Diverge

Matt Beers and Tristan Nortje became the first all-South African team to win the Elite Men’s race at the Absa Cape Epic on Sunday, 22 March 2026. The Specialized Toyota Imbuko team overturned a 13-second deficit on the final stage to become the third team in the history of the race to seize yellow on Stage 7. Wilier Vittoria’s Luca Braidot & Simone Avondetto, who had held the general classification lead since the conclusion of Stage 3, had to be content with second for the second year in a row.

2026 Elite Women’s champions, Thömus Maxon Sabi Sabi, had the title all but sewn up since Friday’s Queen Stage, when they put 9 and a half minutes into their nearest rivals, the She Sends Foundation. Candice Lill’s victory was her first and broke a sequence of second-place finishes for the South African cross-country champion that dates back to the 2019 race. Upon sealing the victory, Lill’s teammate, Alessandra Keller, became the fifth Swiss woman to win the Absa Cape Epic crown. The absence from the final overall standings of Kate Courtney and Greta Seiwald [illness], as well as Vera Looser and Rosa van Doorn [injury], suggests that the women’s race was less fiercely contested than it actually was, but does not detract from the class of Lill and Keller’s near flawless performance.

The penultimate day of the 2026 Absa Cape Epic saw Matt Beers and Tristan Nortje overturn the momentum against them and regain the initiative heading into the final day of the 22nd edition. The Toyota Specialized Imbuko combination may have crossed the Stellenbosch finish line second on the day, but more importantly, they beat the race leaders, Wilier Vittoria, home by 1 minute and 37 seconds. So while Buff BH celebrated the stage win, Beers and Nortje looked to the shift in momentum and looked ahead to the final stage, because Luca Braidot and Simone Avondetto’s buffer will only be 13 seconds at the start of Stage 7.

In the Elite Women’s race, the withdrawal of Greta Seiwald put a dampener on Candice Lill and Alessandra Keller’s stage victory. Having battled the She Sends Foundation combination for six days, the Italian’s illness left Thömus Maxon Sabi Sabi without a reason to race at their highest level. Seiwald had developed a fever overnight and only started, before stopping within 15 metres, to allow Kate Courtney to race the stage with the Elite Women, rather than being forced into C-Batch in the main field, like Vera Looser and Kelsey van Schoor, who lost their teammates earlier in the race. Symbtech.net’s Margot Moschetti and Claudia Peretti were the next best team on the day, finishing ahead of Hayley Preen and Haley Smith. The Chemchamp Honeycomb pair inherited second from She Sends Foundation, while Torpado FSA Kenda now holds third. Katazina Sosna-Pinele and Giorgia Marchet will start the final stage with a 7-minute and 9-second advantage over Moschetti and Peretti, in fourth.

The Queen Stage of the 2026 Absa Cape Epic saw Candice Lill and Alessandra Keller put the hammer down and exert their dominance over the Elite Women’s race. The Thömus Maxon Sabi Sabi team won their 90-kilometre stage by 9 minutes and 29 seconds, from Kate Courtney and Greta Seiwald to take their general classification lead to a hearty 14 minutes and 19 seconds. The men’s race, despite racing for 134 kilometres and over 5 hours, came down to the fourth sprint finish of the week. For the first time at the 22nd edition Luca Braidot and Simone Avondetto crossed the finish line first, adding another 13 seconds to their general classification buffer over the three-time champion, Matt Beers, and his Toyota Specialized Imbuko teammate, Tristan Nortje. David Valero Serrano and Marc Stutzmann finished between the top two teams on the overall standings, to move their Klimatiza Orbea outfit up from fourth to third, after Canyon lost 70 seconds on Stage 5.

Stage 4 of the 2026 Absa Cape Epic produced more dramatic racing. Rosa van Doorn, the Buff BH half of Buff BH Efficient Infiniti, crashed out while fighting for third on the general classification, while She Sends Foundation outfoxed Thömus Maxon Sabi Sabi to take their first stage win. Kate Courtney and Greta Seiwald played a tactical game, which helped them to a sprint victory ahead of the Elite Women's leaders, Candice Lill and Alessandra Keller. In the Elite Men's race, Canyon's Luca Schwarzbauer and Sam Gaze became the first team to win two stages of the 22nd edition by outsprinting the general classification leaders, Luca Braidot and Simone Avondetto. Toyota Specialized Imbuko's Matt Beers and Tristan Nortje lost 24 seconds to Wilier Vittoria by finishing the day in third. 

Stage 3 of the 2026 Absa Cape Epic saw unexpected general classification action, the fourth new stage winners in the Elite Men's race, and the continued class of Candice Lill and Alessandra Keller. Marc Pritzen and Felix Stelhi powered across the gravel roads from Riviersonderend to Greyton to establish an advantage, which they held into Middelplaas to take Honeycomb 266ers' first Absa Cape Epic stage win. Behind them, Tristan Nortje endured a front wheel puncture and was forced to chase for the second time in three days, but unlike on Stage 1, he and Matt Beers were unable to make it back to the favourites group. After 140 kilometres of racing Toyota Specialized Imbuko team ceded 1 minute and 16 seconds to Luca Braidot and Simone Avondetto. This meant that Wilier Vittoria led overall, heading into the second half of the race, by 1 minute and 14 seconds over Beers and Nortje. 

Candice Lill and Alessandra Keller won their third stage of the Absa Cape Epic with a well-timed attack 9 kilometres from the Montagu finish line on Stage 2 of the 2026 race. In so doing, Thömus Maxon Sabi Sabi added 38 seconds to their general classification lead over Kate Courtney and Greta Seiwald, of the She Sends Foundation. Having started the day in third overall, Vera Looser and Rosa van Doorn endured a day punctuated by punctures and lost 23 minutes, slipping to fifth. In the men's race, Luca Schwarzbauer and Sam Gaze galloped to stage victory, coming good after two days of struggling in the heat. The Canyon team outkicked Wilier-Vittoria's Luca Braidot and Simone Avondetto in a three-team sprint finish, which also featured the yellow jersey wearers, Matt Beers and Tristan Nortje. 

Stage 1 of the 2026 Absa Cape Epic saw Matt Beers and Tristan Nortje, of Toyota Specialized Imbuko, fight back from nearly 4 minutes down, after a puncture in the opening 20 kilometres, to sprint for stage victory and avoid any time losses to the day's protagonists, Buff-BH, Willier Vitoria, and Klimatiza Orbea. In the Elite Women's battle for the orange jerseys, Candice Lill and Alessandra Keller capitalised on a feeding error from Kate Courtney and Greta Seiwald to add 1 minute and 56 seconds to their general classification lead. BUFF BH-Efficient Infiniti's Rosa van Doorn and Vera Looser were second on the day, but could not take enough time on the She Sends Foundation team to leapfrog into second overall. 

The 2026 Absa Cape Epic couldn't have started much better for South African MTB fans. There are 3 SAFFAs in the 4 elite 'd the 22nd edition with a stage win. Candice Lill and her Swiss teammate, Alessandra Keller, stormed into the lead on the opening day too, but both races remain finely poised heading into the first marathon day, Stage 1, in Montagu.

The 2026 Absa Cape Epic gets underway on Sunday, 15 March, at Meerendal Wine Estate. Diverge will be there, and with support from Squirt Cycling Products, will be bringing you insights from within the race. Follow @diverge.info on Instagram for real time updates.

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 herCape Epic partner, Alessandra Keller, suffering a puncture to go solo and win by over 3 minutes. Beers was more patient, biding his time until the final kilometre before attacking the final member of the race-defining five-man breakaway.Marc Pritzen was second behind Beers, extending his wait for his first win of the year, but in this form, that cannot be far off. Elsewhere, Dryland Event Management announced a R700 000 prize purse for the inaugural Garden Route Giro, FNB Wines2Whales opened entries to the 2026 Chardonnay, Pinotage, and Shiraz events, and the UCI line-ups for the Momentum Medical Scheme Tankwa Trek, presented by Biogen, were announced.  

To read the news articles about those events, and more, visit www.diverge.info. Or click through here:

• Beers and Lill Win the Opening Round of the Ford Trailseeker Series at Banhoek
• R700 000 On the Line at the Inaugural Garden Route Giro
• The Pros and Pros of the Original and Switchback Routes at FNB Wines2Whales
• Southern Africans to Shine at the 2026 Tankwa Trek

And remember to follow Diverge on social media… @diverge.info on Instagram, Diverge on Facebook, @Diverge_info on X, and Diverge on YouTube. And subscribe on Spotify.