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CYCLING NEWS - The Momentum Medical Scheme Cape Pioneer, presented by Biogen, is far more than the standard mountain bike stage race. It is the Race with Soul.
An event that blends highly competitive UCI and age-category racing with a relaxed race village atmosphere.
Even for the elite men and women lining up to fight it out over the five days of the 2025 event, from 30 September to 4 October, there are reasons to look forward to both the racing and the off-the-bike time.
It is for this reason that two of the defending champions are so eager to return to the Garden Route, Langkloof, and Klein Karoo.
In 2024, Insect Science and Efficient Infiniti Insure won the first five-day edition, and both teams are back for 2025. From 2009 to 2023, the Momentum Medical Scheme Cape Pioneer, presented by Biogen, was a seven-day stage race with a course that visited Southern Cape towns like George, Mossel Bay, Riversdale, Calitzdorp, Prince Albert, and De Rust.
Initially famed for ultra-distance routes, the stages became easier in recent years as Dryland Event Management sought a balance between difficulty and delight.
The move to five days makes it possible to increase the riding challenges slightly, as the accumulated fatigue is less.
“I really like the five days; it kept the racing close and tactical last year,” Keagan Bontekoning, of Insect Science, recalled.
Looking ahead to this year’s race, he predicted: “The longer and certainly tougher days in 2025 are going to be spicy, and I think we’re likely to see bigger time gaps. Managing your effort will compound over the five days, and a lot of time can still be made or lost on the last two days. We have also seen bigger gaps created on the last day, in Chandelier Game Reserve, than on the Swartberg Pass, especially if someone has a puncture or a mechanical. So, the racing will be fierce right to the final finish line.”
The fifteenth edition starts in Wilderness for the first time, crossing the Outeniqua Mountain Range to Louvain, with an 84-kilometre opening stage that includes 2 250 metres of climbing. Stage 2 loops out and back from Louvain, taking in 1 800 metres of climbing, on an 88-kilometre course.
The battle for the yellow and pink First Ascent leaders jerseys is expected to be fierce at the 2025 Momentum Medical Scheme Cape Pioneer, presented by Biogen. Photo by Oakpics.com
The mid-point of the race comes on the trails from Louvain to Oudtshoorn during a 96-kilometre transition stage. Die Top, at the summit of the Swartberg Pass, hosts the only mountain top finish in South African mountain biking after a 93-kilometre-long Stage 4.
Then the Race with Soul concludes with 64 kilometres of pure Klein Karoo mountain biking in Chandelier Game Reserve and a finish in front of the Oudtshoorn Civic Centre.
“The [Momentum Medical Scheme] Cape Pioneer, presented by Biogen, is a special race to me and to the team, so winning last year was a career highlight,” Bontekoning smiled.
“I’m excited to come and fight to win it again, as we have seen that it’s never over until the end. It is going to be a tough race with the South African riders' field at the moment being very strong.”
The opposition to Bontekoning and his teammate, Arno du Toit, will come in the form of the Imbuko ChemChamp, Toyota Specialized, PYGA Euro Steel, Team ACT/CRN, Tshenolo Pro Cycling, the Honeycomb 226ers, Absolute Motion, Project Dream SA, and the Kings of Neon Academy.
Of those nine squads, the challenge presented by Tristan Nortje and his new teammate, Travis Stedman, as well as that of Marc Pritzen and 2023 champion Wessel Botha, is likely to concern Insect Science the most.
Two-time race winner Marco Joubert has been forced to withdraw due to a knee injury, which allows Nortje and Stedman to partner for the first time. With both the Imbuko ChemChamp and Toyota Specialized teams racing aboard Specialized Bicycles and following Toyota’s announcement of their involvement with the Wellington-based team, the formation of a Toyota Imbuko Specialized ChemChamp team for the race was possible.
Danielle du Toit (left) and Samantha Sanders (right) will be racing alongside new teammates in 2025. Photo by Oakpics.com
Stedman starts the Momentum Medical Scheme Cape Pioneer, presented by Biogen, with two race victories in September, beating Nortje to second and third on consecutive weekends early in the month.
Jaedon Terlouw and Michael Foster, of PYGA Euro Steel, will also be on Bontekoning and Du Toit’s short list of combinations to watch closely.
In 2024, Terlouw led the race, alongside Pieter du Toit, for four days before a puncture cost them the title on the final day. PYGA Euro Steel will thus be eager to make amends in 2025.
Tshenolo Pro Cycling’s two teams, made up of Halalisani Ndebele and Johan de Villiers alongside Cronje Beukes and Daniel Kotze, could surprise the more established stage race pairings. The Gauteng-based squad is not the only set-up sending multiple teams to the race.
Imbuko ChemChamp has Rudi Koen and Lood Goosen riding in support of Nortje and Stedman, while Bontekoning and Du Toit have Alan Gordon and Jan Withaar as back-up.
In the UCI Women’s race, the defending champions have been split by changes in teams since October 2024. Danielle du Toit now races alongside Bianca Haw for Safari Essence Titan Racing, while Samantha Sanders remains with Efficient Infiniti Insure.
The double defending champion and reigning South African marathon champion has had a far from ideal build-up to the 2025 race.
Sanders has not raced since fracturing her elbow on 4 July and comes into the Race with Soul with untested form but with nearly three months of pent-up frustrations to burn off.
“This injury was by far the worst I have ever sustained, and it came while doing the most mundane ride,” she explained. “Murphy’s law! I managed to sustain an open wound compound fracture to my elbow, which means the bone had broken through the skin. It was gory, and I had surgery early the next morning. The elbow was, however, not the injury that significantly affected my return to training. I also managed to fracture my pelvis in three places.
"As a result, I was completely non-weight-bearing for three weeks, followed by three weeks of varying degrees of aided walking. I was off for six weeks in total, and naturally, that has set me back substantially, but I have had three weeks of really good rehab, free of any complications.
"My body has bounced back surprisingly well. I do not doubt that I will be far from my best at the [Momentum Medical Scheme] Cape Pioneer, [presented by Biogen], but I am comfortable in my ability to race as hard as I can with the form I build in the next few weeks.”
Sanders lines up alongside Vera Looser, who returns to South Africa from a successful block of European summer racing, which culminated in an eighth place at the World Marathon Championships in Switzerland on 6 September.
“Racing with Vera [Looser] is daunting on a good day, so given my current situation, I should be terrified,” Sanders laughed. “But I know she is a good partner, a professional, and someone who will push me but not break me. I trust her to be a great teammate.”
Sanders and Looser will have the added benefit of team support in the form of Sarah Hill and Stephanie Wohlters. “On paper, it would mean we have strength in numbers, but racing is racing,” Sanders allowed of Efficient Infiniti Insure’s strength in depth.
“It’s unpredictable; we can only really count on preparing as best as we can, showing up as prepared as we can, and executing as best as we can. We will take it day by day and use whatever advantages we can to position our teams as best as we can.”
Stage 1 of the 2025 race sees the riders challenged by a crossing of the Outeniqua Mountain Range, which includes summiting Duiwelskop from the east. Photo by Oakpics.com
The quartet will face off against Safari Essence Titan Racing’s Du Toit and Haw, as well as, Lilian Baber and Karlise Scheepers of Summer Sky Racing, the Absolute Motion team of Frances Janse van Rensburg and Rachel Seaman, Ila Stow and Chloe Bishop of Forstress Real Estate Investments, and Index Property Solution’s Sanchia Malan and Tarryn Povey.
“?I’m loving the women’s racing at this point in time, the level is improving, the numbers are climbing, and we are getting great exposure because the racing is so exciting,” Sanders stated.
“As for the Pioneer itself as a stage race, I thoroughly enjoyed the changes they made to the race last year, making it a five-day event definitely made it more accessible to a larger group of participants, including the women’s field.”
“Our race is stacked, and it is going to be five days of hard battle out there for the victors,” she concluded. To follow that action as it unfolds on the trails, mountain biking fans can like the Cape Pioneer Facebook page or follow @capepioneer on Instagram.
The social media stories will feature daily live updates, which highlight the racy side of the Race with Soul.
For more information, visit www.capepioneer.co.za.
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