Kleinhaus and Kritzinger keep control of the GC

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"We attacked and we attacked, and we attacked ourselves 'stukkend'," said Donovan Jackson in his take on the penultimate stage of the Cape Pioneer Trek mountain bike stage race in the Southern Cape. The surviving riders, a majority, raced a long, 113km journey from Uniondale to George in stage 5.

It was hot up front, literally and figuratively. General classification leaders Eric Kleinhans and Johnny Kritzinger (Memory Foundation-New Heights) kept control on the climbs and acknowledged that the repetitive attacks by the Tread Team might have been a mistake. The Squirt men, including Lieb Loots and Cornelius Muller, were third on the stage and stayed in the same spot on the general classification with Loots continuing to offer his impressive age, 53, as an unconvincing excuse for not having done even better. He's tired, and so is everyone else.

Fienie Barnard and Esther Lategan (Landmark), who have the women's category sewn up, were out for an impressive 6:10:17 and looked cool and unrushed at the finish in spite of the day's heat and humidity.

Specialized-Songo's Christoph Sauser and Bobby Behan had "technicals" again. The Swiss former world champion had a flat at the same time, his manager, Behan was feeling the long anticipated energy decline associated with his hectic travel schedule in the weeks before the start of the race. He was, nevertheless delighted with his performance under those trying circumstances. For most of the riders, just being in the same event as someone like Sauser has been a special privilege. The Specialized men have proven to be very approachable - a highlight of a race that has generally been as memorable for its across-the-board personal interaction as for the hardships and scenic beauty.

Seesawing continued in the mixed category. Peter Stopforth took a bit of a tumble and he and his famously competitive wife Ischen lost more time and the general classification lead to Petrus Malherbe and Janneke Leask of Schwinn, who finished in 5:00:56.The Stopforths (of team Marsillio Projects) are now almost 10 minutes off. The Schwinn phenomenon was fourth overall today. They had 11 minutes on that Sludge express-steam-train of Linus van Onselen and Brian Strauss.

Veterans Gus Klohn and Marc Wiederkehr (Infradev Dunkeld Cycles) were closer to those Sludge Masters and were comfortably ahead of sponsor Toyota's veteran challengers John Thomson and Duncan Bowman.

At the picturesque Eagle Falls, where all the riders waded through the meter-deep water, the top teams were bunched and in the (prayed for) absence of wind, it was starting to become uncomfortably hot and humid though most of the participants seemed much happier than yesterday.

Some of the more miserable "victims of yesterday's hard slog through the Kamanassie were full of smiles today. The motto of the Uniondale High School - the race village " for this stage - is "Dade nie woorde nie" and the middle and backmarkers lived up to that, clearly resolved to stay sensible and pace themselves and their tired legs over the moderately uphill second half of the route.

Two mixed teams worthy of special mention and both with Stellenbosch connections are Masters Paul Morris and Fran Ferreira (Zero Rush), famous singletrack wizards; and Riaan Boshoff and the exquisite Hannelie Steyn Kotze who is making a very impressive and very welcome comeback. Both teams have been up at the sharp end of the action.

The bail-out rate, for a field has been high with more than 45 team riders abandoning by today. 150 remain for the final stage which is a shorter 87km. It will go up the spectacular Montagu Pass and back to Oudtshoorn. Short as it is, there is still room for dramatic changes in the racing.

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