The northern route up Swartberg Pass from Prince Albert, where Stage 4 of the Garden Route Giro started, is steeper in places than the southern side. Regardless of the gradient or the distance, Cronje Beukes and Mariëlle Trouwborst were once again the strongest climbers in the race. The story of their stage victories on Thursday, [...]
Cloaked in clouds and doused in drizzle, the Swartberg Pass proved pivotal on Stage 3 of the Garden Route Giro on Wednesday, 15 April 2026. Cronje Beukes once again proved himself to be the strongest climber in the men’s race, putting time into his nearest rivals, Wessel Botha and Marco Joubert, over the summit and [...]
The second stage of the Garden Route Giro saw dramatic racing in both the men’s and women’s categories on Tuesday, 14 April 2026. Stage winner Cronje Beukes climbed to an unassailable advantage on Rooiberg Pass, while Lisa Bone used the day’s biggest climb to build a buffer over the best descender in the women’s field, [...]
In both the men’s and women’s races on Stage 1 of the all-new Garden Route Giro, a trio of aggressive riders escaped off the front and established healthy advantages, despite the opening day of the inaugural race featuring a relatively short 73-kilometre-long route. Marco Joubert hoovered up the Sprint and King of the Mountain points [...]
The first edition of the Garden Route Giro begins on Monday, 13 April, with R700 000 in total prize money up for grabs. The men’s and women’s elite winners will each receive R100 000. In the men’s elite race, established gravel racers like Marco Joubert, Travis Stedman, Jaques Hanekom, Daniel Loubser, and Jan Withaar face off [...]
Success in gravel racing, where 100-mile distances are the standard, is often determined by nutrition. For elite athletes, racing demands a 4-and-a-half-hour effort, while for amateurs, those hours on the bike can easily be doubled. The right sports nutrition is therefore key at all performance levels, from victory to finishing just in time to beat [...]
Every year, the South African mountain biking scene ramps up from the quiet miles of summer base training through the early season races of January, towards the first major stage race of the calendar in February, the Momentum Medical Scheme Tankwa Trek, presented by Biogen. Since its inception, 14 years ago, the race in the [...]
The deepest, fastest field ever assembled for an African marathon will line up in the 2026 Sanlam Cape Town Marathon on Sunday 24 May, including the fastest man ever over the marathon distance and a former two-time World Champion in the women’s race. These elite athletes will be racing not only for line honours in [...]
The cornerstone of any bike race is a route that can entertain and excite in equal measure; with the Garden Route Giro, all angles are covered. From the start at Jakkalsvlei Private Cellar to the final finish line at ANEW Resort Wilderness, gravel racers will traverse multiple biomes, climb and descend iconic passes, and visit [...]
The 2026 Absa Cape Epic starts in Meerendal near Cape Town with both the men’s and women’s titles wide open. Three-time champion Matt Beers teams up with Tristan Nortje after Keegan Swenson’s withdrawal, while several international pairings will challenge for the podium. In the women’s race, the absence of the defending champions has created a [...]
