While most XCO stars didn’t race, Avancini certainly did, and won the thing again. This would be his second Marathon championship. Alan Hatherly gave it a go, and most of the big names in the longer distance world were there. The top racers who show up to Cape Epic, usually race the Marathon Worlds if they can. So Avancini winning is quite the achievement in my mind. He can hang with the best at the short punchy XCC races, but seems to fade quickly in the XCO format. Yet he goes out and rides for hours and hours and wins. Interesting.
For the women, Mona Mitterwallner showed again she’s not messing around. I wants to win a XCO so bad, but with her slow starting, it’s difficult. I think she’ll do it soon enough, she has the engine. But she too was up against the Cape Epic fighters and pulled out the win.
So congrats to all the racers. Zero video footage though. I couldn’t find anything but some text updates. Kind of a shame. The racers came home covered in mud, so it was no dry rip through the desert, but a proper mud fest.
Click here to go to the official UCI web page for the event. It’s all I can find at the moment. It at least has some photos.
