Looser and Sanders dominate five-day tour

Mountain biking
  • 22 Hours Ago
The 2025 Momentum Medical Scheme Cape Pioneer mountain bike stage race, presented by Biogen, came to a sweltering and thrilling conclusion in Oudtshoorn on Saturday.

Namibia’s Vera Looser and her South African team-mate Samantha Sanders completed a clean sweep of victories across the five stages to win the UCI women’s title by over 40 minutes.

The 15th edition started in Wilderness last Tuesday, with daily stages of 84 km, 88 km, 98 km, 93 km and 66 km and a combined vertical ascent of 8,950 metres.

After Stage 1, Efficient Infiniti Insure seized the pink First Ascent jerseys and never looked likely to relinquish them.

Looser and Sanders were clearly the strongest pairing in the race and could afford to play a team role for Sarah Hill and Steph Wohlters, of Efficient Infiniti Insure 2. Even with this dual focus, they were able to add time to their general classification advantage every day.

Stage 5 was the shortest of the 2025 race, but it was far from easy. At 66 kilometres long, with 1 150 metres of climbing, it appeared benign on paper. The trails and dual tracks of the Klein Karoo are always a more significant test in reality. The punchy climbs of Chandelier Game Reserve rewarded the strongest teams on the last day of the event.

“Those punchy climbs and rocky descents have to be ridden hard,” Sanders revealed.

Riding hard, Sanders and Looser established a gap on the four chasing teams. Bianca Haw and Danielle du Toit were subsequently able to separate themselves from the other women’s teams too, and reiterate their status as the second-best squad in the race.

There was no stopping Sanders and Looser, however. “We had an almost perfect week,” the African continental marathon champion, Looser, smiled. “Apart from a small puncture yesterday, it was a problem-free race. Today we went hard to test ourselves to our own limits, rather than racing the competition.”

This tactic saw Efficient Infiniti Insure establish a 5-minute lead by the halfway point of the stage and the victory on the day by 7 minutes 24 seconds. Haw and Du Toit crossed the line second, and secured second on the general classification standings.

Frances Janse van Rensburg and Rachel Seaman finished third, for the second time in the race, but could not break into the top five overall, with Hill and Wohlters claiming the bronze medal.



UCI Men

The UCI men’s competition was a closer affair, with Tristan Nortje and Travis Stedman winning by 3 minutes 55 seconds ahead of Marc Pritzen and Wessel Botha, after claiming two stage victories during the week of racing.

– Adapted from capepioneer.co.za