New stage winners at Cape to Cape
The third stage of Cape to Cape took riders from Xanadu Winery to Colonial Brewery, by way of the finest trails at Margaret River.
If there is a favourite stage for riders at the Cape to Cape, it really must be Stage 3. While the race starts at a winery and finishes at a brewery, the true reward for the stage is the selection of trails that the course takes riders through. And today, the race had new leaders by the finish line.
There was news this morning that a bout of illness had passed through the Swell-Specialized house, and Andrew Blair wasn't on the start line. The race starts with a neutral roll through Margaret River, the town that has supported the growth of this event, before heading into the trails of Carters Road.
The usual turn of speed and long, elastic line of brightly coloured riders started to get stretched with a few people feeling the strain – and the racing started to get interesting. The pace lifted at the front as Kyle Ward turned it up, and a select group including Chris Hamilton, Tasman Nankervis, Kyle, Brendan Johnston and Michael Potter got away. In the second group, Jon Odams found himself with a great group to shred the trails.
"I knew that the singletrack today was going to be a lot of fun, and I got in a good group with Reece Tucknott, Paul van der Ploeg and some others and we blasted along the singletrack and had a really good time." The singletrack section is the longest of the event, and takes your through a mixture of natural forest, bermed pine forest singletrack, and some older trails that are super fast allowing riders to hold it wide open.
"There was a bit of banter going on, some laughs and a lot of skids, and I think there were a few worn out tyres after that. It was a great day out on the bike that's for sure."
While these guys weren't going slow, they couldn't quite get the lead group.
"Even at the end of the singletrack section they had about 30 seconds, but the course opens up into the real horsepower section and we knew it would be very challenging for us to catch them. We rode at our own bunch pace and it was really fun too."
The final saw Brendan Johnston win the stage, with Tasman Nankervis in 2nd and Chris Hamilton in 3rd. Cam Ivory battled today and couldn't maintain the pace at the front by about 15km in, suffering with illness. The leader's jersey has fallen onto the tall and slender shoulders of Tasman Nankervis – the 21 year old is having an excellent year. Nankervis has about a 2minute lead of Brendan Johnston going into the final stage.
Change in the women's race
A few things changed in the women's race too, and while the fast start suited both Peta Mullens and Samara Sheppard, Sheppard finally got away on one of the climbs in the closing stages of the race, with enough time to gain the race lead, byt the closest of margins – this race will go down to the wire tomorrow!
Briony Mattocks had her best finish yet, crossing in 3rd place
"After the neutral I lost track of Samara and Peta pretty quickly, and some of the other girls made a bit of a go of it at the start. I attempted it for a bit, but had to ease off a little bit – and setllted into a slightly above average pace for me, and started to pick people off."
"Once we got onto the singletrack in the pine forest, that's when I thought I could probably use this section to get a bit of an advantage. I caught Em Viotto in that forest."
"It's a great stage result for me, and I think I put a little bit of time into Jenny as well, moving a bit closer the 3rd place. I overtook Jenny and then she overtook me again up a hill, but she didn't look well so I assumed something was wrong."
So by the looks of it, the women's podium will be a close race tomorrow, to see who will be standing on what step.
