The elite men’s field for the 2026 Cape Town Cycle Tour boasts four former winners, including the defending champion, but no clear favourite. With cool conditions and a light breeze predicted for race day, the evenly matched main contenders will have near-perfect conditions for their contest of speed, endurance, skill, and tactical acumen. Among the expected protagonists for Sunday, 8 March, are Tyler Lange, Reinardt Janse van Rensburg, Marc Pritzen, Chris Jooste, Kent Main, Herman Fouche, Jaedon Terlouw, Sascha Webber, Ryan Gibbons, Luke Moir, and Alex Miller.
Of the six previous winners, the fastest finishers, Lange and Janse van Rensburg, are the most recent and the most experienced, respectively. Lange’s 2025 victory came from a chase group that caught the breakaway, which included Janse van Rensburg within 500 metres of the finish line. The ASAP Pro Cycling rider then outsprinted Janse van Rensburg and Terlouw to claim the famed Carrol Boyes trophy.
Janse van Rensburg’s win in 2012 kicked off a decade-long career racing at the World Tour level, which included 6 Tour de France starts and multiple South African national titles. With Gustav Basson and Brandon Downes alongside him in the Tshenolo Pro Cycling colours, Janse van Rensburg has one of the strongest teams in the race to support his bid for a second Cape Town Cycle Tour crown.
2022 champion, Pritzen also has a formidable team by his side, but his Swiss teammate, Felix Stehli, is equally capable of contesting for victory. Pritzen has been crowned champion across the mountain bike marathon, gravel, and road disciplines, and as such is unquestionably one of South Africa’s most talented cyclists. Stehli is also highly accomplished across a range of cycling disciplines, having placed fifth at the 2025 UCI Gravel World Championships. The Honeycomb 226ers squad, which also includes 2013 race winner Fouche, could thus play team tactics in a slightly different way, with three potential leaders in their six-rider squad.
Main, who was victorious in 2024, returns to the Cape Town Cycle Tour alongside Gibbons. With a past winner and a former World Tour professional in their ranks, the Fly Cool Collective could be looked upon to dictate the racing. Gibbons was second at the South African Road Championships and proved there that he has the kick to beat Lange and Janse van Rensburg in a sprint. He has made no secret that he takes motivation from the fact that the Cape Town Cycle Tour is the local title missing from his glittering palmarès.
Unlike his title-winning rivals, Chris Jooste will have to look to unofficial alliances and friends in the peloton, or simply rely on his vast experience to position himself to repeat his 2023 success. He will also have to see off the threats of the Toyota Specialized Imbuko combination of Terlouw and Travis Stedman, as well as the Joyrun & Hurricane duo, Callum Ormiston and Tiano Da Silva. Of that quartet, Terlouw is most likely to challenge for victory, having held off Ryan Gibbons and Pritzen in a three-up sprint to win Ride Joburg in October last year.
Sascha Weber, Alex Miller, and Luke Moir are three more potential race winners. All three have proven that the Cape Town Cycle Tour route suits their strengths in the past, but will have to race smart to hold off the pure road sprinters. Where the elite women’s race has most frequently come down to a reduced bunch of 5 to 10 riders contesting the sprint finish, there has been more diversity in how the elite men’s race has been won in recent years. Main won from a late solo attack from a reduced group in 2024, Lange won when his larger chase group caught a smaller breakaway, and Jooste won from a breakaway that went clear on Smitswinkel with over 50 kilometres to race.
The presence of talented under-23 and junior riders in the field adds another dynamic to the race. Ryno Schutte is the most likely age grouper to mix it up with the elite men, having finished fifth at the South African Road Championships in February. Gustav Roller is another rising under-23 star to watch. Juniors Rene Haselbacher Jr and Camaron Wilcox will also be hoping for good days out and potentially a top 20 finish in the overall standings, despite their youth. After his spectacular crash at Killarney, Wilcox be eager to prove that he has the bike handling skills to belong in the elite peloton.
Further down the favourites list, Cronje Beukes has enjoyed a strong start to 2026, while Daniel Loubser loves to join an early break on his home roads. First-year elite, Luca Ruwiel could also bring mountain biking prowess to the road, while the evergreen Jaco Venter knows exactly which wheels to follow and when to expend energy at the Cape Town Cycle Tour.
Cycling fans need not expend too much energy themselves to watch the race unfold. It will be broadcast live on the Cape Town Cycle Tour Facebook page and YouTube channel from 06:00 to 11:00 on Sunday, 8 March 2026. Regular updates from the course can also be found at @CTCycleTour on X, while the @ctcycletour Instagram and Cape Town Cycle Tour Facebook pages will share highlights from throughout the day.
For more information, please visit www.capetowncycletour.com.