{"id":76029,"date":"2026-05-06T19:08:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T17:08:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/?p=76029"},"modified":"2026-05-06T19:14:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T17:14:00","slug":"kap-sani2c-prologue-explosive-start-to-the-22nd-sani2c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/kap-sani2c-prologue-explosive-start-to-the-22nd-sani2c\/","title":{"rendered":"KAP sani2c Prologue: Explosive Start to the 22nd sani2c"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The 2026 KAP sani2c opened with a sharp and decisive Prologue at Glencairn Farm, setting the tone ahead of the \u2018OG\u2019 race start tomorrow morning. At just 17.96km, the route packed in 1570m of climbing, rewarding explosive power and precision on a course that leaves little room for error.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the UCI Men\u2019s race, Marco Joubert and Tristan Nortje (Toyota Specialized Imbuko 1) laid down an early marker, stopping the clock in 00:42:15 to take the win. Keagan Bontekoning and Johan van Zyl (Insect Science) took second place in 00:42:36 in a jostle with Jaedon Terlouw and Travis Stedman (Toyota Specialized Imbuko 2) who finished in 00:42:37. Wessel Botha and Arno du Toit (Insect Science Safari Essence) followed ten seconds later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Marco Joubert leads the front group, closely followed by Travis Stedman, Arno du Toit and Wessel Botha. Jaedon Terlouw and Johan van Zyl sit behind while Tristan Nortje works his way to the group.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Joubert, while clearly confident about his team\u2019s prospects for the race, was pleased to have secured the leader\u2019s jersey: \u201cIt’s nice to start this race with a win in the bag and great motivation to have that jersey on your back. Our second team, Jaeden and Travis, is not far behind us, and in a race like this, numbers will play to our advantage when the pace is so high.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marc Pritzen, powering in front in the early stages of the race, had to settle for fifth place with teammate Felix Stehli (Team Honeycomb 226ers) in a time of 43 minutes and 7 seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Men\u2019s Prologue podium: from left: Farmer Glen Haw, Johan van Zyl, Keagan Bontekoning (Insect Science), Marco Joubert, Tristan Nortje (Toyota Specialized Imbuko 1), Jaedon Terlouw, Travis Stedman (Toyota Specialized Imbuko 2).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The UCI Women\u2019s race saw Samantha Sanders (Efficient Infiniti Insure) dominate the Prologue in 00:52:28, opening a clear gap over the field. The battle for the podium was tightly contested behind them, with Cherise Willeit and Ila Stow (Fortress Toyota) taking second place. Danielle du Toit approached the finish ahead of the Fortress Toyota pair but had to hold back to wait for her partner after Kemp took a slight wrong turn in the last two hundred metres. The two teams were separated by just seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Willeit concedes that the Efficient Infiniti Insure team are \u2018in a league of their own\u2019 and says that the main racing will be for second and third place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sanders said the trails were really fast: \u201cIt was cold and windy, but the terrain was actually surprisingly good. There was obviously a lot of rain the last two days, and even last night, it was raining, so I expected more mud, but it was actually sublime.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sam Sanders and Vera Looser (back) dominated the women\u2019s race along beautiful southern Drakensberg trails.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Looser returns to sani2c after nearly a decade and is thrilled to be back: \u201cIt\u2019s amazing to see how the event has grown, I love the community here and can\u2019t wait for the next few days of riding bikes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the Prologue complete, the general classification is established – but anything can happen over the next three days of demanding riding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Day 1 of the KAP sani2c \u2018OG\u2019 rolls out from Glencairn Farm near Underberg tomorrow morning – riders head to Mackenzie Club near Ixopo, over 89km, easing riders from the explosive Prologue into a more sustained test of endurance. With 1,027m of climbing and a net descent of 1,358m, the stage rewards teams who can manage effort early while staying sharp on the flowing, often technical terrain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Women\u2019s Prologue podium: (from left) Cherise Willeit, Ila Stow (Fortress Toyota),\u00a0 Vera Looser, Samantha Sanders (Efficient Infiniti Insure), Roxanne Kemp, Danielle du Toit (Safari Essence Titan Racing), Farmer Glen Haw<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Men\u2019s Prologue Results:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marco Joubert & Tristan Nortje (Toyota Specialized Imbuko 1) \u2013 00:42:15
Johan van Zyl & Keagan Bontekoning (Insect Science) \u2013 00:42:36
Jaedon Terlouw & Travis Stedman (Toyota Specialized Imbuko 2) \u2013 00:42:37
Wessel Botha & Arno du Toit (Insect Science Safari Essence) \u2013 00:42:47
Marc Pritzen & Felix Stehli (Team Honeycomb 226ers) \u2013 00:43:07
Philip Buys & Pieter du Toit (FORD Prime Bunch) \u2013 00:44:09<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Women\u2019s Prologue Results:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Samantha Sanders (Efficient Infiniti Insure) \u2013 00:52:28<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cherise Willeit & Ila Stow (Fortress Toyota) \u2013 00:55:24<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danielle du Toit & Roxanne Kemp (Safari Essence Titan Racing) \u2013 00:55:31<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frances Swanepoel & Rachel Seaman (Cycle Nation Enza Construction) \u2013 00:57:33<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kylie Hanekom & Hayley Smith (Bike Hub) \u2013 00:59:42<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erin Shillaw & Lianke Fourie (Old Mutual Womans Team) \u2013 00:59:59<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2026 KAP sani2c opened with a sharp and decisive Prologue at Glencairn Farm, setting the tone ahead of the \u2018OG\u2019 race start tomorrow morning. At just 17.96km, the route packed in 1570m of climbing, rewarding explosive power and precision on a course that leaves little room for error. In the UCI Men\u2019s race, Marco […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":76031,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[53],"featured_location":[337],"class_list":["post-76029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-sani2c","featured_location-top-row"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76029"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76036,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76029\/revisions\/76036"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76029"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=76029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}