MTB News: The Cape Epic 2017 is history. After yesterday's spectacular queen's stage, a little more than 80km was on the agenda today - with a lead of more than six minutes, the Scott-SRAM duo of Nino Schurter and Matthias Stirnemann started the race as favorites for overall victory and confidently lived up to their role. In the women's category, Sabine Spitz and her partner Robyn de Groot successfully defended their place on the podium.
It was an exciting eight days at Cape Epic 2017. After the cross-country specialists from Cannondale Factory Racing XC around Manuel Fumic determined the first half of the race until Wednesday, Scott-SRAM took command in the decisive phase. The dominance was not only due to the top duo with world champion and Olympic champion Nino Schurter, but also to the enormously strong support team, the Scott-SRAM Young Guns. And so it was these two duos that made the headlines in today's Grand Finale. The two Scott youngsters Michiel van der Heijden and Andri Fischknecht were able to clinch their second win of the day and Schurter and Stirnemann confidently defended their overall lead with third place ahead of Christoph Sauser and Jaroslav Kulhavy (Investec-Songo-Specialized), who came second overall.
There were no surprises in the women's overall standings: Esther Suss and Jennie Stenerhag (Meerendal CBC) started with a lead of more than half an hour and were able to defend it successfully and confidently. There was also a happy ending for Sabine Spitz, who was unlucky enough to fall: with her partner Robyn de Groot, she won the final stage and the duo also defended third place in the overall standings.
Final result Cape Epic 2017 men
Final result Cape Epic 2017 women