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From a number of the mass of 750 two-person groups assembled at this 12 months’s 2025 Absa Cape Epic, it’s transparent that there will likely be a laser focal point on one pairing – Annika Langvad and Sofia Gomez Villafañe (Toyota Specialised). The dynamic duo have six victories and 31 degree wins between them, with Langvad by myself protecting 5 general wins, and in 2025, she has the chance to make historical past as the primary rider to win the development six occasions.
Firmly entrenched as the biggest full-service mountain motorcycle degree race on this planet, Absa Cape Epic takes position March 16 to 23 within the Western Cape province of South Africa.
Whilst the Toyota Specialised ‘dream workforce’ of Langvad and Villafañe are the overpowering favourites to set the tone for the UCI professional ladies’s box of 18 groups, there’s a log-jam of previous champions within the box of fifty males’s groups who will likely be difficult to stay off the rostrum once more.
3-time Cape Epic winner Matt Beers joins forces this 12 months with USA’s Keegan Swenson at the Outride-Toyota-Songa workforce, and two-time winner Nino Schurter rides with Swiss compatriot Filip Colombo on Scott-SRAM. The German duo of Georg Egger and Lukas Baum (Orbea Leatt Pace Corporate) raced in combination in 2022 once they gained the whole name.
Langvad has no longer raced Cape Epic since 2019, when she teamed with Anna van der Breggen to gather seven degree wins, and that gave the Dane a sweep of 5 GC titles in 5 tries. She joined Karl Platt of Germany and Christoph Sauser of Switzerland as the one athletes to win the MTB staying power tournament 5 occasions and is now set to boost the mark.
Some of the elite ladies having a look to dissatisfied Langvad and Villafañe is 2023 Cape Epic champion Vera Looser, teaming with USA MTB staying power champion Alexis Skarda for workforce Environment friendly Infiniti SCB SRAM. The ladies’s race is broad open as protecting champions Nicole Koller and Anne Terpstra (Ghost Manufacturing facility Racing) transfer gears to concentrate on MTB cross-country occasions.
The twenty first version of Cape Epic varies classes each and every 12 months for the 8 days of racing, however what does not exchange is a complete distance of greater than 600 kilometres and an enormous elevation acquire of greater than 16,000 metres. Mud is a day by day better half at the hard gravel roads and singletrack paths that move rocky climbs, technical descents, or even cross thru rivers and forests of the Western Cape.
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All of the motion from favourites and challengers will likely be broadcast reside on a daily basis for the prologue and 7 levels at the Cape Epic website online and YouTube channel, with organisers boasting greater than 38 hours of protection. There may be native programming to be had on SuperSport and an professional Epic Sequence app that may give you the reside broadcast and reside race monitoring.
UCI Girls
Anne Terpstra and Nicole Koller trip to GC name on degree 7 of 2024 Cape Epic (Symbol credit score: Cape Epic / Dom Barnardt)Annika Langvad and Sofia Gomez Villafañe (Toyota Specialised)
A six-time mountain motorcycle Global Champion, 5 of the ones within the marathon class, Langvad has collected 27 degree wins on the South African off-road degree race. She is undefeated on GC in 5 appearances with 4 other companions.
In 2018, she gained Cape Epic along Kate Courtney, who went directly to win the mountain motorcycle international name in cross-country that season. Courtney just lately took to social media and described Langvad as “an animal.”
After placing her racing profession apart for a couple of years to paintings in her off-bike career as a dentist, the Dane is again at the motorcycle and again in a large approach. This 12 months at Santa Vall, she swept the two-day degree race for the whole.
The second one part of the Toyota Specialised duo is Villafañe, who comes off wins this spring at Belgian Waffle Experience Arizona and the Path of Tears gravel race in the USA. She’s going to constitute Argentina in her fourth look on the MTB staying power tournament, coming off of 3rd position the ultimate two years along with an general victory in 2022 with USA’s Haley Batten.
Villafañe’s aggregate of sturdy mountain motorcycle technical talents and robust staying power on lengthy gravel occasions carried her to spectacular collection wins ultimate 12 months on the Belgian Waffle Experience’s Tripel Crown of Gravel and a 2nd consecutive general on the Lifestyles Time Grand Prix collection.
Vera Looser and Alexis Skarda (Environment friendly Infiniti SCB SRAM)
2023 Cape Epic champion Vera Looser returns for a 5th look, again for a 2nd time with US marathon mountain motorcycle nationwide champion Alexis Skarda. The Environment friendly Infiniti SCB SRAM duo completed 5th ultimate 12 months. The Namibia local, who has gained 17 street nationwide titles, gained ultimate 12 months’s UCI Mountain Motorbike Marathon Global Cup championship.
Skarda has raced cross-country mountain motorcycles for greater than 8 years, together with surroundings the FKT report for the 100-mile White Rim Path and completing fourth general eventually 12 months’s Lifestyles Time Grand Prix off-road collection. She and Skarda are an impressive duo and go back with courses discovered.
Rosa van Doorn and Janina Wüst (Buff Megamo)
Rosa van Doorn and Janina Wüst would possibly not have taken at the Cape Epic ahead of, however with Van Doorn ultimate month having swept up the Mediterranean Epic and Swiss teammate Wüst having come 2nd within the four-stage tournament, they have got just lately confirmed their shape within the layout.
What is extra, Van Doorn is coming off a formidable 12 months, having claimed each the Dutch and Eu move nation marathon championships in 2024, and sits 2nd on this planet score within the self-discipline at the back of Vera Looser, with Wüst subsequent in 3rd. The ratings point out simply how well-matched the mix is, so whilst it can be a primary try on the Cape Epic, there turns out each and every reason why to be expecting a a success starting.
Margot Moschetti and Samara Sheppard (e-Citadel)
This will not be a mixture of riders that each sit down as prime at the international UCI ratings, however that does not imply that the pairing must be written off, no longer with the report they have got on the race and the facility that the pair can muster. Sheppard completed 3rd in her first try on the race ultimate 12 months, with the rider from New Zealand forming a formidable pairing with Sofia Gomez Villafañe.
It was once 8th for Margot Moschetti in 2024, however that season was once pegged as a 12 months of rebuilding for the French rider who burst onto the mountain motorcycle scene properly over a decade in the past and snared Global Cup XCO wins within the U23 class. However between damage, an consuming dysfunction, after which having to juggle coaching and part-time paintings within the intervening years, the consequences suffered. Regardless that now, the 31-year-old is in a position to focal point at the game and has constructed thru 2024, managing to climb to fourth on this planet cross-country mountain-bike ratings. If her trajectory continues, this mix may end up a significant risk.
UCI Males
Nino Schurter at the path in entrance of teammate Sebastian Fini on degree 7 at 2024 Cape Epic (Symbol credit score: Nick Muzik/Cape Epic)Matt Beers and Keegan Swenson (Outride-Toyota-Songo)
Matt Beers has been a dominant power at his house race in contemporary editions, and 2025 must be no other. He gained his first Cape Epic along Jordan Sarrou in 2021 after 4 previous begins.
After a 3rd in 2022, he paired with other US teammates, Christopher Blevins in 2023 and Howard Grotts in 2024, to win two extra GC titles. Beers appears to be like not to most effective win the whole once more with any other new spouse however upload to his 11 degree wins.
Grotts had an unpleasant crash whilst main Breck Epic and just one mile to visit declare the win, and has no longer totally recovered from his intensive accidents, probably the most vital being a critical concussion. Taking the reins will likely be four-time Leadville Path 100 MTB winner Keegan Swenson.
Swenson and Grotts have long gone head-to-head at many gravel races in the USA and know each and every different properly. Swenson edged the South African within the ultimate standings of the Lifestyles Time Grand Prix ultimate 12 months, the USA rider dominant in that off-road collection for a 3rd consecutive season. Whilst Swenson has most effective completed Cape Epic two times and simply outdoor the highest 11, he has been centered at the degree race all wintry weather, and the 2 make an impressive duo.
Nino Schurter and Filipo Colombo (Scott SRAM)
Like Beers, Nino Schurter has 11 degree wins getting into his 9th Cape Epic. A ten-time MTB international champion and nine-time Global Cup MTB champion, Schurter additionally has 3 medals from 3 Olympic Video games, together with the mountain gold from Rio in 2016. After going 2nd at Cape Epic ultimate 12 months, he has decided on any other Swiss rider to move for the highest step of the rostrum, Filippo Vviero Colombo.
Colombo was once the highest-placed Swiss rider, 7th, in his most effective Cape Epic look in 2021. The 27-year-old grew to become his focal point at the street for a few seasons, driving for Tudor Professional Biking after which Q365. Professional Biking, and ultimate 12 months opted to concentrate on cross-country. The 2 had been coaching in combination over the wintry weather and competed on the Imbuko Giant 5 marathon race, with Colombo profitable and Schurter going fourth.
Georg Egger and Lukas Baum (ORBEA Leatt Pace Corporate)
The German duo of Georg Egger and Eu XCM champion Lukas Baum took out the Cape Epic in 2022, toppling the favourites with their competitive racing taste, after which they returned in 2023 to take 2nd position. The confirmed pairing, then again, have been a DNF in 2024.
The beginning of the season did not fairly pass to devise for Egger, out of the Tankwa Trek with a abdomen worm, but when the social media posts are anything else to move by means of, the pairis having a look raring to move, with the travails of the 2024 version in all probability including much more gasoline to the fireplace for 2025
Wout Alleman and Martin Stošek (Buff Megamo)
Wout Alleman had firstly anticipated to go back as soon as once more to the Cape Epic with Hans Becking. a pairing that had secured 3rd general ultimate 12 months. Regardless that, that plan fell thru when the Belgian published ultimate month that he have been suffering with sickness thru pre-season coaching and informed the workforce he don’t have the health to battle for the rostrum on the race.
A transformation, subsequently, was once at the approach, with Martin Stosek moving into the void. The Czech rider ultimate 12 months took at the tournament with compatriot Petr Vakoč, completing 8th, however raced the former two years with Andreas Seewald claiming 5th and in addition 2nd on debut in 2022.
The riders as a mixture is also an unknown, however with 3 participations each and every and a blended two general podium puts and 6 degree wins, it might properly be an impressive pairing.
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Publish date : 2025-03-14 14:01:55
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