So, @Keegels and Sofia have confirmed they’re racing 2023 Cape Epic.
Who do you think/hope they’ll partner up with?
Any other riders/teams you’re excited to follow?
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I‘m so excited about this race. It‘s so unpredictable and so much can happen.
Sofia and Haley dominanted last year. I hope there will be a more tight race with the women this year.
I‘m curious if Egger and Baum of Speed Company Racing can continue their success. How they raced the Cape Epic in a XC style last year was crazy. We will see how they will handle the pressure as they turn from underdogs to title defenders.
I think they will be on the podium again.
Schurter will have a new team mate. Not sure if it will be Colombo of Frischi Jr. Beside his bad luck with his tires, Forster was not fit enough to push with the boss.
I think the Scott SRAM team will be more homogeneous and also a title contender again.
A lot of teams are still not defined. I‘m also not sure if Canondale will have a team again. I hope to see the powerhouse Matt Beers again.
Seewald and Stosek are also in my list.
In the mens I see Speed Company, Canyon and Scott SRAM on the podium.
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It definitely won’t fit the schedule, but I’d love to see MVdP and Sam Gaze team up.
I’d also like to see Anton Cooper and Vlad Dascalu team up.
I agree with you about SCR, their racing last year and the aggressiveness they showed was awesome. They won’t catch anyone unawares this year though.
Hopefully the field will be deeper on the men’s and women’s side this year. Presumably Schurter would rave with Colombo, Frischi isn’t on the level yet and would possibly get cooked like Forster did. It’d be good to see a larger group of strong teams.
The women’s field could do with a few more teams at the pointiest end, at least I haven’t seen any announcements other than Sofia. Could Mona team up with someone? I don’t know who PFP would pick, but it also sounds like she’s injured.
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Frischi made it into the A team with Nino. Don‘t know why Colombo is not riding. But Frischi already had a strong race last year in the backup team when he had to give his wheels to Nino several times. He had so often but luck in races and I hope that he can bring all pieces together this season.
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Lachlan and Keegan teaming up is going to be fire. Really looking forward to it.
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@Kuttermax Same - that is a really interesting team.
I also see that Ian Boswell and Mitch Docker are riding together. Ian is not a mountain biker so it will be interesting to see how well he does.
Per his podcast Boz said he’s really only there for the experience.
(Paraphrasing)
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I don’t think Mitch is much of a mountain biker either. Makes it a fun team!
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Anyone excited for some elite XC stage racing?
I’m disappointed in the lack of interest/support from the factory teams this year (namely Specialized and Cannondale who usually send big teams), but I’m still really excited to watch and follow along.
We have TR adjacent Sofia with Kat Nash, and Keegan with Lachlan Morton. Super curious pairings with lots of unknowns. I’m rooting for both though.
I’d like to see Scott-SRAM mixing it up at the front. Though I don’t know how much Frischi Jr is going to be able to match Nino 
.
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Also glad to see Chris Blevins and Matt Beers having another go at it. I think Keegan and Lachlan has the potential to be a solid pairing, so I’m definitely looking forward to seeing how they do. I’m also excited to see Sofia and Katerina paired up, but to my eye (which may be wrong/missing people), the women’s start list in general doesn’t seem as exciting this year, them aside. The men’s race at least seems to have more familiar faces in the race. Should be fun to follow either way.
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Agree. The women’s list is surprisingly shallow compared to past years.
Strikingly obvious not even having the Specialized Factory riders showing up. I was hoping that Cannondale and Specialized would both send women’s teams given they’d both be able to send extremely strong XCM teams.
Beers seems to be going even better than last year and perhaps if Blevins doesn’t roast him in the Prologue again they’ll be able to fight for the overall win.
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My early on pick to win it all is Keegan.
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It should be a fun race and interesting to see how it unfolds. Sofia has a lot of experience now in the event. Hopefully Katerina is in good form so that the two of them can ride aggressively.
Lachlan is going to be pushed by Keegan, especially early on, but his ability to keep hitting it day after day comes into play as the stages drag on. If Keegan and Lachlan can stay at or near the top through the first half of the days, I really like their chances as things drag on.
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I think that Vincenzo Nibali is riding, according to Scott sports Instagram. I had no idea that he had an MTB background
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Beers and Blevins for the win this year!
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I don’t think he’s got a competitive MTB background, but you know he’s ridden some. He’s got a motor for sure, and multiple Italian XCM champ and won Swiss Epic.
Watching the recording of the prologue now. 
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Where are you watching it?
Scroll up, there’s a You Tube link to it (was going to paste the link but the forum told me it was already there. 
)
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