29 000 cyclists took to the roads of the Mother City for the 48th Cape Town Cycle Tour on Sunday, 8 March 2026. Bright sunshine, warm weather, and even the southeaster joined the party, as conditions for cycling improved throughout the day, inspiring smiles on the finish line in the shadow of the DHL Stadium in Green Point. At the sharp end, popular new winners, in Ryan Gibbons and Lisa Bone, were crowned champions, and age-category racers earned their spots in the UCI Gran Fondo World Series finale in Niseko, Japan. Elsewhere, the focus was on having fun, raising money for charity, and promoting the event’s ethos of fostering safer cycling in Cape Town.
The Executive Mayor of the City of Cape Town, Mr Geordin Hill-Lewis, was among the thousands who took in the spectacular views from the bike. “What a day in Cape Town,” he praised. “Cycling along our beautiful coast [and] mountains, [with] thousands of Capetonians cheering us on! The Mother City truly is the most beautiful city in the world!”
Hill-Lewis completed the 109-kilometre route, which circumnavigates the peninsula, along with more than 26,500 fellow cyclists. Nearly 2,500 riders participated in the 42-kilometre ‘short route’ which loops from the city centre to Tokai along the M3 and back to the finish line on Riebeek Street in the city centre. “The ‘short route’ is the Cape Town Cycle Tour’s version of road running’s half-marathon,” said David Bellairs, Cape Town Cycle Tour CEO. “We see it as an entry into the race day atmosphere and a more accessible challenge for younger and newer cyclists. Hopefully, in time, as they gain confidence and skill, the 42-kilometre finishers will graduate into the full distance.”
“This year we saw our biggest field since the pandemic,” Bellairs continued. “And I trust that through our partnership with Golazo, we will continue to grow the Cape Town Cycle Tour back to the 35,000-rider capacity we established in the late 2010s. The energy of a field that big is simply magnetic, and the excitement the riders create brings fans to the roadside to cheer them on, too. It’s a cycle of success, and we’ll be working to maintain this winning momentum over the next twelve months.”
Golazo’s involvement in the race attracted more international riders to the 2026 edition and rewarded avid South African cyclists. This year, the Cape Town Cycle Tour became the first and only UCI Gran Fondo World Series event on the African continent and will also be the largest event in the global series. As such, more age-category riders qualified for the UCI Gran Fondo World Championships on Sunday than in any other race in the series. “I hope we’ll see South Africans taking rainbow jerseys in Japan, from the 26th to the 30th of August, this year,” Bellairs concluded.
In total, just over 20,000 participants earned finishers' medals across the two distances at the 2026 Cape Town Cycle Tour. More importantly, thousands of memories were made on the roads of the Mother City as the wind died down and late-summer sunshine warmed friends, family, fans, and cyclists alike. In the afterglow, plans are already underway for the 2027 edition, with a similar weather order submitted to the Mayor’s Office for 7 March next year.
