CHAMPIONS CROWNED AT 15th ANNIVERSARY

The 2023 Cape to Cape has crowned its champions following a 33km blast around Cape Naturaliste to wrap up the 15^th anniversary event. 

Damp conditions made for a quick stage, starting and finishing at Wise Winery, with the men’s, mixed and women’s pairs leaders heading into the day all finishing the event standing on the top step of the podium.

Daniel McConnell and Cam Ivory were pushed all the way in the final stage, crossing the finish line less than a second ahead of Connor Wright and Juan-Pierre Van Der Merwe, with Cadel Adams and Hayden James hot on their heels in third.

McConnell and Ivory took the overall men’s pairs victory by less than four minutes from Wright and Van Der Merwe, with Darby Gaebler and Joel Dodds claiming the final spot on the podium. 

“It was super fast today, I think some of the WA guys have some local knowledge out there and they just really pushed the pace, we were just trying to hold on, it was still quite slippery out there on the pea gravel but a little bit of wet weather made the conditions quite good,” said Ivory. “We got caught out a little coming into the finish, almost took a wrong turn and ended up on the back of the pack so we feel like we were quite lucky to get the win today, we just came back in the final moments.”

The pair have only just recently started racing together, with the 2023 Cape to Cape their first event as a team.

“It’s awesome, we’ve only just teamed up for the first time, we’ve always ridden against each other, we know each other’s strengths and weaknesses so we tried to utilise that this week but we’ve just had an awesome time, plenty of laughs and that’s why we came over here, just to have fun and some close racing with the young guys really pushing us it was awesome,” he said. 

McConnell said that the pair had to work hard to take the final stage win after slipping behind coming into the last climb of the event. 

“Today I don’t think either of us was having too good of a day, we were under the pump the whole time and not really riding the trails too well but to come away with the stage win and most importantly the win overall we’re pretty happy,” said McConnell. “We were pretty happy to get back, we only just got back on to the front at the bottom of the climb so we were already pretty gassed but we were able to stick a little bit together and to come away with the win there is a pretty hard way to finish the race but we’re happy.”

In the mixed pairs Tristan Nash and Zoe Davison finally turned their three second place finishes so far this week into a stage win, edging out Peta Mullens and Jarrod Moroni by two minutes, with Joha and Karli Beukes third.

Defending mixed pairs champions Mullens and Moroni made it back-to-back titles, taking home the overall leaders jersey by just over 10 minutes, with Nash and Davison second and the Beukes third.

“It feels really good, I had a rough day, I pretty much wanted Jarrod to push me for the 33km but it was great, the rain kind of settled the pea gravel and we stayed safe and had a good race,” said Mullens. “Of all the stages it feels like the raciest race at the start because we have that little ditch off the start and then straight along the road so it kind of feels like a road race into a cross country race. I think the lead guys must have washed some of the pea gravel away because it wasn’t as bad as last year.”

Mullens said that the pair certainly didn’t have things all their own way on the final day of the 2023 Cape to Cape.

“We had a lot of competition early, the Roxsolt SRAM girls came past me, even though Jarrod was pushing me up the hill and then soon after that Tristan and Zoe came past and I think they had about 40 seconds on us when we hit the single track,” she said. “Zoe is a local here so she’s pretty quick and they had a good stage last year here so I was pretty confident that we wouldn’t catch them and we didn’t.”

For Moroni the variable conditions throughout the Cape Naturaliste stage made it one to remember.

“It’s a really enjoyable stage, really cross country orientated, along the ocean there is great and it’s probably the best stage because of all the variations it appeals to every rider, you’ve got the open fire roads and single track and that, I really liked it,” he said.

Another team leading from start to finish were women’s pairs champions Elizabeth Nuspan and Caitlyn Brazier who ended their first event together in the best way possible, with an overall victory. 

Nuspan and Brazier didn’t put a foot wrong all week, taking the overall win by almost two hours ahead of Karis Aplin and Lara Sarson, with Tamsin Eldridge and Josie Hardwick third.

“I loved that stage, I think the rain really helped it, it made it a bit more grippy because it’s pea gravel so it’s slippery but the rain really helped and there were heaps of jumps out there which were fun, a bit of road and a bit of gravel made it faster and it actually went really fast, that was over super quick,” said Brazier.

Nuspan said that a first up win together was special, with the pair drawing from the great crowd support towards the finish in Wise Winery. 

“It’s been pretty special, we’ve never ridden together before so we’ve had a lot to learn throughout the week,” she said. “It was really cool, even from the base of the climb there were people running up, everyone had their phones out and were cheering, it was awesome.”