Close finish ahead in Epic

Villiersdorp - Unlike the two previous editions of the Absa Cape Epic mountain bike race when the winners more or less had their hands on the trophy from day one, history is not about to be repeated.

In fact, after Thursday's sixth stage over 111km between Montagu and here, this Epic is likely to go down in history as the closest and most exciting.

Team Cannondale's Roel Paulissen and Jakob Fuglsang, who lost the yellow jersey to the German Bulls pair of Karl Platt and Stefan Sahm 24 hours earlier, reclaimed the overall lead after winning Thursday's stage.

But their lead is a mere 11 seconds over the Germans and with two days to go, the stage is set for a nail-biting finish in Somerset West on Saturday.

Before Thursday's finish, however, there were a couple of tense moments in the women's and mixed sections of the 886km, eight-stage race from Knysna.

Anke Moore and Yolande de Villiers have controlled the women's race from day one, but on Thursday their Epic looked, for a couple of seconds, to have come to a permanent halt as De Villiers took a painful tumble at the bottom of a hill.

"There was a bump at the bottom, I was going 50km/h which was too fast... I just lost it," said the mother of three as she applied ice to her wounds.

Moore, who remembered the tricky turn from two Epics ago, had eased up.

"I thought to myself 'Oops', then shouted at Yolande, 'Quick, get back on, let's go'."

De Villiers followed orders and they won the stage to add almost another hour for a 3hr 20min gap between themselves and the Swiss pair of Myriam Saugy and Fabienne Heinzmann.

Another near casualty was Yolande Speedy, one half of the mixed section leaders, who went over her handlebars at a great pace while partner Paul Cordes looked on thinking to himself: "There goes our lead and race... with just five kays to go".

"It was a stupid mistake, I was tired and got it wrong," said Speedy, from Johannesburg. "I think my tyre popped off, but I took the wrong angle at the bottom of the hill."

Guy Pike of Edgemead was a few metres behind and couldn't believe how far Speedy's water bottles flew down the road. "It must have been 30 metres, she was doing about 70km/h."

Speedy's helmet was cracked, the back of her jersey shredded and she suffered scratches almost from head to foot.

"I thought she'd snapped a wheel and it was the end of our race," said Cordes, from Pretoria. "All that after we'd spent about three hours getting back with the leaders after having valve problems early on."

They failed to catch Germans Ivonne Kraft and Nico Pfitzenmaier who won the stage 4min 48sec ahead of the South Africans, but Speedy and Cordes still have a 26min overall lead.

While Speedy will be sore on Friday and it's been sore bum time for those in the middle and back of the field, it's squeaky bum time up front where a sneeze could decide who between Paulissen-Fuglsang or Platt-Sahm win the Epic.

It might also come down to who has the best bike.

"They (Paulissen and Fuglsang) have full suspension while we're riding hard tails," said Platt. "That made the difference on Friday going up the loose rocky sections."

Denmark's Fuglsang, who won silver at the Euro under-23 championships in 2005, agreed: "Full suspension gave us a huge advantage today. We can also lock it, which makes it the best bike for a race like this."

Most bikers at the Epic only have suspension on their front wheels and forfeit back suspension because of the extra weight. The flip side is that cyclists such as Platt were forced to run carrying their bikes up long stretches of rocky section while Paulissen could ride.

"I said to Jakob to ride as much as he can going up, and we managed to do that 50 percent of the climb," said Paulissen.

"We hate running," said Platt, "that is why I am a mountain biker. There is no fun running."

Bulls manager Friedemann Schmude said theirs was a new team which started just three months ago. "We are really a baby team, the full suspension is still being developed."

Another pair who lost the plot after a promising start that saw them grab a 4min 30sec lead in the first half of yesterday's stage was the Raleigh Team of Mannie Heymans and Ben Melt Swanepoel.

"Ja, we were going for podium glory but they just ran past us up the hill," said Heymans. "Just proves you don't get glory that easy."

Included on today's Epic menu is a punishing climb up the Groenlandberg during the 116km penultimate stage to Kleinmond where cyclists will see the sea for the first time since last Saturday's start in Knysna.