Last year’s champion Andrew Mclean tipped MTN-DoItNow’s Adrien Niyonshuti and Max Knox for overall honours in the 900-kilometre Fairbairn Capital/Old Mutual joBerg2c that starts on Friday and ends nine days later.

He said the young Rwandan mountain biker was currently in winning form after securing the African jersey with Namibian team-mate Mannie Heymans at the recent Absa Cape Epic.

A MANAGER’S TALE

It is a quarter to five in the morning and the race village of the 2011 ABSA Cape Epic is beginning to stir for another tough day in the world’s premier MTB stage race. While the majority of the field is being accommodated in the tented village, many of the professional riders are staying in the adjacent camper van area and this where the defending champions, Team Bulls are readying themselves for the days action.

Team Bulls have two teams entered in the race along with their support staff, who are busy preparing the rider’s food on only a few hours sleep after working late into the previous evening to make sure that everything is in order.

Mission accomplished is the best way to describe Adrien Niyonshuti and Mannie Heymans (Garmin-adidas/MTN) overall victory in the Absa Cape Epic’s African Jersey competition.

Moments after finishing the last stage on Sunday at Lourensford Heymans made it clear that finishing ninth overall in the Epic and winning the African Jersey with Niyonshuti is a definite highlight in his already illustrious mountain biking career.

Burry Stander has become the first South African to win the ABSA Cape Epic. Together with team mate Christoph Sauser they dominated the race from start to finish by winning four stages and the prologue.

With a ten minute and 51 second lead time at the start, Stander and Sauser finished the last 8 days of the Magical and Untamed Mountain Bike Race of 707km in an overall time of 28:44.44,0.

The Spanish/Swiss team of José Hermida and Ralph Näf (Multivan Merida Biking 3) finally secured their first stage win in this year’s Absa Cape Epic. Hermida boasts a number of titles including the Elite World Champion (2010), fourth place at the Sydney Olympic Games, six World Cup round victories, runner-up in the European Championships and five times Spanish National Champion. Näf was the European Champion in 2003, 2006, 2009 and 2010, World Marathon Champion in 2006, and second in the World Championships in 2007. They finished today’s stage of 128km in a time of 5:00.47,0. They were followed by the 36ONE Songo Specialized team of Burry Stander and Christoph Sauser in 5:01.38,7, with the Flückiger brothers, Lukas and Mathias, in third place in 5:04.06,0.

South African Burry Stander and team mate Christoph Sauser continued to dominate this year’s Absa Cape Epic by winning the 5th stage of this year’s Absa Cape Epic in a time of 5:19.30,7.

They were followed by the Flückiger brothers, Lukas and Mathias, of Trek World Racing in a time of 5:19.41,2, with the Multivan Merida team, Hannes Genze and Jochen Käss, in third place with 5;19.51,1.

Happy Friday! To all those brave souls out there at the ABSA Cape Epic, keep it up, three days to go!