Karl Platt and Stefan Sahm locked up their overall victory at the 2007 Absa Cape Epic on Saturday, finishing third in the eighth and final stage of the weeklong mountain-bike race across South Africa.

While the day was won by the Swiss duo of Thomas Zahnd and Sandro Spaeth (Texner-Stoeckli), overall honors at the weeklong stage race depended on the outcome of a tough final-day battle between the two Germans from Team Bulls and Jakob Fugelsang and Roel Paulissen (Cannondale-Vredestein).

While Platt and Sahm enjoyed a four-minute buffer over the pair in second place, the contest was far from settled as riders set off on Saturday’s 75km haul from Kleinmond to Lourensford, a stage that featured 1285 meters of climbing, including a tough 810-meter ascent of Sir Lowry’s Pass.

Thepass served as the crossing point for Dutch wagon trains in the 19th century, and the sandstone along the route still shows wheel ruts as evidence of their passage. Far from a smooth road, the Sir Lowry’s is rough enough to have forced riders to portage bikes down a 1km stretch, just 20km from the finish.

Spaeth and Zahnd crested the pass first, in the company of the pair from Cannondale-Vredestein and with the Bulls in hot pursuit. Fugelsang and Paulissen stayed with the Swiss to the finish, losing in a sprint to the line, but still ahead of the overall race leaders. Unfortunately for them, the margin was not nearly enough to overcome Friday’s deficit — the Bulls charged to the line a mere 10 seconds back, wrapping up their first win as a team. Platt won the Cape Epic in 2004 alongside Namibian Mannie Heymans.

The Germans won the most competitive Cape Epic in the event’s four-year history. Cannondale-Vredestein and the Germans exchanged the leaders' jerseys four times, with the Bulls taking the prize for good on stage 7 from Villiersdorp to Kleimond.

For Platt, the win came as a pleasant surprise. The German marathon specialist has 11 stage-race finishes under his belt, most of them with his longtime teammate Carsten Bressner. Bressner, however, retired at the start of the 2007 season. Platt said his goal for the 2007 Cape Epic was simply to win a stage, which he did on the first stage from Knysna to Uniondale.

“I can’t say exactly why, perhaps it’s because I have a new partner,” said Platt when asked why he underestimated his chances. “The Cape Epic is not a race you can just say you are going to win.”

Of the 603 teams that started the 2007 Absa Cape Epic, 468 finished all eight stages, a success rate of 77.6 percent.

2007 ABSA Cape Epic
March 24-31
South AfricaFinal Standings
1. Team Bulls (Karl Platt, Stefan Sahm), 33:08:00
2. Cannondale-Vredestein 1 (Jakob Fugelsang, Roel Paulissen), 33:11:24
3. Dolphin Mountain Bike Team (Bart Brentjens, Rudi van Houts), 33:51:45
4. Trek-Volkswagen (Alban Lakata, Peter Roman), Time not available
5. Team Texner-Stoeckli (Thomas Zahnd, Sandro Spaeth), 34:27:32