Male duo Jordan Sarrou and Matt Beers (NinetyOne-songo-Specialized) and women’s pair Sina Frei and Laura Stigger (also NinetyOne-songo-Specialized) took GC wins at the Cape Epic mountain bike race Sunday.
Both victories came after dominant performances in the marquee South African MTB race. Beers and former UCI cross-country world champ Sarrou led the men’s race from the opening prologue, while Frei and Stigger won every stage of the eight-day event.
South African ace Beers became the first male winner from his country since the late Burry Stander in 2012.
“This is just an incredible feeling,” Beers said. “Burry set the bar very high; he was such a great mountain biker. I honestly didn’t think I could ever achieve this … When we started and won the prologue I thought that was amazing, but to have held it all the way through, I just can’t thank the team enough, we had an amazing team.”
Olympic silver medallist Frei and her Austrian teammate Stigger dominated the women’s field, winning the GC by more than 40 minutes.
“It’s unbelievable,” Frei said. “We came into the Absa Cape Epic to ride and do well, but I never expected to win this race. We have just been a good team all week. We got onto the podium and we never left. I’m really happy right now. Laura and I are good friends and I think this helped us throughout the week.”
Lachlan Morton and Kenneth Karaya of EF Education-Nippo finished 25th overall in their category. Bora-Hansgrohe duo Ben Zwiehoff and Lennard Kämna finished 21st.