Johnston makes it eight straight at Cape to Cape

After more than 200km of gruelling mountain bike riding the GIANT Shimano team members Brendan Johnston and Jon Odams have won the Cape to Cape mountain bike stage race.

In some of the toughest riding the event has ever seen, bikers emerged from the forest dusty and beat up crossing the finish line at the Margaret River Distilling Co after four days of brutal riding.

Johnston and Odams wrapped up the Epic Series ‘Triple Crown’ of Port to Port, Reef to Reef and Cape to Cape with another impressive performance against the best riders in the nation.

It was the eighth Epic Series win on the trot for Johnston, but it nearly didn’t eventuate due to a stressful night threatened to derail everything on the eve of stage four.

“I was feeling really rough and didn’t get enough food in last night and really struggled this morning,” he said.

“It was pretty hectic run home and the Trek boys were going for time on second place overall, so we were just along for the ride.”

“It is unreal to think that I have strung together eight Epic Series wins, and Jon and I pulling together the Triple Crown for the Men’s Pairs.

Johnson said he loved the Cape to Cape event with many friends and family travelling to the region to support him.

Odams was delighted to pull off the victory in such a fast-paced and even event.

“When you look at how close the times are and the average speeds on the stages, they are super, super fast and everyone is just trying to ride everyone off their wheel, so the pace is certainly up,” he said.

We have had a sprint finish every stage and the 20 metres today was the biggest gap of the week. It has been super exciting and just shows you how tough the racing has been. No-one can get away and it is just the mix of which teams are in the front bunch that has varied.”

The racing was fast and furious in every category, but the Men’s Open Pairs event produced many highlights including a two tenths of a second gap between second and third after a harrowing chase to the finish.

Going into the Margaret River stage third place team Trek Shimano comprised of Cameron Ivory and Calllum Carson needed to find 54 seconds to rein in team Double Trouble and grab second place on the podium, unfortunately they fell short by a tyre.