Cape Epic glory: Beers and Grotts clinch title as GHOST Factory Racing soar in debut

In the Aramex Women's Category, Anne Terpstra and Nicole Koller (GHOST Factory Racing) won an eighth stage in a row on their way to the 2024 Absa Cape Epic title. By winning every stage of the 2024 race (the Prologue and seven stages), the Dutch-Swiss combo matched the performance of Laura Stigger and Sina Frei, who also won eight stages on their way to the 2021 title. 

With some tired bodies and minds among the elite riders - leader Matt Beers admitting to lack of sleep and stomach issues on the finish line - the early pace on the 67km Stellenbosch Stage 7 loop was sedate by the past week's standards.

As riders approached the famous Jonkershoek trails of Stellenbosch, a familiar pattern soon emerged, though - Toyota-Specialized-NinetyOne in front, with BUFF - MEGAMO (Hans Becking and Wout Alleman) and Canyon SIDI (Andreas Seewald and Marc Stutzmann) for company. BULLS Mavericks, who have been ‘taking it easy this week’ by their own admission, were also in the front bunch and quickly moved into pole position as the stage leaders. 

As Schneller and Huber (the 2016 Cape Epic champion) cracked on the pace, the lead pack split further, with only Beers and Grotts keeping pace with the leaders. With a healthy gap of more than nine minutes over second place World Bicycle Relief (Nino Schurter and Sebastian Fini) at the start of the Grand Finale, overall leaders Beers and Grotts simply had to get to the finish in one piece. And so, they did. 

On the second half of the stage, BULLS Mavericks moved further into the lead, with Fabian Rabensteiner and Samuele Porro (Wilier Vittoria Factory) eventually overtaking Toyota-Specialized-NinetyOne to move into second on the day.

The Grand Finale men's race remained that way as 38-year-old Huber