After strong winds made for a chaotic start to the opening stage on Friday, Stage 2, on Saturday, concluded in chaos when three riders crashed from a six-rider group contesting the sprint finish. Tristan Nortje and Marco Joubert were the least affected and managed to cross the line just ahead of the Honeycomb 226ers team. Worryingly, Matt Beers came down hardest and had to visit the Mediclinic race hospital to have his shoulder assessed and the cut to his knee, which he first opened racing in America in early October, treated once again.
Play Day is an FNB Wines2Whales institution. The singletracks of the Oak Valley and Paul Clüver Wine Estates are legendary in mountain biking circles, and contribute, along with the race’s famous gees, to the reasons riders return year on year. For the elite men, in the Shiraz event, the trails often produce exciting racing where the time gaps between teams are tight and sprint finishes are frequent. The sprint for stage honours on Saturday, 8 November 2025, on the Oak Valley finish line produced high drama when the Honeycomb 226ers, Imbuko ChemChamp, and Toyota Specialized went wheel-to-wheel. Felix Stehli slid out on the final corner, triggering a chain reaction that saw Matt Beers and Travis Stedman hit the deck on the wet grass too, and held up Marco Joubert behind the chaos. Marc Pritzen and Tristian Nortje avoided the pile-up and had to wait to see whose teammate would recover first to complete the victory. Starting from a standstill, in a big gear, it was Joubert who made it across the line before Stehli to secure the stage victory for Imbuko ChemChamp.
Earlier in the day, the prospect of 67 singletrack-packed kilometres had excited the top teams. “It’s trails upon trails today, so every gravel road segment is a full gas sprint for position into the next singletrack,” Wout Alleman advised. “If anything, the singletracks actually provide an opportunity to recover a bit,” Joubert added. For the teams who missed the front group, there was no chance to recover, though; it was simply an all-day chase.
“The start was super-fast and we just missed that first split,” Jan Withaar, who had started the day in third place overall, alongside Wessel Botha, noted. “Once that group was away, the only way we were ever going to catch them was if they started to play games, but they were never going to do that.”
Insect Science was not the only team to miss the split when the leaders, Honeycomb 226ers, Imbuko ChemChamp, Buff Megamo, and Toyota Specialized formed an elite selection on the front. PYGA Euro Steel were also on the back foot, chasing from 20 or so kilometres in. “It was quite a lekker climb, I felt, but maybe I went up there a bit too quickly for Jaedon [Terlouw],” Michael Foster revealed. “We stayed in the group for quite a while, but then the pace became a bit much, and we had to hang back a bit and try to recoup.”
The PYGA Euro Steel team was never able to recuperate enough to force their way back to the lead group, and eventually lost a position on the trails to the fast-finishing Insect Science combination of Botha and Withaar. At the front, as Withaar had stated, the pace never slowed, but nobody was able to force another break either.
“It was a nice stage and it certainly helped me that I knew the route [having ridden it during the Chardonnay race last weekend],” Stehli confessed. “We made it pretty hard, but the route wasn’t hard enough to get a gap on the other teams once we were away together.”
Only in the closing kilometres did Hans Becking begin to slip from yo-yoing off the group to slowly losing contact as the intensity built towards a sprint finish. Thus, after four teams had raced the majority of the stage together, it was the Honeycomb 266ers, Imbuko ChemChamp, and Toyota Specialized who would contest the sprint.
The trails leading onto the Oak Valley finish line spread the group to a single file with Nortje leading onto the damp lawns. “I knew I had to get to the front if we were to have any chance of winning the stage,” he stated. “But then Marc [Pritzen] and Felix [Stehli] came around me before the last corner.”
“I crashed in similar circumstances a couple of years ago,” Joubert recalled. “That year, I’d lost my front brakes after a wet and muddy stage and came in too hot, then slipped out and fell within sight of the line. Because of that, I was a little more cautious coming into the last corner today.”
Pritzen and Stehli trusted their tyres to grip on the slick surface. Pritzen’s did, and he cantered up the finishing straight to cross the line first. Behind him, Stehli was less fortunate. “Suddenly, my back wheel was trying to overtake my front,” the Swiss rider laughed. Stehli slipped down softly, gliding across the turf and coming to a stop against the FNB banners at the bottom of the finishing straight.
Joubert’s wide line forced him to a stop, pinned between the barriers and Stehli’s bike. Nortje took an inside line and followed Pritzen across the line. Approaching the line, the Imbuko ChemChamp and Honeycomb 226ers riders turned to survey the damage and look to see who would recover first to complete the victory for their team. While they looked on, Beers and Stedman slid around the final bend.
Both Toyota Specialized men locked up to avoid the chaos unfolding ahead of them, but neither was able to stay upright on the greasy grass. Falling from a lofty height, Beers came off worse than his diminutive teammate. The three-time former winner bumped his head, took a blow to his already cut knee, and put his hands out to break his fall. In the aftermath, an unhealed wound on his knee, which he required stitches for on the 13th of October after a fall at the Little Sugar Classic in Bentonville, Arkansas, was reopened for the second time since the initial incident. Beers was also left gingerly, rotating his shoulder, and had to be taken to the Vergelegen Mediclinic in Somerset West, for X-rays.
Beers would later post: “I guess it’s off-season now. Concussion and a fractured collar bone. One race too many.”
On behalf of FNB Wines2Whales race director, Hendrico Burger said: “We’d like to extend our best wishes to Matt [Beers] for a full and speedy recovery. As South Africa’s most decorated endurance mountain bike and gravel racer, it is always an honour to host him at Epic Series events. Matt’s presence on the start line raises the level of every South African in the field, and his recent international exploits have underlined what’s possible for local mountain bikers. We know he’ll be back stronger than ever in 2026.”
Meanwhile, Joubert was the first to untangle himself from the chaos and got back up and riding fractions of a second before Stehli. “It was a race to get clipped back in and pedalling,” Joubert analysed. “I think I was in a slightly easier gear than Felix [Stehli] and was able to get across the line ahead of him.”
With the time of the second rider from each team being counted towards the stage and general classification results, it was Joubert’s effort that sealed the victory for Imbuko ChemChamp. The men in the Yellow CIOVITA jerseys were second on the stage, but extended their overall lead due to PYGA Euro Steel and Insect Science’s time losses. Buff Megamo swooped into the finishing straight amid the mayhem of the Stehli/Beers/Stedman crash and completed the podium places on the day.
The result means that the Honeycomb 226ers now lead Buff Megamo by 2 minutes and 48 seconds on the general classification standings. Imbuko ChemChamp leapfrogged from fifth to third, and are only 7 seconds off Becking and Alleman in second. Beers and Stedman finished the day in fourth but will not start Stage 3. Further back, Botha and Withaar are also 7 seconds ahead of Foster and Terlouw.
The third and final stage will thus be fiercely contested. “It’s not over until it’s over,” Nortje warned, signalling his intent to race for overall victory on Stage 3. The route to Lourensford Wine Estate, from Oak Valley Wine Estate, is 63 kilometres long and includes 1 250 metres of climbing. “I have a secret plan for the portage,” Becking winked. Hinting at the importance of the Gantouw Pass to the final day’s standout feature. “Yes, the portage will be important, but the climbs in Lourensford shouldn’t be underestimated,” Nortje cautioned.
In the Chardonnay and the Pinotage, both the elite women’s and the E-Bike races were determined in the A to Z trails before Gantouw Pass. Teams that established an advantage were able to control from the front and expend less energy on the portage. That then enabled them to power through Cowboy Town, up Blue Gum, through the Toyota Cruise segment of the day, and onto the Canal Trail. By the time they reached the Fair Cape Floating Bridge, their victories were assured. Will that trend be bucked or followed on Sunday in the Shiraz?
Mountain biking fans can tune in to find out by following @wines_2_whales on Instagram or liking the Wines2Whales Facebook page. Professional mountain biker, Pieter du Toit, will be providing insights and updates from the trails to Lourensford Wine Estates in the race’s social media stories. The Epic Series YouTube channel also features daily highlights and news reports to recap on the gees of the 2025 FNB Wines2Whales from the race. For more information, visit www.epic-series.com/races/wines2whales.
2025 FNB Wines2Whales Shiraz Results:
Elite Men’s Stage 2 Results
- Imbuko ChemChamp: Marco Joubert & Tristan Nortje (2:22:47)
- Honeycomb 226ers: Marc Pritzen & Felix Stehli (2:22:48 | +1)
- Buff Megamo: Hans Becking & Wout Alleman (2:23:03 | +15)
- Toyota Specialized: Matt Beers & Travis Stedman (2:23:18 | +30)
- Insect Science: Wessel Botha & Jan Withaar (2:25:33 | +2:45)
Elite Men’s General Classification after Stage 2:
- Honeycomb 226ers: Marc Pritzen & Felix Stehli (4:34:26)
- Buff Megamo: Hans Becking & Wout Alleman (4:37:14 | +2:48)
- Imbuko ChemChamp: Marco Joubert & Tristan Nortje (4:37:21 | +2:55)
- Toyota Specialized: Matt Beers & Travis Stedman (4:38:42 | +4:16)
- Insect Science: Wessel Botha & Jan Withaar (4:39:18 | +4:52)
For the full results from the Shiraz race at the 2025 FNB Wines2Whales, click here.
