The team named in honour of the late Burry Stander raced as Burry Stander would have raced. They won as Burry Stander would have won.
It was, said the man who finished second on the prologue of the Absa Cape Epic yesterday, as though there was a “white shadow” called Burry Stander riding with them.
The victory on the 22km prologue by Christoph Sauser and Jaroslav Kulhavy, the team known as Burry Stander-Songo 1, was convincing and emphatic, taking just 55 minutes and 10.1 seconds.
They finished a minute and seven seconds ahead of Jose Hermida and Rudi van Houts, the Spanish-Dutch combination that make up the Multivan-Merida team. Back in third were Marco Fontana and Manuel Fumic (Cannondale), a minute and 24 seconds off the leaders. “It was very emotional,” said Sauser. “You could hear the spectators cheering with Burry’s name, and that was goosebumps.”
Stander’s name will forever be linked with the Epic. He won it twice, the first South African to do so, but he was also a rider highly respected on the World Cup cross country circuit. He finished second on the World Cup circuit last year, winning a leg in the United States, but he did more than that, said Hermida.
“We are confident here in the Cape Epic this year because we know that there is a white shadow following us for all the stages and all of the race, and that white shadow is Burry Stander, for sure,” said Hermida.
“Burry was a gentleman during the races, and that was something that was deep in the heart for all the riders because he was the first one who brought us a love of South Africa to the World Cups, as well as Greg Minnaar (the two-times world downhill champion).
“They helped us to discover a different cycling here in South Africa. He was a little shy, but he had a great humour, and for sure, we will miss him because those sort of characters are good for our sport.”
Stander’s character was what kept him coming back to the Epic to try and win after some setbacks in his first few attempts with Sauser as part of the Songo.info team.
A knee injury, illness and mechanicals were eventually overcome in 2011. Last year, Stander and Sauser were the dominant team, and yesterday, Burry Stander-Songo 1 continued to ride in a way that would have made him proud.
“I knew Jaroslav was going to be very, very strong, so I drafted him. It was perfect team harmony. We have a similar riding style, always like a little bit left, slow into the corners and fast out, not stop and go, and with all these thousands of corners (during the race), we are going to save energy like that,” Sauser said.
“The bike was amazing today. It was so bumpy out there in the headwind, we could just sit and pedal. You don’t win the Epic in the prologue, but you’ve seen in the past that the prologue sets up the whole Epic.”
The winners and leaders in the mixed category of the race, the husband-and-wife team of Erik and Ariane Kleinhans (RE.CM), agreed, winning in 1:06.23, two minutes and 16 seconds ahead of Theresa Ralph and Damian Perrin (Biogen-Britehouse).
“The prologue does matter. Tomorrow, because we have the jersey, we will be put on the front row with the other jerseys, and the next mixed team will have 30 teams between us,” said Erik. “We made sure we took extra care on all the downhills. All of our opposition was ahead of us, and our goal was to make sure that we caught them, which we pretty much achieved.”
Defending champion Esther Suss and her new partner Jane Nuessli (BMC Wheeler) put almost two minutes into Sally Bigham and Milena Landtwing (Topeak Ergon). Bigham won the race for the last two years with Suss.
Former Olympic gold medallist Bart Brentjens and Robert Sim (Superior-Brentjens 2) took the masters category by just 0.3 of a second from Nico Pfitzenmaier and Abraao Azevedo (Bridge).
Azukile Simayile and Sipho Madolo (Exxaro-Songo) lead the development category, while Philip Buys and Matthys Beukes (Scott) are the best placed Africans overall in ninth in the men’s race.
Today, the Epic will start and end in Citrusdal, with the first stage a 103km race that includes 2 500m of climbing. The Epic will finish in Lourensford on Sunday. - Cape Times