Stage 4
With the ABSA Cape Epic halfway through, the toughness of the race is beginning to tell bodily on the riders, especially on their nether regions. Mediclinic's famous (or infamous) bum clinic has a queue outside its door every morning to take care of saddle sores.
Stage 4 took riders on a 75km cycle around Wellington. Karl Platt and Urs Huber took line honours in the men's race, while Annika Langvad and Ariane Kleinhans won the women's race.
During this stage, riders rode 93km from Wellington to Boschendal, just outside Franschhoek with a climb of 2,500m. Nicola Rohrbach and Matthias Pfrommer won the men's race and Yana Belomoina and Sabine Spitz the women's.
Although the field hospital can be deal with the bumps, scrapes and bruises, the more serious (sometimes life threatening) cases are referred to the local hospital.
Riders covered 69km in and around Boschendal, but still put in a climb of 2,100m. The stage was won by Tiago Oliviera and Periklis Ilias, while Belomoina and Spitz held on the the women's lead.
On the last day of the race, the pack travelled from Boschendal to Meerendal in Durbanville - a distance of 86km with a climb of 1,200m. The first men home on this leg were Manuel Fumic and Henrique Avancini (Platt and Huber were the overall winners) and Belomoina and Spitz (Langvad and Kleinhans were the overall winners) crossed the line first.
Catch the action of the first half of the race here
