Two day special today due to me being up to my ears in work and simply passing out when I got home. I literally collapsed onto our couch after sitting in traffic for two hours. I need to get something closer to home, must bike to work!! OK now onto a more positive note, the Cape Epic. Stage 5 was supposed to be an easier day after leaving the hectic climbs of the garden route behind. Unfortunately 146km is never going to be easy. ALB went head to head for the stage spoils against Bull's Team mates Karl Platt and Stefan Sahm who would take the win for the first time this year. The longest ride of the this years race also saw the tightest finish with the top four finishing within 4 seconds of each other. MTN Energade came in fourth and amazingly Roel Paulissen came in with no rear tire, riding only on his rim as punctures
hounding the leaders. The leaders still held a comfortable lead of 18 minutes but then again nothing is comfortable on the world toughest MTB stage race. The leaders did get some help though as bad luck stuck them in the stage today. Their pump adapter was not working and after two failed attemps and one cartridge left
Etto Hoydahl 2 came to their rescue. After inflating the tire they discovered that the tire itself was torn so more repairs were made. This all happened at the 40km mark, that means there were still 100 to go. The effort to get back to the front must have taken it out of them as they finished 8 minutes down.
Team BBB's take on the day, seems as the days go by just staying in the race is impressive.Jerimiah Bishop and Chris Eatough fell out of top ten contention today finishing 11th. There is still time in the race as these hardy competitors know but they will need to put in some monumetal effort to get to there.
The Specialized Team riders are not having so much fun as their partners seems to be much the worse for wear after the grueling stages of the Cape Epic. After Christoph Sauser's exit his team mate Rebecca Rusch suffered similar although more dramatic effects. Christina Begy suffered a
fall on one of the steep rocky section's and seems to have broken her collarbone. Luckily medical assistance was on the scene fast enough so we hope she'll recover quickly. Team BBB coming through again with some inside
information on how their day went. May be slightly behind but always a good read.
