Cape Epic - Bike Presentation by Markus Bauer Who wins the Tour de France of the mountain bikers?

After the first World Cup is before the Cape Epic!The most prestigious stage race in the world starts on Sunday near Cape Town with the 20 -kilometer prologue.Also there are the stars of the XC and marathon scene.Can Nino Schurter and Matthias Stirnemann defend their title from the previous year?And who gets the winner trophy with the women?The German marathon master Markus Bauer is also there.He will keep us live from South Africa next week!

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Who can beat Scott-Sram?

When Nino Schurter is at the start of a race, he is a favorite - again at the Cape Epic!Last year, some experts did not trust the Swiss exceptional athlete to the big coup at the Cape Epic.The XC world champion has too little experience in multi-day races, it said.It will only be the Olympic champion's hour at the Cape of Good Hope, the experts of the scene predict.It turned out differently!Schurter stood for the first time in his career with real winning ambitions at the start of the prestigious multi -day race and promptly secured victory together with Matthias Stirnemann.On the one hand, of course, the duo won due to its endurance skills on the long stages, but on the other hand also because of a tactic that has never been seen before in such a hard race: Despite the average sections over 100 kilometers, the two always put a cross country startand the long -haul specialists brought behind on the first kilometers of day, since hardly anyone could follow the high initial pace.In the end, the victory deservedly went to the Swiss.Will it run similarly in the year?

There is a lot to be said for it.Schurter showed at the World Cup kick -off last Saturday that he already has an absolute world -class level at the present time.The fact that he can also convert this on the long -distance route should be known since last year's Cape Epic at the latest.However, a central question could be whether his team partner Matthias Stirnemann can follow the world champion during the stages.After the disappointing 49.Place at the World Cup kick -off in Stellenbosch is a small question mark behind Stirnemann.But even last year, the young Compagnon was identified as a supposed weak point in the run -up to the race and in the end he instructed all critics of a better one.

So who could beat the Scott-Sram duo?Of course, the team Investecsongo Specialized for the "Lokomotive" Jaroslav Kulhavy.The Czech is once again traded in the field as the strongest driver.Especially on the long flat passages, none of the Olympic champion of 2012 should be able to give the water.But here, too, the legitimate question arises whether his young partner Howard Grotts can follow the high pace of his team-mate: the American struck at the World Cup kick-off with 21st place and secured the Afxentia stages in Cyprus and the secondPlace in the overall ranking.So you shouldn't underestimate the 25-year-old.

As a marathon specialist, the duo Nicola Rohrbach and Daniel Geismayr from Team Centurion Vaude can be trusted for a top result in the overall ranking.You should also not lose sight of the team Bulls around Karl Platt and Urs Huber, Canyon Topeak (Lakata/Hynek), Trek-Selle San Marco (Ferraro/Porro), Cannondale Factory Racing (Fumic/Avancini) and KMC Ekoi-Srsuntour (Sarrou/Koretzky).Definitely chances of a stage win and thus also a proper placement in the final classification also have the Scott-Sram Young Guns (Frischknecht/van der Heijden), Centurion Vaude 2 (Kaufmann/Käß), Bulls 2 (Stiebjahn/Böhme), Trek-Selle SanMarco 2 (Rabensteiner/Casagrande), Silback Omx (Gluth/Gagne) and the German Marathon Master Markus Bauer with his partner Fans Claes.

For the women, there is initially no good news from a German perspective: Adelheid Morath has to do without their start at the Cape Epic.After a fall in front of the World Cup in Stellenbosch, a break in the wrist was diagnosed during the week, which is why she had to go home early to Germany.

However, if we are now looking at the victory candidates in the Frauenfeld, the role of favorites is not clearly assigned: there are not quite as many teams for the overall victory as with men, but there is no shortage of world -class participants in this year's edition of the Cape Epics.In the first place, the duo Annika Langvad and Kate Courtney (Investecsongs Specialized) should be mentioned, which can be assessed at least on paper.How the young American Courtney will be at the side of the Danish World Cup winner last week remains to be seen.Sabine Spitz and Robyn de Groot (Ascendis Health) and Silback-KMC around Mariske Strauss and Annie Last also have great opportunities.

And then there is of course the countless defects in the Cape Epic.Hardly any race on this planet is influenced as strongly by unexpected breakdowns as the multi -day race in South Africa.The team also has great chances of a very good result in the final classification, which the fewest defects deals with and, accordingly.

So an exciting week is waiting for us with a number of spectacular pictures, exciting racing courses and a live blog from the largest stage race in the world here for MTB news.The reigning German marathon master Markus Bauer blogs live from South Africa for us and describes his experiences on the sections.As a small foretaste, he will present our race bike for the coming week.

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