Sauser and Knox win stage 5

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Christoph Sauser (Songo-info) outsprinted Kevin Evans to make sure that he and Max Knox (Ghost) won the fifth stage of the DCM Cape Pioneer Trek on Friday.

This was by far the most exciting finish this year in the six-day mountain bike tour. With his victory over Evans, Sauser rectified a mistake that he and Silvio Bundi had made last year in exactly the same stage.

The two of them were at the time racing in front together with Knox and Thomas Zahnd (Switzerland). Unfortunately Sauser and Bundi missed a route marker which resulted in them getting lost. This time round Sauser made no mistake.

Sauser and Knox got away in a break with Evans and David George shortly after the king of the mountains hotspot.

The four riders combined well over the next 80 kilometres and built up a comfortable lead on the three chasing teams, namely Ben-Melt Swanepoel and Nico Bell (Team Need Sponsor); Jacques Janse van Rensburg and Adrien Niyonshuti (MTN-Qhubeka); Neil MacDonald and Waylon Woolcock (RE:CM).

But when the riders entered George and started to race on tarred roads, the real fun began. The race developed into a game of chess on wheels. Evans made the first move by ordering George to attack.

"I did this because David used to be a good road cyclist. I also wanted to diminish the risk in the final sprint to the line," Evans said.

"With four of us sprinting to the line over the last 100 metres, there would always be a risk that something could go wrong. I knew that either Christoph or Max would counter when David attacked.

"Max reacted first. This meant that the sprint between Christoph and me would determine who the winner of the stage would be.

"Christoph had just that little bit more power in his legs when it really mattered and he pipped me to the line. As far as I am concerned, there is no shame in being outsprinted by a world champion."

Sauser and Knox's winning time for the 127km stage from Mossel Bay to George was five hours, 20 minutes and 42 seconds. This was their third stage victory, but because of their misfortunes during stages 1 and 4, they cannot win overall.

Evans and George finished in the same time.

Niyonshuti and Janse van Rensburg (MTN-Qhubeka) were third in 5:28:46. They were followed by Swanepoel and Bell in 5:29:36 and MacDonald and Woolcock in 5:29:38.

Evans and George are 41 minutes ahead of Swanepoel and Bell overall.

Evans said afterwards that they were very satisfied with the way their tour played out.

"Thanks to our sponsors we had the opportunity to test all the equipment we are planning to use during next year's Cape Epic. The exciting news is that everything seems to work perfectly."

Erik and Ariane Kleinhans (Contego/Giant/Sludge) were again the first mixed team to finish.

Ischen Stopforth and Catherine Williamson (Bizhub) are still unbeaten in the DCM Cape Pioneer Trek's women's tour.

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