In this week’s episode of the Diverge Podcast we look back at the 4Islands Epic on the Kvarner Islands, in the Adriatic off Croatia. The race was won by the Buff Megamo and Cannondale ISB Sport teams, both of whom notched up a perfect five-from-five stage victories. Then, we look ahead at the Tankwa Trail, a three-day trail run hosted by Dryland Event Management in the Koue Bokkeveld near Op-Die-Berg.

 

Last week, we covered the first three stages of 4Islands Epic and discussed how Monica Calderon and Tessa Kortekaas’s lead of 1 minute and 29 seconds, in the women’s race, over Bianca Haw and Vera Looser appeared in danger. That proved to be completely false, though Kortekaas had struggled on Stage 2, she found her legs in emphatic fashion, on Stages 3 and 4 to secure the overall victory by a dominant margin. The Safari Essence Efficient Insure pair had to settle for second with Cannondale ISB Sport 2 in third.

Buff Megamo continued their perfect performance from the Prologue through Stage 2 with two more wins over the weekend to take the title ahead of Nicholas Pettinà and Ramon Vantaggiato, of KTM Spada Powered by Brenta Brakes 2. HEXATRI’s Pierre Billaud andThéo Dupras were third. But the excitement as all in Hans Becking and Wout Alleman’s battle with the two Italian, KTM Spada Powered by Brenta Brakes, teams.

This coming weekend, trail runners will gather at Kaleo, in the Bokveld, for the Tankwa Trail. The sister event of the Tankwa Trek, it boasts two 21 kilometre stages on Saturday and Sunday after an optional 5 kilometre evening fun-run on Friday. The event is always a fun one with fast and runnable trails forming the majority of the mileage.

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