Tyler Jacobs may be a professional mountain biker, but if the 2026 South African National Championships’ Road Race is anything to go by, she will start among the favourites for the Cape Town Cycle Tour on Sunday, 8 March. The Liv Factory Racing star, who won an Under 23 UCI World Series short-course cross-country race and the bronze medal in mountain biking’s most speed-focused discipline in 2025, has already proven that she has the sprint to outkick fellow pre-race favourites like Hayley Preen, Tiffany Keep, Lisa Bone, Lucy Young, Anya du Plessis, and her mentor, Candice Lill. An uphill sprint after an attritional 115 kilometres of racing is very different from the long effort required to cross the Cape Town Cycle Tour finish line, on Helen Suzman Boulevard, first. Especially after only 78 kilometres of tactical racing, on the elite women’s course, and with the powerful presence of Vera Looser and Kate Courtney also in the peloton.
Since the shift to a separate start for the elite women’s race in 2018, there have been just four winners. Kim le Court, now racing in the Women’s World Tour for AG Insurance Soudal, has been crowned queen of the Cycle Town Cycle Tour on four occasions. Cherise Willeit has won two of her five titles on the 78-kilometre course, and Tiffany Keep marked her move from promising talent to the top table of South African road racing with a victory in 2024. Last year, Germany’s Pia Grünewald stunned the rest of the field with a 52-kilometre solo breakaway, and after that upset it is unlikely that the favourites, or their teams, will allow another long-range attack to go to the line.
Rather, cycling fans can expect a gradual whittling down of the elite women’s peloton, from the 107 starters lining up in Fish Hoek, to a group of 20 to 30 main protagonists on the slopes of Chapman's Peak Drive. Historically, an elite selection slips off the front over the summit, but they tend to be caught in Hout Bay by a strong chasing pack. The steep and straight climb up Suikerbossie usually serves as the launch-pad for the race-winning move. Often, this final group will consist of 5 to 10 riders, and a reduced bunch sprint will determine the elite women’s champion.
If this is to be the case once more, Jacobs is certainly a rider to watch. As the only former winner in the field, Keep knows how to time her effort in what is a deceptively tricky finale. The broad boulevard can deliver gusts of crosswinds on windy days, and though the finish line is visible for the final kilometre, timing one’s sprint can be difficult. The experience of Looser, who has finished on the podium on multiple occasions, with a best placing of second most recently in 2023, could be the difference in 2026.
Preen is another rider who has come close but has yet to crack the Cape Town Cycle Tour code. The Hout Bay resident has been among the favourites for the last five years, but would arguably benefit from a more aggressive race, rather than one where the action only truly heats up on Chapman’s Peak. Fortunately for the ChemChamp Honeycomb 226ers rider, Lill and Courtney would also favour a more attritional race.
Lill has played a pivotal role in two of Kim le Court’s victories in recent years, unofficially allying with the Mauritian at key moments in the race. A similar pact with Jacobs, and even Courtney, could make for an exceptionally fast edition as the mountain bikers work to rid the group of the fast finishing road racers, like Bone. Western Province U23 and Elite road and time trial champion, Du Plessis, like Preen, could well have the firepower to follow any long-range attacks by Lill and co.
Cycle Nation Enza Construction’s Bone has been in tremendous form since winning the overall title at the Mzansi National Series in 2025. A second place, to Jacobs, at the South African road championships, showed that she can outsprint Preen and Keep, who are likely to be two riders in a final selection. Having raced with and against the Tshenolo Pro Cycling team’s double act of Young and Taneal Otto, Bone will know the pair’s individual and collective strength. In a field dominated by informal alliances and solo racers, the team cohesion of the Cycle Nation and Tshenolo Pro Cycling squads could be vital not only in determining how the race plays out, but also in who the eventual winner will be.
In the second tier of favourites, Catherine Colyn remains a dangerous outsider, as does the former double South African road champion Frances Swanepoel (née Janse van Rensburg). Kelsey van Schoor is another perennial top-five finisher who looks primed to challenge for her best Cape Town Cycle Tour result. Under-23 talents, Rachel Seaman, Ella Corrigan, and Errin Faye Mackridge are also riders to watch. Though Jacobs and Du Plessis are also still competing in the Under-23 category. Therefore, Seaman, Corrigan, or Mackridge will need to beat them, too, to win the age group title. Triathlete Magda Nieuwoudt could try to follow Grünewald’s 2025 example, while Layla Schwellnus, Georgia Grobler, Chloe Bishop, Julia Marx, and Tania Bugarin Ortiz also all deserve honourable mentions ahead of the 48th edition of the Cape Town Cycle Tour.
Cycling fans will be able to tune in to the live broadcast 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.