For the first time since winning the prologue, the MTN Energade team of Kevin Evans and David George won Thursday's 130km Absa Cape Epic stage in a sprint with two other teams.

The previous day's stage winners, the Bulls team of Karl Platt and Stefan Sahm, were second, followed one second later by the Cannondale Vredestein team, Roel Paulissen and Jakob Fuglsang, who aggressively defended their overall lead.

On stage 5 Paulissen had to ride the final 18km on a bare rim and the team finished in fifth position, losing about half of its overall lead.

Fuglsang said the team rode conservatively on the descents because they didn't want to risk a another flat. “Instead, we went full blast on the uphill,” he said.

Check back to VeloNews.com later for a report on the womens category and more photos.