Christopher Blevins and Matthew Beers were unable to keep climbing the leader board of the Absa Cape Epic in its final two stages. The Toyota-NinetyOne-Specialized duo worked their way into second place of the general classification after a third-place finish on Stage 5. Blevins and Beers then placed sixth on Stage 6 and fourth on Stage 7 to reach the final general classification podium in third place.
Georg Egger and Lukas Baum of Speed Company Racing won the seventh stage, leap-frogging Andreas Seewald and Martin Stosek of Canyon Northwave on the final day to win the general classification. Speed Company’s winning time in the 681-kilometer race was 27 hours, 44 minutes and 6.9 seconds. Canyon Northwave finished second 3:02.4 back, and Toyota-NinetyOne-Specialized placed third 10:38.5 back.
“I’m pretty happy, pretty content: big exhale,” Blevins said after the race. “Everyday we’ve done everything we could ask for. We haven’t made any mistakes really, any big mistakes; you always make mistakes in this race, but we have really put everything we could into training. Maybe we had a couple bad days that dropped us out of contention for the win, but we’re still on the podium with a couple stage wins, and I’m proud of that.”
Blevins and Beers won the prologue and Stage 4. They also reached the podium in three other stages.
It was Blevins’ first competition in the Epic.
“I think this was the perfect year to do my first Cape Epic,” Blevins said. “It’s not something to play around with if you’re a young up-and-coming rider because it can derail your whole season if you go a little too deep. But I think I was ready for the load and ready to kind of fight for the win. It’s been amazing, one of the most memorable bike racing experiences I’ve had.”
NinetyOne-Songo-Specialized riders Sofia Gomez Villafane and Haley Batten won the women’s division in 33:41:11.7.
