Riders to watch at Cape Epic 2026 – Mountain bike stars, gravel pros and Epic veterans form strong and open field for 700km challenge

The gruelling Absa Cape Epic mountain bike stage race (March 15-22) in South Africa will play out over eight days this year, accumulating 700 kilometres of racing and 16,000 metres of elevation gain through the rugged terrain of the Western Cape.

Every year Cape Epic proves to be an unrelenting test of endurance for even the most experienced and hardy in the field, with mechanicals, illness and crashes throwing another layer of challenge and unpredictability into the already formidable mix. What's more, the pairs format means that it's not enough to have one rider on a good day, as both riders need to ride within two minutes of each other the entire time.

It all begins with a 20km prologue at the Meerendal Wine Estate on Sunday. For stages 1 and 2, it shifts into the dry lands of Montagu, before tackling the open roads to Greyton on stage 3 and then the energy-sapping climbs of the area on stage 4. This is followed by a brutal run from Greyton to over 128km with 2,700m of elevation gain before the route arrives in Stellenbosch. This location will provide the race hub for a testing final two days next weekend, where the continued heavy dose of climbing combines with the ever-accumulating fatigue from an unrelenting eight days on the bike.

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At the end, four new winners will be crowned across the pairs in the UCI men's and UCI women's elite categories. Last year it was the experienced hands who managed to snare the victories, with Annika Langvad returning from retirement to take out her sixth edition of the women's race, that time in the Toyota-Specialized team with second-time winner Sofia Gómez Villafañe. In the men's event there was a third title for the retiring Nino Schurter, who paired up with Filippo Colombo in the Scott-SRAM team.

There will be no repeat from any of the 2025 UCI winners, as none will be on the start list this year which leaves the path to the top open for both those who were nipping at their heels in 2025 and also a new range of contenders. Ahead of the race, Cyclingnews took a look at some of the riders who could be in the running to put their names on the winners' list this year.

Luca Braidot and Simone Avondetto (Wilier-Vittoria)

With no Schurter and Colombo on the start list for 2026, last year's runners-up Luca Braidot and Simone Avondetto will be hoping they can go one step better this year as the Italian pair line up again for Willier-Vittoria.

Last year was both of their first times racing Cape Epic, but they got off to a flying start, winning the prologue, stage 3 and stage 4 and finishing second, only 1:31 down on the winners – a tiny margin over eight days and 23 hours of racing, especially considering the next team was over 12 minutes down.

The Italians quickly proved that what they may have lacked in Cape Epic experience, they more than made up for with their depth and breadth of strength and success in other mountain bike events, and clearly found their groove on the South African terrain. Since then, Avondetto finished second in the XCO World Championships last year, whilst Braidot picked up a host of top 10s and the Italian national title.

With more experience and knowledge this year, plus one major rival team less, this pair will surely be considered the top favourites to claim the title in 2026.

Kate Courtney and Greta Seiwald (She Sends Foundation)

Kate Courtney was due to line up with Leadville 100 winner Melisa Rollins, but Rollins broke her elbow in a "freak accident" during their pre-race training. Happening just a few days before the prologue, it wasn't clear if Courtney might be able to race with a new partner, but it was confirmed on Wednesday that she would line up with Italy's Greta Seiwald.

Seiwald rides for the Decathlon Ford Racing Team and has already been racing down in South Africa, taking on the Big 5 MTB Challenge and the Tankwa Trek stage race, which she won with Sara Cortinovis, beating Samantha Sanders and Vera Looser, so she's a pretty good last-minute replacement.

Courtney starts in South Africa as the reigning Marathon World Champion and former Cape Epic winner from 2018 with Annika Langvad, so she certainly has both the strength and experience to fight for the win here. Regardless of who she was paired with, Courtney was always going to be considered one of the very top contenders for the victory.

Losing Rollins so late on will of course be destabilising for the She Sends Foundation team. But Courtney has found a very good replacement in Seiwald, and the pair are certainly still worthy of the number 1 bib - technically 51 but top of the women's start list - though perhaps they aren't quite the near-unstoppable favourites that Courtney may have been with Rollins.

Matt Beers and Tristan Nortje (Toyota Specialized Imbuko)

The run in to Cape Epic hasn't gone completely to plan for three-time winner Matt Beers as his intended partner, the extremely familiar Keegan Swenson, had his plans to race ended by a fractured pelvis. Though being a part of a Toyota Specialized Imbuko team with plenty of options at the race has its advantages.

Given the team has three pairings in the race, it probably shouldn't be a surprise when Tristan Nortje from team two shifted up to race with Beers as he is a rider who clearly has the experience to win and Nortje has demonstrated the form.

The new addition to the pairing, in fact, came out blazing at the Tankwa Trek four-stage race in early February, winning the opening stage with Marco Joubert in a pairing that back then was expected to be replicated at Cape Epic. Plus Nortje then went on to come second at the Big 5 MTB challenge among a field stacked with Cape Epic rivals. Finally, Nortje has proven he can perform at the top end of this race already, coming third in 2025.

Rosa van Doorn and Vera Looser (Buff-BH Efficient Infiniti)

After Rollins' crash, Rosa van Doorn and Vera Looser can probably stake the claim as favourites in the women's race, though things are really open in the women's field, even more so than usual in the chaos of Cape Epic. Van Doorn and Looser are pairing up for Buff-BH Efficient Infiniti and have a huge amount of pedigree in long-distance MTB racing and previous Epics.

The Netherlands' Rosa van Doorn won the overall of the Marathon World Cup series last year, winning three rounds in the process to really show her strength in this longer-distance format, though she did falter at the World Championships. She's ridden Cape Epic once before, finishing sixth with Janina Wust in 2025.

Vera Looser of Namibia will be starting her sixth Epic, and she's probably the most decorated rider in the field after Candice Lill, never finishing outside of the top six, taking the victory in 2023 and finishing second in 2025. She's warmed up for Cape Epic by taking second at Tankwa Trek.

The pair may be linking up at Cape Epic for the first time, but their combined strength makes them something of a superteam, and really a force to be reckoned with, particularly in the absence of Langvad and Gómez Villafañe. Can they fuse their previous successes and turn that into a win next week? We certainly think so.

Luca Schwarzbauer and Sam Gaze (Canyon)

Two short track specialists are teaming up to take on an all together much longer challenge in South Africa, with Mountain Bike World Cup winners Luca Schwarzbauer (Germany) and Sam Gaze (New Zealand) lining up for Canyon.

The pair aren't technically mountain bike teammates, as Schwarzbauer rides for Canyon XC Racing and Gaze for Alpecin-Premier Tech, but they know each other well from the Canyon family and the World Cup circuit, and they've been down in South Africa training for a few weeks now.

It's a Cape Epic debut for Schwarzbauer who has relatively little long-distance MTB experience, whilst Gaze has started once, in 2019 with Jaroslav Kulhavy, but he didn't finish after sustaining a concussion in a crash. Since then, he's won three MTB world titles including one in Marathon, and also lined up in stage races and a Grand Tour on the road.

Though both are known more for their explosive short track efforts, this pair could be a really interesting proposition once they adapt to the longer style of racing, and their combined power seems enough to put them in contention for at least a stage win. They will also be looked at to make the racing hard for others with attacks and efforts, rather than just grinding through.

Last year's race was won by an XCO World Cup duo, and the level on the circuit seems to get higher every year, so it wouldn't be a surprise to see Schwarzbauer and Gaze replicate the success of Schurter and Colombo.

Candice Lill and Alessandra Keller (Thömus Maxon Sabi Sabi)

The Thömus Maxon Sabi Sabi duo is a really interesting combination, with the very experienced South African Candice Lill teaming up with a debutant and World Cup star in Alessandra Keller.

This will be Lill's ninth participation in Cape Epic, and she's finished on the podium no fewer than five times, most recently finishing second in 2024. A South African native, Lill knows this race inside out and what it takes to do well, so seems a good companion for Keller.

Keller is a star of the World Cup series, taking double overall titles in 2024 and multiple round victories in both XCC and XCO, so she's a powerful rider to be dipping her toe into the longer-distance challenge of Cape Epic and it will be interesting to see how her clear talent translates over eight days.

It might be a bit of a test or adventure for Keller, but Lill is certainly here to try and finally win her big home event. Another podium is probably the least she's aiming for, with stage wins and the overall title the real serious goal.

Marco Joubert and Travis Stedman (Toyota Specialized Imbuko 2)

Even though the pairing of national gravel champion Marco Joubert and Travis Stedman is a new one – Stedman shifting up from Toyota Specialized Imbuko 3 when Nortje moved up to team 1 – it shouldn't be underestimated. Yes, the familiarity of Nortje and Joubert may have been an asset, particularly as the duo won stage 6 and stepped onto the overall podium in third last year, but Stedman is still a strong substitute.

Last year was the 23-year-old's first Cape Epic and even then he managed to come ninth. On top of that, he has been showing a strong vein of form this season, winning the final stage of the Nedbank Gravel Burn and, in a pairing with Jaedon Terlouw, won stage 4 and was the third duo overall at the Tankwa Trek.

Still, while both parts of the pair had success at the Tankwa – Joubert winning the opening stage in his pairing with Nortje at the event – there was another less desirable outcome. Joubert had a run-in with a duiker, a small antelope, on stage 2 of the race, which knocked him off the bike and ended up on top of him. He didn't continue on in stage 3. Let's hope there aren't any lasting injuries that get in the way of the South African duo's run at Cape Epic.

Hayley Preen and Haley Smith (ChemChamp Honeycomb)

Hayley Preen, the African road and gravel champion, has become a regular at the Cape Epic – lining up for a fifth time in 2026 and last year she made it to the overall podium, taking third with fellow South African Bianca Haw. This year, however, Haw will be riding with another and Preen is instead lining up with Canadian Haley Smith, who last year was seventh overall in combination with Australia's Ella Bloor.

It may be a new combination, but both being experienced players and used to the format may ease the transition into a new partnership. What's more the familiarity is there, with both racers having taken on the Life Time Grand Prix.

"Hayley is really strong so I'm scared, I'm very scared, but she also knows how to take care of a teammate so I know I couldn't be in better hands for Epic," said Smith in a pre-race interview.

Both are also adept across the disciplines and should be comfortable on the more open road sections as well as the single-track, and have shown that they are heading into the race with some strong form.

Preen won the UCI Gravel World Series race, The Ceder, last month and Smith claimed second at the Belgian Waffle Ride Arizona, though it's only been a step along the way to their big goal in South Africa.

Other riders to watch

The Singer KTM Racing team is stacked full of experience in Andreas Seewald and Jakob Hartmann. Former Marathon world champion Seewald has finished five Epics so far, including a runner up spot in 2022, whilst this is a third for Hartmann. Last year the pair only managed 35th so will be hoping for some big improvements in 2026.

David Valero and Marc Stutzmann are pairing up for Klimatiza Orbea, both former Epic finishers but racing together for the first time and likely aiming for the podium. Stutzmann finished fourth last year with Samuele Porro, and Valero 13th. Valero just won the four-day Mediterranean Epic in Spain.

Monica Calderon and Tessa Kortekaas bring experience for Massi ISB Sport, as they finished fourth last year, winning the final stage on the way. Calderon, from Colombia, has ridden Cape Epic three times before and seems to be getting better every year, and in an edition where a lot of riders are with a new partner, Calderon and Kortekaas' experience riding together could help.

The Pump for Peace women's team features Iran's most decorated cyclist Faranak Partoazar and Bosnia and Herzegovina's Lejla Njemcevic, who won the overall Marathon World Cup series in 2023. The purpose of the team may be about riding for peace, but they're strong enough for some good results too.

Wout Alleman and Martin Stošek (Buff BH) were one of the pairings that could also have easily found a place in the key favourites list above, as they managed a win on stage 2 last year before illness forced Alleman out last year. The Belgian was also third overall in 2024 while Stošek was second the year before.

Felix Stehli and Marc Pritzen make a compelling duo, that is likely to be strong on the prologue and transfer stages across the open roads, The Swiss rider Stehli delivered a reminder of his power when he finished fifth in the packed field of the UCI Gravel World Championships last year while South African cross-country marathon champion Pritzen has form in the prologue, coming third on the opening day of racing at the event last year.

A recombination of a couple of riders from last year, South African mountain bike champion Samantha Sanders and Bianca Haw (Sani2c Efficient Infiniti) will be another intriguing duo to look out for. Sanders won at the race in 2024 as part of a mixed duo and came second at the recent Tankwa Trek in a combination with Vera Looser while Haw last year was on the podium in the UCI Women category in a pair with Hayley Preen.

Gravel fans, watch out for the US pair Jenna Rinehart and Leah Van Der Linden (Wolf Tooth Components). Rinehart is a former Life Time Grand Prix overall top 10 finisher, whilst Van Der Linden won Breck Epic last year.

Among the well-known names on the start list is Lachlan Morton, who is pairing up with Andrew L'Esperance this year. Morton has plenty of experience at the event and L'Esperance got his introduction to the race in a partnership with Rob Britton last year. The Australian and Canadian combination, based on past results, aren't going to be competing for the very top spots but Morton hasn't been far away from the top ten in previous editions.

In the mixed category, look out for 2025's top World Cup rider and XCO world champion Jenny Rissveds who is racing the event with her real life partner and fellow World Cup pro Simon Andreassen. They say they're taking on the race as a different way to prepare for the World Cup season.