Mona Mitterwallner and Candice Lill, first and second in the XCM World Championship, will team up in the Cape Epic 2024

Mona Mitterwallner and Candice Lill will team up at the Cape Epic 2024 under the Cannondale Factory Racing umbrella. The pairing of the current world champion and runner-up in XCM places them as the main favorites for victory. Both riders will seek to conquer one of the most spectacular races on the calendar for the first time.

Mona Mitterwallner and Candice Lill: luxury pair to assault Cape Epic 2024

With less than two weeks to go before the start of Cape Epic 2024, a special edition celebrating its 20 years of existence, news is starting to emerge. The organization has not yet revealed the list of participants, although it seems that once again some heavyweights will ride through the South African terrain - the attendance of Lukas Baum and Georg Egger is taken for granted, as well as the official confirmation that Nino Schurter and Sebastian Fini will team up.

It has now been revealed that Mona Mitterwallner and Candice Lill will be a pair at Cape Epic 2024. Both riders recently raced together at the Tankwa Trek, which they won.

Both are widely experienced and renowned cyclists in the discipline and have a curriculum that allows them to dream big: the favoritism is clear and they will have to deal with the pressure of those leading the favorites to take the victory.

Mona Mitterwallner is the current XCM World Champion and will be competing in the Absa Cape Epic for the first time. The Austrian rider will debut with great ambition in a season that will have its highlight at the Paris Olympics.

Candice Lill is the current XCM World Runner-Up and has six participations in the Cape Epic - four second places in the last four participations, six days as a leader, and three Absa African Jersey jerseys. The South African rider is facing the best opportunity to achieve a victory that has always eluded her.

Lill has started the season on the right foot and counts her races by victories. The latest of them was at the Salamina Epic Race last Sunday, which helped her complete three wins and 220 points in the frenetic week that took place on the Greek island.

The South African rider confessed that the good performance of both at the XCM World Championship in Glasgow "is a small indication that we have potential," although she admitted that "this is the Absa Cape Epic; a completely different race with a unique set of challenges that will test our partnership in every way."

On the other hand, Mitterwallner explained that far from putting pressure on them, the partnership "is giving us wings" and "we know how strong we can be." She also stated that the Cape Epic "has always been high on my list of pending races" and hopes it will give her "that push to face this important season with a lot of energy."

Lill also commented that she is excited about a route she described as "incredible." "This may be an unpopular opinion, but I really enjoy the rough and rocky riding in Tulbagh and it will undoubtedly be a true test in the early days."

Furthermore, she stated that "Mona and I are different cyclists, with our own strengths. We will bring out the best in ourselves if we are aware of when the terrain or slope favors our individual strengths and take care of our partner in those moments. Teamwork is everything in the Absa Cape Epic."