After weeks of speculation Christoph Sauser has confirmed that he will come out of retirement and aim for a record-breaking sixth win in the Cape Epic stage race.
The Swiss-born 40-year-old retired from professional mountain biking at the end of the 2015 season but will return ahead of the Cape Epic stage race with a number of preparation races on his schedule. He will link up with former race partner Jaroslav Kulhavy for the South African stage race. The pair won the race in 2013 and 2015 while riding for Investec-Songo-Specialized. In 2017 they will represent the same team once more.
"Every comeback carries a risk especially when you walked out the last time as a winner. It would become the most valuable win of all of them. It terms of what it would mean, it would be right up there with any of my world champion titles," Sauser told Cyclingnews from his base in South Africa.
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"It's going to be the hardest Cape Epic because the competition will be at its highest level ever and everyone likes to win. Many more teams have gained experience over the years and will also arrive with backup teams. If you took the two best riders from a physical point of view, but they'd never raced there before, they would never win at their first attempt. It's a fantastic race, since also the weekend warriors can compete against the pros, sharing the same course together, comparing times, racing and more or less the same equipment. It's a very unique sporting event.
Sauser's glittering career includes a bronze medal at the Sydney Olympic Games, a World Championships in cross-country, three world titles at Marathon level and five Cape Epics (2006, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2015).
"It's a challenge to go back, but we'll have a really good build up and a great experienced team around us, especially our South African backup team NAD-Specialized with Nico Bell and Gawie Comebrick, and it's very possible that we will sign a second backup team as well. I'm really excited and I love the idea of going back to Cape Epic. Somewhere in the back of my mind thought about coming back to try in 2017, but then Jaroslav asked me a few times during the summer if I would really consider it. From there I started to really think about it."
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