Christopher Blevins and his Toyota-NinetyOne-Specialized partner Mathew Beers won Stage 4 of the Cape Epic on Thursday in South Africa and are third in the general classification.
Andres Seewald and Martin Stosek of Canyon Northwave lead the general classification in 17 hours, 26 minutes, 17.6 seconds. George Egger and Lukas Baum of Speed Company Racing are second, 4:48.2 back, and Blevins and Beers are third, 6:50.2 back.
Thursday’s stage win followed a second-place finish behind Speed Company Racing on Stage 3 Wednesday, which helped Blevins and Beers cut 1:13 off Canyon Northwave’s lead.
The third stage was 101 kilometers long with 2,250 meters of climbing over rugged and rocky terrain. Speed Company had a nearly 4-minute lead over three teams in the chasing pack after 60 kilometers, but Blevins and Beers closed in on them and finished second, 2:15 back. Canyon Northwave crossed third.
The result also gave Toyota-NinetyOne-Specialized some confidence heading into Stage 4, which was 82 kilometers long with 1,650 meters of climbing.
“Today is shorter, like three hours, and I think we’re in striking distance of, for sure, a stage win, but also striking distance of the win,” Blevins said in a video posted by Specialized Bicycles before Stage 4. “We’ll keep fighting and be the ones who really put the hammer down.”
On Thursday’s Stage 4, the top three GC contenders stayed together for the first 23 kilometers, but then Speed Company and Toyota-NinetyOne-Specialized started to push the pace.
Speed Company tried to make a move after two hours on switchback climbs, but Blevins and Beers didn’t allow them to separate, and the two teams took a 30-second lead of Canyon Northwave.
Canyon Northwave caught them before the UFO climb, a steep 300-meter vertical ascent, 12 kilometers before the finish.
Beers and Andreas Seewald then created a gap, but Beers pushed ahead and was the first to cyclist to finish. And Blevins didn’t disappoint, pulling away from his competitors in the last minute of the race to cross third overall to secure the stage win for his team. Blevins finished 2.1 seconds ahead of Canyon Northwave’s Stosek and 8.1 seconds ahead of Speed Company’s cyclists.
“I think everyone knows Chris is an absolute rocket, and they knew they were going to have their hands full,” Beers said in Specialized’s video. “And I also knew that as long as I just got past that finish line, he should have done all of the work. And yeah, he did. I think it was quite a cool, just different way of playing the partner game in the Epic, which makes it so unique, I think.”
The stage win was Toyota-NinetyOne-Specialized’s second of the race. They also won the prologue to start the competition and have finished second twice.
Three stages remain, with the finale on Sunday.
Stage 5 is 115 kilometers long with 2,400 meters of climbing.
Stage 6 is 76 kilometers with 2,700 meters of climbing, while Stage 7 is 68 kilometers long with 2,000 meters of climbing.
