Results & Recap: 2025 Cape Town Cycle Tour – New course record!
With perfect weather conditions and an electrifying atmosphere, the race showcased incredible endurance, determination, and the undeniable spirit of Cape Town’s premier cycling spectacle. Here’s a recap and the results from the Elite races.
The Men’s Race
Near perfect conditions and a highly competitive 186 rider-strong elite men’s field ensured a record-breaking time. A warm and windless morning was exactly what the participants would have ordered if they could. It still took aggressive racing throughout the 109 kilometre course to shatter Robbie Hunter’s 17-year-old previous best of 2 hours, 27 minutes and 29 seconds. Lange’s new record mark is 2 hours, 25 minutes and 48 seconds – which is 1 minute and 41 seconds quicker.
The elite men’s race began like the peloton was aware that the record could be on the line. It took 10 kilometres for the first break to gain any real advantage. Dylan Geary was the first successful attacker of the day when he slipped off the front on the Edenborough Drive climb. The race came back together on the Blue Route before Jaco van Dyk made a short-lived attack through Muizenberg and Fish Hoek.
Chris Jooste and Casper Kruger then kicked off the most dangerous move of the day. Over the 25 kilometres from Fish Hoek to Red Hill the group swelled to include Brandon Downs, Dane Apples, Rynard Geyser, Christiaan Janse van Rensburg, Dylan Geary, Zander Erasmus, and Johan Trotzky. Their biggest advantage was 40 seconds, all of which was obliterated by an incredibly rapid ascent of Chapman’s Peak Drive by the chasers.
Marc Pritzen and the RDX Realty squad, who had missed the break, set a ferocious tempo and dragged a select group of Sascha Weber, Travis Stedman, Rynard Janse van Rensburg, Kent Main, Jaedon Terlouw and Luke Moir back to the front of the race. On the descent into Hout Bay the groups merged, but split again on Suikerbossie when Weber accelerated.
Weber took Pritzen, Terlouw, Main, Stedman, Moir and Callum Ormiston over the summit and onto the winding descent towards Camps Bay. The defending champion tried to repeat his 2024 move in Camps Bay, with 10 kilometres remaining; but despite the help of Moir, Main was shut down. This left the group at a stalemate, with no terrain left to create an advantage, they lulled slightly in anticipation of a sprint finish.
Doing so allowed a larger chase group to swallow them up inside the final kilometre. Lange and, fellow fast man, Reinhardt Janse van Rensburg were in that second group and galloped into the finale with momentum. Without a teammate to provide a lead-out Lange surfed wheels to 100 metres to go when he kicked around Reinhardt Janse van Rensburg to seize his maiden Cape Town Cycle Tour title. Reinhardt Janse van Rensburg thundered across the line in second, with Terlouw, Stedman, and Moir completing the top five places.
While the winner was slightly overwhelmed by the gravity of the moment, his father was clearly emotional with his son’s success. “I tried to get him into every other sport – growing up – be it cricket, tennis, or golf, but he kept choosing cycling. So, we had to support his cycling. He’s raced overseas but as we all know it’s a very hard sport and he’s experienced some knocks and setbacks. So, to win a race like this really puts you in a place where you need to be. Hopefully from here it’s onwards and upwards.”
Elite Men’s Results
- Tyler Lange: ASAP World (2:25:48 | New Course Record)
- Reinhardt Janse Van Rensburg: Tshenolo Pro (2:25:48 | ST)
- Jaedon Terlouw: PYGA Euro Steel (2:25:48 | ST)
- Travis Stedman: Toyota Specialized (2:25:48 | ST)
- Luke Moir: Privateer (2:25:48 | ST)
The Women’s Race
The pre-dawn sky was overcast but temperatures were warm and hardly a breath of wind blew across the gentle swells rolling into False Bay. From the start on Main Road in Fish Hoek the women, and under 17 boys, would contest the final two-thirds of the full, 109 kilometre, route.
The standard format for the women’s race is a combative but surging approach, with attacks being closed down before the field thins out on Chapman’s Peak Drive and the final selection is made by the speed of the top riders and the steepness of Suikerbossie. This year it was entirely different.
Early attacks went and were brought back until Seana Littbarski-Gray accelerated rapidly, leaving Simon’s Town. The group had to work hard to bring the German-born, New Zealander from LKT Team, back. As they closed, Grünewald counter-attacked and only Janine Schneider was initially able to follow. The peloton was happy to let the German gain time on the Smitswinkel ascent and by the summit she had a 21 second advantage.
The peloton appeared unhurried, however, and Grove would later confess that they did not know there was a rider up the road. “Without radios the first time I knew there was a break was at the foot of Chappies, when my team car came up and told me,” the South African Champion confessed.
“It’s difficult,” Vera Looser explained. “S’annara [Grove], Hayley [Preen], Tiffany [Keep] and myself are all in the same situation and we’re a similar type of rider. Without teams there is only so much we can do. We can all climb, and we can all sprint a bit, so the teams don’t necessarily want to work with us.”
A lull in the chase behind allowed Grünewald to keep pushing the pace and extending her advantage. She went through Scarbrough and passed the bulk of the U17 Boy’s field, who had started 5 minutes ahead. With the commissaires keeping the women’s race leader out of the convoy she gained no benefit from catching the group ahead, but showed great composure to not be thrown off her rhythm either.
With 32 kilometres remaining Grünewald started the Chapman’s Peak climb with a 3 minute lead. Behind the women had heard not only that there was a rider up the road but also what her advantage was. Hayley Preen and Tiffany Keep did their utmost to reduce the deficit, but the lone leader was too powerful to cede her lead easily.
Going over the summit and 10 kilometres later, at the foot of Suikerbossie, the gap was only reduced by 30 seconds. Another 10 kilometres later, coming through Camps Bay Grünewald still had a 90 second buffer. “LKT rode really well,” Keep praised. “It’s frustrating to be on the receiving end of team tactics like that, but that’s racing. They disrupted the chase and worked to set up their sprinter for the race for second. I think I’ll have to bring my DAS-Hutchinson team next year.”
“This is only my second race of the season, and my first victory!” Grünewald stated. “It’s been a great trip out to South Africa with the team and to seal it with a victory is very special. It’s very unexpected though. We were here to work for Nele Laing, but when I got away, I thought I just needed to keep pushing. The first time the team car could come up, they told me to just keep going, and that’s exactly what I did.”
Grünewald’s winning time was 2 hours, 5 minutes and 18 seconds. Grove led the chase group home 1 minute and 31 seconds later, pipping Littbarski-Gray for silver. Looser and Kelsey van Schoor completed the top five places.
Elite Women’s Results
1. Pia Grunewald: LKT Team Woman (2:05:18)
2. S’Annara Grove: O’Shea (2:06:49 | +1:31)
3. Seana Littbarski-Gray: LKT Team Woman (2:06:50 | +1:32)
4. Vera Looser: Efficient Infiniti Insure (2:06:50 | +1:32)
5. Kelsey van Schoor: Pirtek (2:06:50 | +1:32)
Full results here