Results & Recap: 2025 Wines2Whales Chardonnay, Stage 1
Candice Lill and Tyler Jacobs took a wrong turn, 40 kilometres into Stage 1 of the FNB Wines2Whales Chardonnay. This cost them nearly 5 minutes on the trails, but did not prevent them from riding their way back into the lead and seizing the first Orange Ciovita jerseys of the 2025 race.
Behind them, Margot Moschetti and Claudia Peretti were unable to capitalise on the error, however, as the Lill and Jacobs combination, then launched a stage-winning attack in the final 7 kilometres.
From the start at Benguela Cove, the Switchback route takes teams through the Overberg and up into the Elgin plateau, where the Oak Valley race village beckoned. Candice Lill and Tyler Jacobs got their directions wrong and ended up racing towards Villiersdorp instead, only realising their mistake once they had spent nearly 5 minutes riding off course. Upon turning around, the Liv-Sabi Sabi Seattle Coffee e-Fort combination had their work cut out to regain the lead from Margot Moschetti and Claudia Peretti, yet they managed to do so, and as a result, take a 53-second lead into Stage 2.
Stage 1 featured a much-changed Switchback route, from Benguela Cove to Oak Valley. The 61-kilometre-long course included 1 150 metres of climbing, starting with an ascent to the highest point of the Karwyderskraal Road, through Escape Wines and a new singletrack climb, before dropping through Gaf se Bos, to Genevieve MCC, Wildekrans Wines, and Beaumont Wine Estate. It was after Beaumont, leaving Botrivier town, that Lill and Jacobs went wrong, nearly 40 kilometres into the day’s racing. The longest ascent of the day, up Kat Pas, provided them with the terrain to claw back time, as did the Toyota Cruise segment up Moose se Pad and into Lebanon’s trails. The punchy climbs of the run-in through Paul Cluver Wine Estate to Oak Valley suited e-Fort MB Race, yet the day’s winners were still able to eke out a small advantage in the final 7 kilometres.
The way the stage began did not suggest that Lill and Jacobs would spend the finale chasing, but that is the beauty and unpredictability of mountain biking. In the opening kilometres, the double defending champions put their rivals under pressure. By the time they had crossed out of Benguela Cove, only Moschetti and Peretti, as well as Sarah Hill and Robyn de Groot, were able to follow the Liv-Sabi Sabi Seattle Coffee e-Fort team. Safari Essence Titan Racing’s Bianca Haw and Danielle du Toit were fourth on the trails.
On the climb up the Karwyderskraal Road, Lill and Jacobs snapped the metaphorical elastic connecting them with the Efficient Infiniti Insure and e-Fort teams. Moschetti and Peretti fought to keep the gap as small as possible, but the leaders managed to slip out of sight.
“Before Kat Pas, leaving Botrivier, we missed a marker,” Lill explained. “This made life unnecessarily hard for ourselves.” “As we turned into the singletrack at the bottom of the pass, we saw Candice [Lill and Tyler [Jacobs] coming towards us,” Hill added. “They went past so quickly, there was no way to hold their wheels!”
When they rejoined the course, Lill and Jacob’s 90-second lead had turned into a 3-and-a-half-minute deficit. By the summit of Kat Pas, at the Houw Hoek Hotel, the gap to e-Fort MB Race was 61 seconds. In the next 10 kilometres, Liv-Sabi Sabi Seattle Coffee e-Fort reeled in and then dropped Moschetti and Peretti. “I’m really happy with how we rode today,” Peretti smiled. “We didn’t see the leaders go wrong, so we didn’t know we were in front. But it wouldn’t have changed how we raced. Our focus was on working well together and building as a team, as this is my first race with Margot [Moschetti]. I enjoyed the stage, the singletracks, and the beautiful views too.”
“With no big climbs after Water Point 2, it was tough to catch and then make any difference to Margot [Moschetti] and Claudia [Peretti],” Lill noted. “When we caught them, we sat on for a bit, then went all in on the only real climb.” Looking ahead to Stage 2, she continued: “53 seconds is a lead, but it’s not a comfortable lead! Tomorrow is packed with singletracks, and it will suit Tyler [Jacobs] and me, so we’ll try to play the racing to our strengths; but most of all, have fun out there.”
As Lill had noted, their margin of victory over e-Fort MB Race was 53 seconds. Efficient Infiniti Insure’s Hill and De Groot were third, at 6 minutes and 14 seconds behind the stage winners. Safari Essence Titan Racing were fourth, a further 5 minutes back. Claudia Krenn and Malena Seer completed the top five places on the day. //
2025 FNB Wines2Whales Chardonnay Results
Elite Women’s Stage 1 Results
- Liv-Sabi Sabi Seattle Coffee e-Fort: Candice Lill & Tyler Jacobs (2:43:16)
- e-Fort MB-Race: Margot Moschetti & Claudia Peretti (2:44:09 | +53)
- Efficient Infiniti Insure: Sarah Hill & Robyn de Groot (2:49:30 | +6:14)
- Safari Essence Titan Racing: Bianca Haw & Danielle du Toit (2:54:57 | +11:41)
- Velo Kartell – 1 OF 1: Claudia Krenn & Malena Seer (2:56:51 | +13:35)
Full results here