While the males’s class is dominated by returning groups, and thus a component of the anticipated, the women’s category is much extra open.
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Of the high mixtures solely the 8capital workforce and the newly fashioned e-FORT.internet | SeattleCoffeeCo have accomplished an Absa Cape Epic collectively earlier than.
Thus, the established knowledge is to count on the surprising in the Untamed African Mountain Bike Race.
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Such is the flux in the girls’s field forward of the 2023 Absa Cape Epic that solely three of the rivals in the field have stage wins to their identify.
The defending champion, Sofia Gomez Villafane, thus holds a big psychological benefit going into this yr’s race.
Not solely has the Specialized Factory Racing girls’s workforce received each version they’ve entered, however the Argentinian is a senior determine in the peloton too.
In Katerina Nash she has an exceptionally gifted and skilled racer alongside her, for NinetyOne-songo-Specialized.
The Czech rider notched up eight MTB and Cyclocross World Cup wins throughout her illustrious profession; which additionally included three journeys to the Olympic Games, culminating in a fifth place in Rio 2016.
Nash additionally has stage racing expertise, having received the six-day Breck Epic in Colorado.
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Their high ranked rivals are the Absa Cape Epic debutants, Greete Steinburg and Monica Yuliana Calderon Martinez, of Cannondale Vas Arabay.
The Estonian and Colombian are each marathon specialists with Steinburg having notched up an Epic Series podium already at the 4Islands MTB Croatia in 2022.
Though the step up from an Epic Series Legend race to the Pinnacle occasion could be a vital one.
FOR THE LATEST CAPE EPIC NEWS VISIT THE SOUTH AFRICAN WEBSITE
e-FORT.internet | SeattleCoffeeCo, has been a late addition to, or quite mixture for, the 2023 Absa Cape Epic.
Amy Wakefield was set to race with Irina Lützelschwab. However, an early season crash and ensuing issues left Lützelschwab unable to race and Wakefield with out a companion.
Wakefield has paired with just lately topped South African XCM champion Candice Lill (who was additionally left with out a companion when Mariske Strauss was recognized with Myocarditis) and the workforce that received the inaugural Absa African Women’s jersey in 2018 has reunited and is about to give it their all for the class win and the Absa African Women’s jersey as soon as once more.
The Efficient Infiniti Insure workforce can be a pairing to watch.
Kim le Court and Vera Looser, of Mauritius and Namibia, respectively, are the second ranked Absa African squad in the field and just lately confirmed why as they claimed first and second at the Cape Town Cycle Tour in a nail-biting dash end.
They received the Epic Series occasion, Wines2Whales, in October after inserting third and profitable a stage in the SPAR Swiss Epic earlier in 2022.
With each Le Court and Looser having fun with a smoother run into the race, than Wakefield, and having extra Epic Series expertise than the Cannondale Vas Arabay workforce, they might show to be the fiercest rivals to NinetyOne-songo-Specialized.
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The 8capital and She Untamed groups, in the meantime, are unlikely to problem for the outright victory however can be extremely motivated to race for a podium place ought to any of their extra fancied rivals stumble.
Janka Keseg Stevkova and Martina Krahulcova, who completed sixth collectively in 2022, are the solely returning partnership and as such have the advantage of a shared Absa Cape Epic expertise.
Sarah Hill and Elrika Harmzen-Pretorius can have to belief that what they learnt racing collectively at in late 2022 and early 2023.
Though additional down the quantity allocation two fascinating groups are the Bester Performance and Valley Electrical squads.
In Hayley Preen Valley Electrical has discovered a extremely aggressive team-mate for Tiffany Keep.
The younger mixture’s strengths oppose each other’s, however this might show useful quite than a supply of concern.
If Preen can observe Keep’s wheel by the technical terrain and Keep can dig deep to observe Preen on the lengthy climbs, they are going to shock a few of the extra favoured groups, particularly on cherry picked levels.
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This may also be the strategy that Steph Wohlters and Yolande de Villiers deliver to the race.
If the Bester Performance workforce play their playing cards well there’s even a risk that they could snatch a stage victory, or no less than a stage podium late in the race.
Among the eight girls in the last 4 groups there are solely three Absa Cape Epic finisher medals.
Tarryn Povey, of Echo Pentest, accounts for two-thirds of these. She and Kylie Hanekom will undoubtedly be engaged in an entertaining tussle for the minor locations with the CSE, Engineering Hub and Garden Route Cycling Tours groups.
The competitors will nonetheless stay pleasant, as they’re additionally properly conscious that they’re unlikely to be competing for the orange CM.com or crimson Absa African Women’s chief jerseys.
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Rather the Absa Cape Epic for them is about executing to the best of their talents, and racing their associates.
Robyn Williams and Linda Hitchings can be making their debuts in the race, as will Nicola Freitas and Rethe Mostert.
Only Juanita Mackenzie’s Engineering Hub team-mate, Sarita Louw, has began an version of the Absa Cape Epic earlier than. Though that was again in 2016, when she completed as a person rider after her combined class companion dropped out.
To watch the girls’s class race because it unfolds, in what may properly be the most open and thrilling version in years, go to www.epic-series.com/capeepic.
The race can be broadcast dwell, every day, from 19-26 March 2023.
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