The Elite Women will race across 560 kilometres and conquer 13 350 metres of climbing on their eight-day odyssey from Meerendal to Stellenbosch. Starting with a 20-kilometre Prologue on Sunday, 15 March, and concluding with 2 150 metres of climbing on Sunday, the 22nd’s Grand Finale, the route is packed with trails, climbs, and attacking opportunities. This [...]
Time parity racing, a deeper field, greater coverage, and more competitive racing are the goals for the Elite Women’s race at the 2026 Absa Cape Epic. Structural changes have been made to the route that the elite women’s teams will race to ensure these aims are met, and this has encouraged stars like Kate Courtney [...]
In 2026, the Elite Women’s race at the Absa Cape Epic will feature parity in duration with the Elite Men’s, rather than parity in distance. The Absa Cape Epic’s meticulous research and comprehensive stakeholder engagement suggest that this will produce faster and more competitive racing, while allowing for increased visibility for the athletes and teams [...]
In the first episode of the new year, we look ahead at what’s to come on the bike in 2026. From the Attakwas Extreme, which kicks off the South African racing season through the Tankwa Trek, Cape Epic, Garden Route Giro, and on into the World Series calendar, which gets underway in South [...]
Over the last decade, we at Diverge have covered around 25 events per year across MTB, Gravel, Road, and Trail Running. With that experience in hand, we'll be bringing you more insights in 2026. Some of it will be on the ground, on the job for the event, while we will be covering other races [...]
This week, on the Diverge Podcast, we look at the 2026 Absa Cape Epic route, which was launched on the 9th of October, and the 2025 Prince George Monumental 100-Miler. The 692-kilometre-long course is the longest since 2015, when the route last topped the 700-kilometre mark. 15 900 metres of climbing across that distance equates to [...]
From the 15th to the 22nd of March 2026, the Absa Cape Epic will take teams contesting the 22nd edition from Meerendal, on the outskirts of Durbanville, into the Klein Karoo surrounding Montagu and back to Stellenbosch in the Winelands via Greyton in the Overberg. In total, the course takes in 692 kilometres and 15 [...]
In Episode 7 of Season 2 the Diverge Podcast is back to regular weekly programming after super micro daily pods from the Absa Cape Epic. And as you can expect we are looking back at the 21st edition of the race, chatting about how Scott SRAM and Toyota Specialized secured their victories. Then [...]
Nino Schurter and Filippo Colombo (SCOTT-SRAM MTB Racing) won the 2025 Absa Cape Epic at Lourensford Wine Estate in Somerset West today. The win is Schurter’s third Absa Cape Epic title, while Colombo claimed the crown at his first attempt. In the Aramex UCI Women’s Category, Annika Langvad claimed her sixth Absa Cape Epic title [...]
Tune in for daily insights from inside the media team at the 2025 Absa Cape Epic with the Diverge Podcast's vlogs. In the Stage 7 episode Seamus Allardice looks ahead at the Grand Finale, with at the time of recording was still set to start at 08:00. Within moments of recording the start had been [...]
