It has been a bitterly sad day for the Songo camp on the third stage of the Absa Cape Epic 2008. Christpoh Sauser and Burry Stander started the morning in yellow, but failed to complete to the stage after an ITB niggle turned to knee injury for Burry, to the point where he could no longer pedal. The Team according to the race rules, are not allowed to start another stage, nor can Sauser continue on his own.

(A sad moment - Stander cant continue)

Burry had a tight ITB that was niggling after yesterdays stage, the end of two extremely tough and ultimately demanding days of racing with a total time of more than 10 hours. To ride at that intensity, for so long, will surely show up any weak spot. I know that Burry would have pushed himself beyond mortal limits, and being forced to withdraw would have been torture for the fighter at heart. Its been special to have South Africa’s greatest mountain bike talent representing the Songo project initiated by Christoph, and we hope his involvement wont end here, and that this was but a start.

(Absa Cape Epic Stage 3 Lead-pack)

An equal blow for Sauser from every perspective, but graceful and composed as always he has been very encouraging to Stander, offering comfort and advice, as well as keep his own sights on greater goals in the season ahead. It would have been great conditioning racing the 8day stage race from Knysna to Lourensford, but the unexpected is a part of sport.

Burry has been nothing short of a revelation, and perhaps with guidance from Christoph, he’ll find his feet soon and ride again with the best in the world, or even ahead of them as he did for Songo.

(Burry Stander loading his bike at Water Station2 on Stage3)

Where to from here?

The project, to build a bmx track in a sustainable setup, is far greater than a knee injury, and will ultimately in time succeed. As for today, we were blown away by the team taking over yellow, Team Cannondale Vredestein, inquiring whether they can take over the flying of the Songo flag. Truely incredible. As a team, they have been inspired by Christoph Sauser’s heart to raise funds for a project where cycling can be used to influence disadvantaged children, and if they could, they would like to keep media interest and awareness going on the Epic. I cannot confirm whether this will in fact be posisble, whether the ’sponsors block’ on their leaders yellow jerseys can be printed with the BUY KILOMETRES BUILD BMX TRACK bubble, with race regulations and all, but even if it goes no further than their support in reaching out a hand, the Songo team is most grateful and today in the low especially, it has been a much needed encouragement.

When the dust settles, and thoughts as well as emotions are gathered, we’ll re-strategise. We you too will keep one eye on the main focus, the kids of Kayamandi. We’ll make it happen…

This entry was posted on Monday, March 31st, 2008 at 3:22 pm and is filed under categories: ABSA Cape Epic, ABSA Cape Epic 2008, BMX tracks in South Africa, Burry Stander, Cape Epic 2008 News and results, Christoph Sauser, songo.info and tags: , Burry and Christoph, Burry Stander Cape Epic 2008, Christoph Sauser Cape Epic 2008, Sauser and Stander, Stage 3 result Absa Cape Epic 2008, Team Songo, Team Songo.info. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.