Otegemnaar Wout Alleman wins stage in Cape Epic

The eight-day stage race for mountain bikers, the largest of its kind, is known as ‘the Tour de France of mountain biking’.

The day after the prologue, won by South African Matthew Beers and American Christopher Blevins, the first marathon stage of the Cape Epic was on the program: good for 98 kilometers with start and finish in Hermanus.

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Second stage win in Cape Epic for Wout

After four hours of racing, Wout Alleman and European champion Fabian Rabensteiner beat a mountain bike legend in the sprint: the Swiss ten-time world champion Nino Schurter and his teammate Andri Frischknecht.

It is the second stage victory in the Cape Epic on Wout Alleman’s palmares, after last year’s sixth stage. In preparation for the Cape Epic, Alleman also won four stages and the final classification of the Andalucia Bike Race, a highly regarded six-day Spanish stage race.

The 27-year-old from West Flanders is a specialist in the marathon, the long distance of mountain biking.

The Cape Epic will last until Sunday. Schurter and Frischknecht are the new leaders in the standings. The second stage in line on Tuesday is no less than 116 kilometers long, again with start and finish in Hermanus.

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“Wordless”

“I am without words”, Alleman enjoyed afterwards. “It was a very tough ride,” he exclaimed.

“The pace felt quite high from the start. There were some attacks from the Germans from Speed ​​Company. But we managed to come back and try to save some energy. At the end we saw that everyone was pretty much dead. (laughs) But we also felt the effort. We decided to go ‘full throttle’ to the finish, and we made it there.”

Schurter and Frischknecht are the new leaders in the standings the day after the opening time trial, Alleman and Rabensteiner are now fourth at 1:32″. Are they thinking of the overall win?

“The week is still long,” said Alleman. “We have to look at it day by day now. If we can continue on this momentum, it looks good. But this is the Cape Epic, the toughest race in the world. So you never know.”

The Cape Epic ends on Sunday.

Even more West Flemish people in the race

Jasper Lefevre from Nieuwpoort is also taking part in the Epic Race in the ‘Mixed’ series and this is already the fourth time. After the first stage, he is sixth in his series with Team Bikehigh.