The defending champions easily won the 45-kilometre section on day two between Dusi Bridge and Inanda Dam in a time of two hours, 50 minutes and 49 seconds (2:50:49) to extend their overall lead to four minutes, 10 seconds.

The big losers on the day were one of the pre-race favourites, Thulani Mbanjwa and Sbonelo Zondi, who slipped to fourth overall after toppling over at a weir shortly before Marianni Foley Causeway, early in the stage.

At that point, the pair had just been overtaken by world marathon champion McGregor and his partner Jenkins, who eventually ended in an overall time of 5:31:55.

Birkett and Graham, who have a total time of 5:27:45, started out the day with a three-second lead and never looked troubled as they led from start to finish.

On the other hand, the Mbanjwa and Zondi ’Dream Team’ were more than 90 seconds clear of McGregor and Jenkins, but were quickly caught in the fast flowing waters of the Msunduzi river.

After they tipped over, the two men, born and bred in the Valley of a Thousand Hills, through which the race is currently running, struggled to recover and fell back to an overall time of 5:38:01, more than 11 minutes behind the pacesetters.

Mbanjwa and Zondi were also pipped to third place by surprise package Lance Kime and Kwanda Mhlophe after the latter pairing came from more than six-and-a-half minutes back to finish in 5:37.58 overall.

The women’s race was also being controlled by a pair of defending champions after Abbey Ulansky and Robyn Kime blitzed through in a stage-record time of 3:09:24 — overall 6:08:57 — for a remarkable 21st place in the combined standings.

The highly-rated Adie twins, Alex and Abbey, from Howick were lying second in 6:25:36, while Debbie Germiquet and Carmen Blakeney were third in 6:50:19.