Strong and cold winds turned Stage 2, a 92km loop route from Oak Valley Wine Estate, into an exceptionally tough one.
Kulhavy and four-times Absa Cape Epic winner Christoph Sauser of Switzerland (Investec-Songo-Specialized) won their second stage in a row, extending their overall lead to more than six minutes.
The women’s race came to a dramatic conclusion late in the day at the Oak Valley Wine Estate race village.
Although finishing the day in a blistering time of 4:37.31.1, Team RECM Specialized’s Ariane Kleinhans and Annika Langvad had to wait until the very end of the day to hear their race fate, this after they took an unintentional detour close to the finish line and in doing so cut almost 5km off their race distance. The race commissaires decided 13 minutes and 39 seconds would be added to the teams stage time because they rode 5km less than the rest of the field. In addition, an extra hour was added to their stage time for not following the route markings. The time penalties mean Team RECM finished 11th on the day.
