Cape Epic 2023: Who to watch in the women’s field

While the men’s category is dominated by returning teams, and thus an element of the expected, the women’s category is far more open.

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Of the top combinations only the 8capital team and the newly formed e-FORT.net | SeattleCoffeeCo have completed an Absa Cape Epic together before.

Thus, the established wisdom is to expect the unexpected in the Untamed African Mountain Bike Race.

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Such is the flux in the women’s field ahead of the 2023 Absa Cape Epic that only three of the competitors in the field have stage wins to their name.

The defending champion, Sofia Gomez Villafane, thus holds a significant psychological advantage going into this year’s race.

Not only has the Specialized Factory Racing women’s team won every edition they have entered, but the Argentinian is a senior figure in the peloton too.

In Katerina Nash she has an exceptionally talented and experienced racer alongside her, for NinetyOne-songo-Specialized.

The Czech rider notched up eight MTB and Cyclocross World Cup wins during her illustrious career; which also included three trips to the Olympic Games, culminating in a fifth place in Rio 2016.

Nash also has stage racing experience, having won the six-day Breck Epic in Colorado.

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Their top ranked rivals are the Absa Cape Epic debutants, Greete Steinburg and Monica Yuliana Calderon Martinez, of Cannondale Vas Arabay.

The Estonian and Colombian are both marathon specialists with Steinburg having notched up an Epic Series podium already at the 4Islands MTB Croatia in 2022.

Though the step up from an Epic Series Legend race to the Pinnacle event can be a significant one.

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e-FORT.net | SeattleCoffeeCo, has been a late addition to, or rather combination for, the 2023 Absa Cape Epic.

Amy Wakefield was set to race with Irina Lützelschwab. However, an early season crash and resulting complications left Lützelschwab unable to race and Wakefield without a partner.

Wakefield has paired with recently crowned South African XCM champion Candice Lill (who was also left without a partner when Mariske Strauss was diagnosed with Myocarditis) and the team that won the inaugural Absa African Women’s jersey in 2018 has reunited and is set to give it their all for the category win and the Absa African Women’s jersey once again.

The Efficient Infiniti Insure team is also a pairing to watch.

Kim le Court and Vera Looser, of Mauritius and Namibia, respectively, are the second ranked Absa African squad in the field and recently showed why as they claimed first and second at the Cape Town Cycle Tour in a nail-biting sprint finish.

They won the Epic Series event, Wines2Whales, in October after placing third and winning a stage in the SPAR Swiss Epic earlier in 2022.

With both Le Court and Looser enjoying a smoother run into the race, than Wakefield, and having more Epic Series experience than the Cannondale Vas Arabay team, they could prove to be the fiercest competitors to NinetyOne-songo-Specialized.

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The 8capital and She Untamed teams, meanwhile, are unlikely to challenge for the outright victory but will be highly motivated to race for a podium place should any of their more fancied rivals stumble.

Janka Keseg Stevkova and Martina Krahulcova, who finished sixth together in 2022, are the only returning partnership and as such have the benefit of a shared Absa Cape Epic experience.

Sarah Hill and Elrika Harmzen-Pretorius will have to trust that what they learnt racing together at in late 2022 and early 2023. 

Though further down the number allocation two interesting teams are the Bester Performance and Valley Electrical squads.

In Hayley Preen Valley Electrical has found a highly competitive team-mate for Tiffany Keep.

The young combination’s strengths oppose one another’s, but this could prove beneficial rather than a source of concern.

If Preen can follow Keep’s wheel through the technical terrain and Keep can dig deep to follow Preen on the long climbs, they will surprise some of the more favoured teams, especially on cherry picked stages.

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This will also be the approach that Steph Wohlters and Yolande de Villiers bring to the race.

If the Bester Performance team play their cards smartly there is even a possibility that they might snatch a stage victory, or at least a stage podium late in the race.

Among the eight women in the final four teams there are only three Absa Cape Epic finisher medals.

Tarryn Povey, of Echo Pentest, accounts for two-thirds of those. She and Kylie Hanekom will undoubtedly be engaged in an entertaining tussle for the minor places with the CSE, Engineering Hub and Garden Route Cycling Tours teams.

The competition will however remain friendly, as they are also well aware that they are unlikely to be competing for the orange CM.com or red Absa African Women’s leader jerseys.

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Rather the Absa Cape Epic for them is about executing to the very best of their abilities, and racing their friends. 

Robyn Williams and Linda Hitchings will be making their debuts in the race, as will Nicola Freitas and Rethe Mostert.

Only Juanita Mackenzie’s Engineering Hub team-mate, Sarita Louw, has started an edition of the Absa Cape Epic before. Though that was back in 2016, when she finished as an individual rider after her mixed category partner dropped out.

To watch the women’s category race as it unfolds, in what could well be the most open and exciting edition in years, visit www.epic-series.com/capeepic.

The race will be broadcast live, daily, from 19-26 March 2023.

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