Jaedon Terlouw completed a 100-Miler double, adding the King Price Race to the Sea crown to the King Price Race to the Sun title he won in May, on 5th of September 2026. Lisa Bone outkicked Hayley Preen in the final 200 metres of the 153-kilometre course to win by just 14 seconds. The new start venue and updated route proved exceptionally popular, despite a strong southeasterly wind creating a headwind for a difficult 30-kilometre segment in the middle of the route.
The sixth edition of the 100 Mile gravel race started on the banks of the Theewaterskloof Dam, near Villiersdorp, rather than in Franschhoek, as had been the case for the first five years. This change meant that Rusty Gate, rather than Franschhoek Pass, provided the King Price King and Queen of the Mountain ascent. The summit of the 9-kilometre-long climb came just 22 kilometres into the route, and was followed by beautiful rolling Overberg gravel roads for the next 100 kilometres. A stretch of tarmac on the Hemel en Aarde road linked the gravel of Tesselaarsdal with the Karwyderskraal gravel road, inside the final 10 kilometres, and the run into Benguela Cove, on the banks of the Botrivier Lagoon.
It was only on the banks of the lagoon that the elite women’s race was settled, but Bone and Preen had blown the race apart 5 hours earlier. Preen had set the pace on Rusty Gate, drawing clear with Bone and Sarah Maré. The ChemChamp Honeycomb rider took the King Price Queen of the Mountain prize and led onto the descent into the Greyton valley. “My road skills don’t really help me on technical gravel descents,” Bone confessed. “So, I didn’t try to follow Hayley [Preen] downhill after the QOM. I caught her a bit later, and then we rolled together nicely with Sarah [Maré] for the next 30 kilometres.”
“Around the 50-kilometre mark, on a longer climb, Sarah [Maré] dropped off. Hayley [Preen] and I continued to work together. And fortunately, we were together because the headwind was hectic in that part of the race,” Bone explained. “We worked together down Hemel en Aarde, and I managed to follow Hayley [Preen] down the singletrack to Benguela. She was so fast, and I was just hanging on, but I’d ridden the finish section yesterday, so I knew what to expect.”
“I knew this last climb [from the lagoon to the Benguela Cove restaurant and finish line] would suit me,” Bone said. Once she had established a lead of three bike lengths, Preen’s head dropped, and Bone could soak up the emotion of winning the 2026 King Price Race to the Sea. “This win is really special,” Bone smiled. “I haven’t enjoyed the last few races, riding through a bit of cold. But today was special. Road is where my big personal aspirations are, but gravel is where I enjoy the racing the most. I know I’m going to suffer when I race a gravel bike, but I love it.”
Bone’s winning time was 5 hours, 35 minutes, and 30 seconds. Preen finished 14 seconds down, conceding the title she won in 2025 and 2022. Having lost third position on the road to Alyssa Larish, Maré battled her way back into podium contention, but could not match the fast-finishing American. Larish thus claimed third ahead of Maré, with Chloé Hopf rounding out the top five.
In the elite men’s race, an early break was also established on the Rusty Gate climb, but Ignatuis du Preez, Felix Stehli, and Arno du Toit were never confident of holding it to the line as Bone and Preen had done. The trio was caught soon after the foot of the Rusty Gate descent, but not before Du Preez had claimed the King Price King of the Mountain Prize.
When the leaders were swallowed up by the chase group, all five Toyota Specialized Imbuko men found themselves at the front of the race. This numerical advantage allowed them to sit on while Du Preez and Stehli attacked again. Between the 70- and 100-kilometre marks, the riders slogged their way into a southeasterly headwind, and there the racing became very tactical.
“It was an insane race,” Terlouw noted. “There were so many tactics, and I’m just happy I was able to come out on top of all of them today.”
After the turn, when the route turned so that the wind was blowing at their backs, Stehli and Du Preez held a 3-minute advantage. “We were able to pull that gap back quite quickly [in just 18 kilometres],” Terlouw acknowledged. “I think they had spent a few too many matches into the headwind and we flew with the wind behind us.”
With Stehli and Du Preez back in a larger lead group, only Honeycomb 226ers and Toyota Specialized Imbuko were represented at the front, but the latter outnumbered Stehli and Marc Pritzen by five to two. Alongside Du Preez and Terlouw, Marco Joubert, the defending champion Travis Stedman, and Lood Goosen were able to share the load and counterattack off each other’s moves.
It was Stehli who launched the decisive move, however. The Swiss rider attacked from the back of the group on the Hemel en Aarde tar road, and Terlouw jumped across to his wheel. With a gap established and teammates in the chase group, Terlouw and Stehli’s advantage quickly ballooned to 90 seconds.
“We worked pretty well together until the two gravel road kickers [inside the final 10 kilometres],” Terlouw said. “I attacked there and got a bit of a gap into the singletrack, which helped me, I think, because I managed to slip out of sight. From there I just kept it on the gas to the finish.”
Terlouw crossed the line in 4 hours, 43 minutes, and 12 seconds, to win by 25 seconds ahead of Stehli. Stedman led the chasers home 1 minute and 24 seconds later, holding off Joubert and Pritzen to claim third.
To recap on all the action from the 2026 King Price Race to the Sea, cycling fans can follow @race2thesea on Instagram or like the Race 2 The Sea Facebook page. Highlights from the sixth edition can be viewed on the King Price Race to the Sea YouTube channel.
2026 King Price Race to the Sea Results
Elite Men:
- Jaedon Terlouw: Toyota Specialized Imbuko (4:43:12)
- Felix Stehli: Honeycomb 226ers (4:43:37 | +25)
- Travis Stedman: Toyota Specialized Imbuko (4:44:36 | +1:24)
- Marco Joubert: Toyota Specialized Imbuko (4:44:37 | +1:25)
- Marc Pritzen: Honeycomb 226ers (4:44:37 | +1:25)
Elite Women:
- Lisa Bone: Cycle Nation Enza Construction (5:35:30)
- Hayley Preen: ChemChamp Honeycomb (5:35:44 | +14)
- Alyssa Larish: Privateer (5:55:37 | +20:07)
- Sarah Maré: Efficient Infiniti Insure (5:56:00 | +20:30)
- Chloé Hopf: Hollard Cycling (6:08:49 | +33:19)
For the full results from the 2026 King Price Race to the Sea, click here. To find out more, visitwww.racetothesea.co.za.
Source: Faces Events
