Events

Cape Epic boost for Knox, Evans after Garden Route 300 win

· By Press Office · 0 comments

With two weeks to go to the start of the 2015 ABSA Cape Epic, Kevin Evans and Max Knox (Biogen-Volcan) grabbed a confidence-boosting victory at the Garden Route 300 three-day stage race in the Knysna region of South Africa’s Western Cape province at the weekend.

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Max Knox (left) and Kevin Evans of Team Biogen-Volcan in the jerseys of overall leaders at the Garden Route 300. // Photo credit: Garden Route 300.

The former South African marathon champions, stormed to victory on Stage 1, a tough 90km leg, which took place in wet, muddy conditions. They won the stage by just over two minutes over the Contego pairing of Lourens Luus and Adriaan Louw.

But two minutes is a slim lead in mountain bike stage racing and on Saturday’s Stage 2 over 100km, the Biogen-Volcan pair saw that lead disappear when they cut a tyre and lost over five minutes as a result of the delay. They had to dig extra deep in their attempt to recoup that lost time, which they did, allowing them to race defensively on the final day to secure the overall title.

“It feels good to win a stage race so close to the Cape Epic, but I have to say that we really had to dig deep on Stage 2 to hold onto the lead after the tyre cut,” explained Evans.

“It was a freak cut – it would have cut any tyre. But it forced us to use a tube and I actually used a Biogen energy gel wrapper as a gator to cover the hole. Max then paced like an animal until we were within sight of the Contego guys and I just hung onto his back wheel! We burned a lot of matches with that effort,” added Evans.

The final stage saw Evans and Knox consider putting in a bid for the R10000 King of the Mountains title early on in the stage, but with the previous day’s deep effort leaving them less than sharp, decided instead to consolidate their overall lead and ride more conservatively for the final 85km leg.

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Max Knox and Kevin Evans of Team Biogen-Volcan celebrate overall victory on the final stage of the Garden Route 300 on Sunday. // Photo credit: Garden Route 300.

“We were happy to ride the last stage more steady. We had a big first day with those conditions and an unexpectedly hard second day. The overall win was most important for us and we achieved that. We are really looking forward to the Cape Epic now,” said Knox.

The Biogen-Volcan team’s stage race win comes just a week after Knox claimed the coveted title at the Ashburton Investments Sabie Classic. The ultra-marathon took place in extremely hot conditions over a demanding 115km course with 3000 metres of vertical ascent. Evans rode to a steady eighth place overall and as far as Cape Epic pairings were concerned, they were the top-performing duo in the one-day race.

“We only got our Volcan bikes just before the Sabie race, so that was our first outing on them. We’ve now had a chance to dial them in properly and they were really feeling great at this weekend’s race. We’ve also both found our favourite flavours of the Biogen supplements, which is good because we’re going to be using a lot during the Epic,” grinned Evans.

The Biogen-Volcan pair have set two goals for the 2015 Cape Epic – winning the African team title and finishing in the top five overall. To track their progress, Like the Biogen page on Facebook and follow @biogenSA on twitter.

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