Moore, De Villiers beat the Epic pain

It was a hot, exhausting and torturous day in the saddle on Sunday as cyclists punished their bodies and bikes for 132km between Uniondale and Oudtshoorn.

Saturday's first stage of the Absa Cape Epic mountain bike race might have lulled some into a "this is a doddle" attitude. That all changed for everyone on Sunday, specially on a lung-bursting section of 35km off-road in the Kamanassie mountains, regarded as possibly the toughest section of the eight-day race.

New names appeared at the top of the leader-board, kings of endurance were reduced to shaking wrecks and a slew of mishaps threatened to ruin the best-laid plans. And while overall the women's section didn't change, Anke Moore and Yolande de Villiers needed a "little help from a couple of guys" to keep them on the road for their second stage win and a 35-minute overall lead on Germany's Kerstin Brachtendorf and Daniele Troesch of France.

Moore's chain got jammed in her gears at around 40km and she was unable to free it.

"Two guys stopped and yanked it free... I lost about seven minutes, then it was a battle to catch up with Yolande getting past some slow riders on single track," Moore said.

De Villiers had gone ahead, hoping and praying to get her partner back.

"Some guys told me the chain had been fixed and Anke was on her way," said Oudtshoorn resident De Villiers who crossed the line "feeling awesome with a lump in my throat".

Also feeling pretty good yesterday were first men home, in 4hr 58min 24,6sec, Roel Paulissen and Jakob Fugelsang, who also grabbed the overall lead, putting 3min 11sec between themselves and first-stage winners Karl Platt and Stefan Sahm.

And in something of a "chain reaction" with the winning women, Paulissen and Fugelsang made it with some assistance from their Cannondale Vredestein teammates Kashi Leuchs and Axel Bult.

Fugelsang broke a chain as they came off the Kamanassie.

"Kashi was just behind me and said, 'You guys can take the stage, take my chain'," recalled Dane Fugelsang, who handed over his broken chain to Leuchs, losing less than 30 seconds in the process.

"I was planning to stop there anyway," said New Zealander Leuchs. "I used my chain breaker to make repairs. It took about two minutes."

Paulissen and Fugelsang took charge at the front, with reigning champion Christoph Sauser and Johann Palhuber along to help with the work-load. But Italian Palhuber had problems, with his bike as well as his legs, forcing Sauser to drop back.

Epic rules state riders face a one-hour penalty if they allow a gap of more than two minutes between partners.

This left Paulissen and Fugelsang to fend for themselves for the final two hours. "It broke our legs, I felt flat," said Belgian Paulissen. "Jakob did most of the work, I just followed."

Another pair that exhibited fine "teamwork" comprised top road cyclists David George and Rupert Rheeder, who both went over their handlebars - at the same time - descending Kamanassie. And they didn't leave it at that. A few kilometres later they both went down as they hit a patch of soft sand at speed.

"Coming down the mountain David was braking too much. I shouted so wasn't watching where I was... it was too late, we both just went over, boom! That's what I call teamwork," said a bruised Rheeder, captain of the SA national road team for the past five years.

Fifteen years ago Nic Bester was the man to beat at the Comrades Marathon - he won it in 1991, and finished second in 1994, 1996 and 1997. Sunday he was close to beaten and finished after crossing the line in 5hr 57min with partner Bryan Strauss.

"I came off twice, once on the mountain and later when my partner switched in front of me," said a shaking Bester as he downed half a dozen cups of energy drink.

Another South African to take strain as the temperature peaked at 33 deg C was Brandon Stewart of Maritzburg, who is partnering Kevin Evans of Plettenberg Bay. "Try thinking of the worst day you can possibly imagine and times it by 20," said Stewart. "It was one of my hardest days on a bike."

German Moritz Milatz finished off his bike, running across the line as his partner Tim Boehme wheeled a punctured, battered mountain bike home.

"It was a very bad day. I didn't have a rear brake from the top of the mountain," said Milatz. "Then Tim had a puncture at 60km and I punctured 5km from the end. I repaired it but 500 metres from the finish it went down again, the tyre came off."

Monday's third stage is a 128km slog that will climb a total of 2,425m on the way to Ladismith.