porro said today’s stage, which had lots of climbs, suited the team because they are light. “We started easy and decided not to push too hard. When we got to the third water point - 25km before the end - we decided to push harder. We managed to get a gap and we just went. We came to the Epic just to get experience - and now we are on the podium. It’s unbelievable.”
Bulls 2 team, of the German pairing of Simon Stiebjahn and Tim Boehme who are racing in support of Platt and his Swiss teammate Urs Huber - were second in the 75km stage - 1 minute and 11 seconds behind Porro and Ferraro.
Dutch riders Rudi van Houts and Hans Becking (CST Superior) rolled across the line in third place in a time of 3:08.01.
Meanwhile, Platt said that everything had gone according to plan but it was yet another tough stage of the race. “The Epic is never easy, especially today with lots of climbs - we were going up and down all day, but there was lots of singletrack too.”
Waylon Woolcock and Darren Lill (USN Purefit) extended their lead in the Absa African special jersey competition, and were the first South African team home in a time of 3:15.14 - almost two minutes ahead of their rivals Gawie Combrinck and Nico Bell (NAD Pro MTB).
African News Agency