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 final stage of the 2026 Momentum Medical Scheme Tankwa Trek, presented by Biogen, on Sunday, 8 February, saw Greta Seiwald and Sara Cortinovis wrap up a perfect overall victory. The Decathlon Ford | Unno pairing completed their fourth stage win of the race to underline their dominance in the Anderson Transport UCI Women’s competition. [...]
Marc Pritzen and Hermann Pernsteiner ascended to glory on the Queen Stage of the 2026 Momentum Medical Scheme Tankwa Trek, presented by Biogen, claiming the King of the Mountain prize atop the Merino Monster and winning the stage. Andreas Seewald and Jakob Hartmann were second across the summit and finish line on Saturday, 7 February, [...]
Stage 2 of the Momentum Medical Scheme Tankwa Trek, presented by Biogen, on Friday, the 6th of February 2026, saw dramatic racing on the trails of the Witzenberg Valley. In the men's race, there was a puncture, for Wessel Botha, and a crash, for Marco Joubert, which would eventually prevent the Toyota Specialized Imbuko team [...]
Toyota Specialized Imbuko and Decathlon Ford | Unno won the opening stage of the 2026 Momentum Medical Scheme Tankwa Trek, presented by Biogen, on Thursday, 5 February. The 32-kilometre-long Stage 1 presented a fast and relatively flat course, which favoured the explosive power of Greta Seiwald and Sara Cortinovis in the UCI Women’s race. In [...]
In 2026’s third episode of the Diverge Podcast, we look back at victories on their season debuts by Matt Beers and Candice Lill at the Banhoek leg of the Ford Trailseeker Series. Lill dominated the women’s race, capitalising on her Cape Epic partner, Alessandra Keller, suffering a puncture to go solo and win [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Bike racing is meant to hurt. It should be hard. At the sharp end, the top teams do their best to turn each other inside out, to inflict pain until only those who can break through that threshold endure to the finish line. Then the next day, they do it again, layering fatigue upon fatigue. [...]
