Cape Town – There was a changing of the guard and a re-investment of an old king at the Absa Cape Epic after the windy, dusty opening prologue at the Meerendal Wine Estate in Durbanville yesterday.
Karl Platt, a four-time champion, and his Team Bulls partner Urs Huber won the first prologue stage of his long history with the race, while Robyn de Groot and Jennie Stenerhag (Team Acendis Health), the South African and Swedish combination, were quicker than defending champions, Ariane Kleinhans and Annika Langvad (Spur-Specialized).
Platt and Huber, the German-Swiss pairing, set up their attempt at Platt’s record-equalling fifth win and Huber’s first, with a storming ride on the 26km opening sprint of the 654km route. They were a minute and two seconds quicker than Swiss Nicola Rohrbach and German Matthias Pfrommer (Centurion Vaude by Meerendal 2) and a further eight seconds ahead of Italians Samuele Porro and Damiano Ferraro (Trek-Selle San Marco A). James Reid and Gert Heyns (Team Spur) were the quickest South Africans in fourth at 1:34 behind.
“I have never started better like that, I have never won the prologue,” said Platt. “We rode really well, the conditions were very hard out there, there was a lot of wind and no shadows to hide in. We had decided before not to to go big on some climbs. We didn’t go crazy, and it worked out for us. We had something left at the end. The real Epic starts (today). The prologue was just a bit of show off.
“For sure, I want a first win with Urs. Together, we have tried for three years together and have had bad luck. This year we want to make it our year.”
For those of a physiological and technical bent, Platt and Huber averaged 390 watts on their power meters, although Platt, who has come into the race not as lean as he did last year, but perhaps stronger, guiding Huber to the finish. Platt regards Huber as one of the stronger athletes he had ridden with and he will be key as he aims to win his fifth title in the race he has grown up with.
“It was crazy windy out there,” said Huber. “It was from the side, so we can’t relax behind the others, but we didn’t go hard from the start. We didn’t have too much time to speak to each other or to think.”
De Groot and Stenerhag have just 18 seconds on Kleinhans and Langvad, with Team Sport for Good’s Sabine Spitz and Yana Belomoina 1:17 behind the leaders. Today’s first stage could tell just how strong the South Africans are.
“I didn’t think we were going that well, actually. I was quite surprised when we came in so strongly,” said De Groot. She and Stenerhag finished second behind Kleinhans and Langvad last year. “We just rode within ourselves.”
“We didn’t plan anything, we just wanted to do our best. We both had some patches of suffering and some patches of feeling really good, and they didn’t happen at the same time which was a really good thing,” said Stenerhag.
“I’m really pleased for Jennie and Robyn,” said Kleinhans. “It’s good to see how far they have come. I race against them most weekends, so I know them well. “I felt very good, I had a good race today, unfortunately not good enough for first place, but a really big congrats to Jennie and Robyn. I like Meerendal as a prologue venue because there is much more singletrack and it’s much more technical – I really enjoy it. It’s so much fun riding here especially coming into the finish with a lot of berms and table tops. It’s a lot of fun.”
The prologue of the Epic was moved from Table Mountain to Meerendal over fears it may be disrupted by protests at the University of Cape Town.