History for Beers and Nortje, firsts for Lill and Keller

With just 13 seconds separating the first two teams on the men’s overall classification, the final day of the 2026 Absa Cape Epic was set to deliver a dramatic finale as South Africans Matt Beers and Tristan Nortje (Toyota Specialized Imbuko) bid to become the first all-local team to win the race in its 22-year history.

Italians Luca Braidot and Simone Avondetto (Wilier-Vittoria) were still the team to beat despite losing 1 minute 37 seconds to the African jersey wearers on Saturday’s penultimate stage, and it was all to play for over the final 58km stage around Stellenbosch on Sunday.

Within the first 10km the local favourites had already put 35 seconds into the Italians on the long climb up to Saaltjie, but in a dramatic second half in which Nortje crashed heavily, the Italians fought back from a two-minute deficit to within 40 seconds in the final 10km.

In the end, an injured Nortje, helped by his senior teammate Beers, managed to hold their lead and finish third behind stage winners Sam Gaze and Luca Schwarzbauer (Canyon).

With the Italians eventually finishing fourth, 1 minute behind, the 32-year-old Beers and an emotional 24-year-old Nortje were finally able to celebrate a historic win, 1:04 ahead of Wilier-Vittoria with Gaze and Schwarzbauer filling the final podium spot 3:33 behind.

In the women’s race, South African champion Candice Lill finally realised her dream of winning the Absa Cape Epic, after finishing second five times, as she and Dutch partner Alessandra Keller cruised to their seventh win in eight stages ahead of Monica Caledron and Tessa Kortekaas (Massi Isb Sport) and Chemchamp Honeycomb’s Hayley Preen and Haley Smith.

After the She Sends Foundation team of Greta Seiwald and Kate Courtney was eliminated from the race after Seiwald fell ill on Saturday, Preen and Smith moved up to second overall, 52 minutes 58 seconds behind. The ever-consistent Torpado FSA Kenda team of Katazina Sosna-Pinele and Giorgia Marchet were third, over an hour behind.

Men’s Race

With big crowds lining and cheering along the route, Beers and Nortje were quick to attack the lead of Wilier-Vittoria on the first climb of the day to the upper contour above Stellenbosch. While Gaze and Schwarzbauer were powering away for the stage win, Beers and Nortje were only focused on the fight for the yellow jersey.

The Toyota Specialized Imbuko pair peeked out a 30-second gap before Beers was forced to stop briefly and fix an issue with his derailleur. The tall South African quickly remounted, charged past the Italians, and caught Nortje as the race headed into the famous local tracks, including the Neverending Trail in Jonkershoek. With Braidot clearly struggling, the expected race looked to be over before it even started as the rampant locals powered clear and had stretched their gap to two minutes by the 32km mark.

But there was drama still to come.

Just after halfway, Nortje clipped his pedal on a tree, went over the bars and fell heavily on his right side, cutting his right elbow and bruising his right leg.

I knew it was a big crash,” Nortje said. “I hurt my elbow quite badly and my right leg hit a rock. It was just dead and numb after that and I couldn’t really pedal properly anymore.”

But as he has shown throughout the week, Nortje soldiered on, helped by Beers.

“It’s why I have this tattoo on my arm (Nortje has a tattoo on his left inner arm which reads: Never Give up). We had so much bad luck this week, but we kept on believing.”

Beers resorted to pushing his partner whenever he could, while Toyota Specialized Imbuko teammates, Marco Joubert and Travis Stedman, were always in close attendance, encouraging and setting the pace up front when they could.

With Nortje struggling, the Italians seemed to find a second wind and the gap shrank to 40 seconds with 12km left to ride. In the end, Nortje and Beers managed to hold enough of an advantage as the two entered the finish to a huge cheer from a large crowd at Stellenbosch’s Coetzenburg fields.

“You can’t get bigger than this,” an emotional Nortje said afterwards. “There are so many emotions right now. I think about all the sacrifices made by family, friends, and the team that have supported me. Today was about doing it for them and for the people of South Africa… It’s very special.”

Beers is now just one win away from equalling the record wins of Karl Platt and Christoph Sauser, who have both won the race five times.

“It’s a special one because we have done what a lot of South Africans have been trying to do for a long time,” said the Capetonian. “Tristan has ridden amazingly all week and although he made it harder for himself by crashing today, he showed true character pushing through.”

Women’s Race

After the withdrawal of Seiwald on Friday morning, Lill and Keller were imperious on the final day as they won their seventh stage out of eight. The top three teams were still together at the 23km checkpoint, but the orange jerseys eventually edged clear and extended their lead all the way to the finish.

Calederon and Kortekaas were pushing hard to try on the singletracks, but the orange jersey wearers were not in the mood to gift anyone a stage. The Massi ISB Sport team would eventually finish 2 minutes 27 seconds behind, with Preen and Smith in third, 4:32 adrift.

“It’s been a long time coming,” said the 34-year-old Lill. “But sometimes you have go through those deep, dark situations to get to where I am today. It makes it sweeter, and I’m very grateful to everyone around me who helped me get here.”

For Keller, the current World Short Course champion, taking part in the Absa Cape Epic was always a dream.

“It’s a bit like winning a World Cup series overall because you have to be consistent over eight days. So, this means a lot to me, especially because you are doing it as a team,” Keller said. “It’s a race I’ve always wanted to do… it’s an adventure.”

Early Bird Entries

On Friday, organisers also announced that early-bird entries for the 2027 Absa Cape Epic will open on Monday at 4pm for Full Access members and at 5pm for general entries. Check out www-cape-epic.com for all the details.

RESULTS

Elite Men Stage

1. CANYON Luca SCHWARZBAUER & Sam GAZE (2:19.54)

2. TOYOTA SPECIALIZED IMBUKO 2 Marco Joubert & Travis STEDMAN (2:20.58 | +1:04)

3. TOYOTA SPECIALIZED IMBUKO: Matt BEERS & Tristan NORTJE (2:21.02 | +1:08)

4. WILIER-VITTORIA: Luca BRAIDOT & Simone AVONDETTO (2:22.20 | +2:26)

5. KLIMATIZA ORBEA: David VALERO SERRANO & Marc STUTZMANN (2:23.00 | +3:06)

Elite Men GC

1. TOYOTA SPECIALIZED IMBUKO: Matthew BEERS & Tristan NORTJE (26:55.51)

2. WILIER-VITTORIA: Luca BRAIDOT & Simone AVONDETTO (26:56.56 | +1:04)

3. CANYON:Luca SCHWARZBAUER & Sam GAZE (26:59.25 | +3:33)

4. KLIMATIZA ORBEA: David VALERO SERRANO & Marc STUTZMANN (27:07.59 | +12:08)