2026 GARDEN ROUTE GIRO: HERE ARE THE TITLE CONTENDERS

The first edition of the Garden Route Giro begins on Monday, 13 April, with R700 000 in total prize money up for grabs. The men’s and women’s elite winners will each receive R100 000. In the men’s elite race, established gravel racers like Marco Joubert, Travis Stedman, Jaques Hanekom, Daniel Loubser, and Jan Withaar face off against men with proven road pedigree, like Kent Main and Johannes Hirschbichler, and the young men with a point to prove, like Herman Fourie and Cronje Beukes.

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In the women’s race, Vera Looser lines up against Yolande de Villiers, 2026 Cape Town Cycle Tour winner Lisa Bone, Bianca Haw, Catherine Kruger, Danielle du Toit, and the Dutch multidisciplinary talent, Mariëlle Trouwborst.

TERRAIN WILL TELL

Big mountain passes dominate four of the six stages and appear likely to play a decisive role. A double ascent of the Swartberg Pass, on Stages 3 and 4, could provide the foundation for victory, yet the Queen Stage from De Rust to Knysna will probably be where decisive time gaps are created. With terrain suited for aggressive racing, where risks on descents and power on long run-ins to finishing towns will be required to gain an advantage on the climbs, the inaugural champions will be the week’s most well-rounded bike racers.

On recent form, Toyota Specialized Imbuko’s Joubert and Stedman will be tough to beat, especially with the support of Ignatius du Preez for the early phases of the racing. Of the trio, Stedman has the most proven gravel pedigree.

Insect Science also has strength in depth with Arno du Toit, Keagan Bontekoning, and Wessel Botha joining Withaar on the start line. Bontekoning is the only one of the four to have foregone stage racing thus far this year, and that freshness could benefit him. Botha struggled with allergies in March, and how he recovers from that could determine his success, though the clean air of the Klein Karoo could be the tonic his lungs require. Du Toit and Withaar are the steadiest performers, but the long mountain passes in the middle of the race suggest that Withaar will be the most consistent threat.

Hollard, Humanpwr Racing, Fly Cool Collective, and CVNR all have two riders in the race. The Namibians, Hanekom and Theuns van der Westhuizen, will thrive in the rugged mountains of the Klein Karoo, but how their ultra-endurance pedigree will translate to the 80-to-120-kilometre stages of the Garden Route Giro remains to be seen.

Manuel Pliem is no stranger to racing in South African conditions, and his teammate, Hirschbichler, has podiumed in the Individual Time Trial at the Austrian championships on two occasions and has six more top-10 finishes to boot. This, along with his 185-centimetre-tall stature, makes him particularly dangerous if he can get over the big mountains within striking distance of the slighter riders, like Joubert and Stedman.

Main and Keanan Roodt are not frequent off-road competitors, but are two of South Africa’s classiest bike racers. Their presence in the peloton will influence how the battle for the points competitions plays out, and could bring creativity to a field used to attritional, rather than tactical mountain bike racing. This could play into the hands of Daniel Loubser, who knows the gravel roads of the region better than most, having set the course record for the 36ONE MTB Challenge in 2025.

CVNR’s Fourie and Keegan Tullis also have multiple cards to play. Having finished strongly in their last week-long stage race outing, they will not only be brimming with confidence but have a point to prove against the bigger local teams. The same is true for Beukes, though he will be without assistance on the road from a teammate. As the only Southern Cape local in the elite men’s line-up, the Specialized George Coimbra rider will have the advantage of local knowledge in his favour.

Victor Olckers and Morne Immelman complete the elite men’s field. They could cherry-pick days to go on the offensive, or opt for a steady approach; either way, the Garden Route Giro provides six opportunities for the young men to build on their résumés.

RECCE RIDE BOOSTS GRAVEL DEBUTANT’S FAVOURITE STATUS

Having ridden the November recce ride, Looser and De Villiers know exactly what they are in for at the first edition of the Garden Route Giro. Oudtshoorn resident De Villiers holds the added advantage of having trained and raced on many of the roads for the last two decades, but it is the Namibian Looser who starts as the favourite. Amazingly, given her road pedigree, which took her to three Olympic games, Looser has yet to start a gravel race, but one suspects she will be a natural at blending drop bar tactics from the road with her mountain biking prowess.

Cycle Tour champion, Bone, South Africa’s original gravel specialist Kruger (née Colyn), and Haw are three real contenders for the overall crown. Bone’s willingness to make the racing should make her a fan favourite. Kruger, meanwhile, blends experience with knowledge of the key climbs and descents. Haw is perhaps the dark horse of the trio, a rider with the engine to win from this field, but perhaps not the recent form to trouble Looser in a head-to-head battle over six stages.

Du Toit endured a difficult 2025 and has shown flashes of her old self in 2026. A healthy build-up through February and March could thus result in a return to winning ways at the Garden Route Giro for the 2024 South African Mountain Bike Marathon and Gravel champion. She will have to see off the challenge of Trouwborst to notch up stage or overall victory, however. The KMC rider mixed winter beach racing with summer gravel races and brings European firepower to a women’s field otherwise dominated by Southern African competitors.

Cherise Willeit is an outsider for a general classification podium position. She also leads a group of women who balance work and life commitments, making time for training as a secondary priority rather than scheduling training first and work second, as is the case for the other part-time elites. Chloë Bishop is a relatively new addition to this collection of highly competitive women, but has already proven herself as one of the fastest. Sanchia Malan is another capable of upsetting the more highly touted elites, particularly if she targets a specific stage rather than spreading her energy across the entire week.

Juanita Mackenzie, Rethe Mostert, Kylie Hanekom, and Nicola Freitas complete the elite women’s line-up.

To follow the action from the gravel roads of the Garden Route, Hessequa, and Klein Karoo, like the Garden Route Giro Facebook page and follow @gardenroutegiro on Instagram. Cycling fans can tune in for daily highlights on the Dryland Event Management YouTube channel and read the daily news releases on their favourite cycling platform.

For more information, visit www.gardenroutegiro.co.za. The action gets underway on Monday, 13 April, at 10:00 [South African Time | GMT +2].

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Source: Seamus Allardice Media