What a start!after practicing the prologue course only once prior to the race. Christoph and i surprisingly won the stage ahead of mtn who blatantly made it known that they knew the course like the back of their hands and were going to win for sure.

stage 1.gordons bay-villiersdorp.112km

The songo.info campaign was of to a great start and in the early hours of Sunday morning we set out of Gordon's Bay for the first long stage clad in yellow as early leaders of the epic. the pace was steady as we climbed up the first road climb past a pump station. as we hit the dirt for the first time the race exploded. the trek-bretjens team firmly set the hammer down and only sauser and i could follow. after a few km's we had opened a solid gap on the chasing pack and still holding on to trek-bretjens. as we neared the halfway mark in the 112km stage the real climbing started. Susi set the pace and i held on. as we neared the top of the highest peak we were almost 5minutes ahead of a now slowing trek team. as we got into the outskirts of villiersdorp and close to the finish i slashed the sidewall on my front tire in a rocky section. we set about fixing it calmly and efficiently and still finished the stage over 2min clear. our overall lead was now up to over 4minutes

stage 2.villiersdorp-villiersdorp.110km

the stage started off fast and soon it was trek-bretjens off the front again. susi decided we would remain in the chasing pack as to conserve our energy for later on. at around 30km i had a slow leak in the front tire and again we stopped to seal the tire. it wasnt long before we got back to the pack and at the halfway point we started up the big climb of the day. the terrain here was super rocky and steep, a perfect spot for us to make a move. at first bulls came with us but then on the descent we managed to open up a small gap as we closed in on trek-bretjens. at the 80km mark we got onto a wide open dirt road and the bulls came back to us. we were sitting confident as we had a lot left for the last long climb at just 15km to go. as we turned into the dual track which went up the climb we immediately started to open the gap. by the time we hit the finish we were again over 2minutes ahead. our lead was now just over 6minutes.

stage 3.villiersdorp-greyton.84km

stage 3 involved alot of walking/running. i mean like over an hours worth. after we neared the top off the walking section Christoph and i found ourselves in a lead group with trek-bretjens and the trek wc team. on the descent however it was susi who got a small leak in the rear tire. again we went through our now perfected routine and we were soon on our way in persuit of the leaders. bulls had also caught up to us which made the pacing earlier. with 20km to go we all caught up to the leaders and we were now four teams out front. the last 8km contained a lot of steep climbs and single trail so we again managed to break away before the line. we won our 4th straight stage and our lead was up to just under 8 minutes.

stage4.greyton-greyton.114km

stage 4 is were songo.info would lose the cape epic. early on susi got a puncture on the first district road and we were left chasing for well over half an hour as team mtb was driving hard at the front of the lead pack. we eventually got back just to have the plug we repaired susi's wheel with come out. we fixed it again and started chasing. dcm chrome had witnessed our distress and helped us pace back. on a sandy bit i tried to take a drink from my bottle and as i took one hand off the bar my handlebar caught a small branch which swung the front wheel side ways sending me flying. as i got up it was clear that my wheel was totaled and we needed to make some sort of plan to carry on with the race. max knox from dcm offered me his bike to ride to the next water point where we had spare wheels. he decided to run to the spectator point 500m up the road and borrow a wheel. he also subsequently put my bike on a following motorbike to be lifted to the same spectator point. he borrowed a wheel,fixed my bike and rode to the water point. we swapped bikes back and fixed them before setting off to chase now a total of 24minutes back. we spent the whole day chasing with the pair from dcm-chrome destroying themselves for the hope that a south african could stand on top off the podium once again. we managed to finish the stage just 11min behind the leaders which meant we were only a very attainable 4min down on the overall time board. however the commesaires of the race at first decide we would get a 15minute penalty for swapping bikes. we were down to 5th but eager to chase the next few days.

stage 5.greyton to oakvalley.111km

stage 5 we made ammends. we attacked on the first big climb of thee long stage at 20km. we got a small gap but as about 60km of districk and fast jeep track followed a small lead group soon got together. with 40km to go at one off the feed zones trek-bretjens made their move. we set chase however only songo.info and occasionly multivan merida would set the pace at the front. the other teams seemed content to let the trek team just ride away,but we wanted the win bad. so with 25km to go we attacked on the last big climb. we soon hunted down the trek team who were at one point 4minutes ahead. we kept hammering to the end and eventually won the stage 1min 30 sec ahead of trek and over 5minutes ahead of the bulls. this meant that was it not for the 15min penalty we would be back in the lead.we were however still 14minutes down in 3rd. that would however changes drastically as other teams kept pushing for our penalty to be increased to one hour. this happened eventually with the uci's excuse being that they had witnessed different evidence concerning our mishap on the tv coverage off that stage. after that stage however the coverage was available to the uci and they did not want to speak to us, the riders as they said they had witnesses. this also meant our hunt in the gc was over.

stage 6.oak valley to oak valley.86km

stage six was the most technical stage for sure. early on the field split and out front it was trek-bretjens, bulls, felt factory racing and songo.info. i didnt have great legs on this stage and we were content to just sit in and wait for the finish. in the last few km's trek-bretjens lead the charge with us on their wheel. right at the end i made a mistake in a turn and a 10sec gap opened which we could not close before the line and we settled for second. in third was felt with the bulls again loosing 1min 30sec down in 4th.

stage 7.oak valley-lourensford estate.60km

on the final stage i attacked early but the leading teams would not let us go. about an hour in some different teams down on gc including the south-african duo of dcm chrome got off the front. the front pack decided to call it quits and rode steadily to the finish. it was a great feeling to cross the line after a long race, but i did have the "what might have been feeling" as well...

my focus for the next two weeks is to recover well and build up to the world cup season opener in pmb,south africa.thanks to everyone for the upport in the epic and please check out www.songo.info

ciao

burry