Rules 'bent' but leaders unbowed

On the surface it looked like another normal day on the third stage of the Absa Cape Epic mountain bike race between Outshoorn and Ladismith on Monday.

Leaders Roel Paulissen and Jakob Fugelsang won the stage and increased their overall lead to 6min 57sec over runners-up Karl Platt and Stefan Sahm, while Anke Moore and Yolande de Villiers tightened their grip in the women's section.

But beyond the results there was an incident when tempers flared, an undercurrent of controversy and enough punctures to have sunk the Titanic.

And SA endurance athlete Nic Bester kept up his sequence of mishaps after going over the handle-bars twice on stage two. Just 20km into Monday's stage the former Comrades Marathon winner flew over the bars again, and although he was not injured his front wheel took a pounding and the 46-year-old was forced to ride the next 20km with a buckled wheel until he could get a replacement.

Misplaced partners also featured prominently, especially in the leading peloton, for the second half of the 128km stage that climbed a total of 2,425 metres.

Reigning champion Christoph Sauser's partner Johann Palhuber abandoned the race, but the Swiss didn't hang around to console the downcast Italian. Sauser upped the pace and kept the Paulissen-Fugelsang and Platt-Sahm teams company for the last 65km.

And just to keep numbers even, Kashi Leuchs joined in to make it a sextet. But Kiwi Leuchs' presence caused the Bulls Team of Platt and Fugelsang to question whether the rules were being bent.

Leuchs, who left his partner Axel Bult to fend for himself further back, rides for the Cannondale Vredestein second team whose first team happens to be Paulissen and Fugelsang.

Race rules state partners must never be more than two minutes apart - punishment is a one-hour penalty - and cyclists are not allowed to ride solo. "I will ask my guys what they think about making an objection. There is a chance Leuchs helped his teammates," said Bulls manager Friedemann Schmude.

"There are rules and we must follow the rules," was Platt's comment.

Race referee Pan van Tonder, however, didn't expect any problems. "It seems they (Leuchs and Sauser) are prepared to accept the penalty, and anyway, Leuchs is not in the same team, he just has the same sponsor."

Cape Town road star David George, was another to part company with his sidekick, Rupert Rheeder, who was suffering from a stomach virus. And far from being handicapped riding solo, George soared through the field, relishing the road sections, to finish with third team home Ralf Naef and Jose Hermida.

Naef is the reigning world mountain bike marathon champion while Hermida was ranked fifth in the world last year.

George Monday night confirmed that he had split with Rheeder and would team up with Sauser for the remainder of the race. "It will be good," said Sauser. "David could teach me some things like power riding while I could guide him in the technical sections."

Earlier a group of top riders came close to losing more than an hour when a motorcyclist stalled on a rocky climb. When trying to restart and hastily get out of the way, all the biker succeeded in doing was send stones flying as his back wheel spun in the lose stuff.

South Africa's Brandon Stewart was in the firing line with Cape Town rider Shan Wilson, carrying his bike, on his shoulder.

"It was quite hectic with the rocks flying, I was keen to get out of there, it was a tense moment," said Wilson. "It was crazy," said Stewart whose advice to the errant biker and suggestions on what he should do with his machine turned the fresh mountain air blue.

"Those flying rocks could have killed one of us stone dead, or one on the knee would have put a guy out of the race," added Stewart.

The drama over, a leading group of nine teams approached the Calitzdorp Crusher - a steep 3km climb on a stony jeep track. It was here the pretenders were crushed as just six riders (Paulissen, Fugelsang, Platt, Sahm, Sauser and Leuchs) hit the tar for another brutal climb up the 7km Huis River Pass.

Sahm was the first to take strain, dropping off the pace which forced his partner Platt to also ease up.

"It was too fast for me, I was out of energy, I couldn't have eaten enough after the second stage. I feel sorry for Karl, he's in such good shape," said Sahm. "But we are still second; that's not too bad."

It was a bad day for Dutch duo Bart Bretjens and Rudi van Houts, who were up with the leaders until the curse of every cyclist struck. "We had six flats, it was just not possible to keep (up) the pace," said Van Houts. "Each time we were about to rejoin the peloton, we got another puncture."

Women's leaders Moore and De Villiers went one better with their seven punctures, and although they increased their lead by five minutes, it was a trying day.

"After a great first 40km, it just got so frustrating with the punctures," said Moore. "We really battled to find any kind of rhythm."

Tuesday's fourth stage promises to be something of a "rest day" as the field heads over the 121km route to Barrydale with climbing just 1,285m, about half of Monday's slog.