On Saturday, 31 January, the Ford Trailseeker Series kicks off its 2026 season in the Banhoek Valley, near Stellenbosch. From the race village at Plaisir Wine Estate, the event will host four race distances and a dedicated E-Bike race to cater to the whole family. For cycling fans not taking part, and even those on the start line, the most eagerly anticipated news is the announcement of the elite line-ups. In the men’s race, Matt Beers, Jordan Sarrou, and Andreas Seewald are the standout names. In the women’s, Candice Lill and Alessandra Keller revive their rivalry from 2024, when the short-track World Champion defeated her now teammate to take the Ford Trailseeker Banhoek title.
“The Banhoek round of the Ford Trailseeker Series is always well attended by local and international elites,” Clark Gardner, CEO of the Ford Trailseeker Series, smiled. “It’s the perfect time of the year when lots of Europeans are training in Stellenbosch to get out of their winter, and the singletrack-packed course offers them and the South Africans alike a great opportunity to race early in the year. This year, I’m excited to see how Candice [Lill] will get on against Alessandra [Keller], who won here in 2024, before they team up for stage races later in the summer. It’s also the first time we’ll see Matt [Beers] in action this year, and of course, there’s the Marco Joubert story from 2025. It feels like he has unfinished business with the Ford Trailseeker Series.”
In 2025, Joubert won the first three events and was halfway to earning himself a 1 Million Rand bonus for winning all six events. A puncture during race four, at Sondela, prevented the Toyota Specialized Imbuko rider from claiming the performance bonus, but he did secure the overall title for the year, notching up the most points in the men’s category. As was the case in 2025, there is once again 1 Million Rand on the line for any elite man or woman who can win all six events. There is also R100 000 for the series champions, titles which Joubert and Bianca Haw won last year.
2026 also sees a simplified points scoring system for the elites. “Elite men and women will now carry the scores from all six events into the end of season standings, meaning consistency across the entire year is rewarded,” Gardner explained. “Positions one to twenty, in the elite men’s and women’s categories in the Marathon races, will score points, with the first-place finisher scoring 40 points and the rider in twentieth scoring 1 point. The full point allocation breakdown can be found on the Ford Trailseeker Series website.”
The first opportunity to score points and lay down a marker for 2026 sees stacked elite fields lining up at Plaisir Wine Estate. The top four point scorers from 2025: Marco Joubert, Jaedon Terlouw, Tristan Nortje, and Travis Stedman start this season on the same team, deepening the strength of the squad, which aided Joubert to three wins last year. As the defending Ford Trailseeker Banheok champion, Joubert is once again among the favourites this year. His teammates, Terlouw, Nortje, Stedman, Lood Goosen, and Ignatius du Preez, will be dangerous rivals to Joubert’s aspirations. Until the first race is completed, there will be no team orders from the Toyota Specialized Imbuko management, and it will be every man for himself on Saturday.
Insect Science’s Arno du Toit was the fifth-ranked rider on the final Ford Trailseeker standings last year. Like Toyota Specialized Imbuko, Insect Science has expanded its roster for 2026, adding Wessel Botha and Johan van Zyl to the line-up of Du Toit, Keagan Bontekoning, and Jan Withaar. The quintet will be fiercely competitive in the Banhoek Valley, with Botha in particular already having shown superb form this year.
Marc Pritzen is another rider who has started the year strongly. His Honeycomb 226ers teammate, Felix Stehli, endured a significant crash in his first race of the season, but should be recovered and ready to race on the 31st of January. Pritzen, meanwhile, will start among the favourites for victory, having lost out to Joubert and Nortje in the opening round in 2025 when he crashed, while leading into the final corner.
The kit Philip Buys, Pieter du Toit, and Michael Foster race in at the opening round of the Ford Trailseeker Series will be one of the points of discussion away from the racing action. Having spent the past nine years racing as PYGA Euro Steel, the team run by Buys will welcome new sponsors in 2026. The punchy Banhoek route should suit Foster’s cross-country focus, and he is undoubtedly a rider to watch on Saturday.
Logan Stander brings youthful enthusiasm into the race. Nephew of South African mountain biking legend, Burry Stander, he is a first-year Under-23 and will be looking to learn as much as he can in a rare marathon outing.
At the opposite end of the experience spectrum, Beers is South Africa’s most celebrated marathon racer. He starts as the favourite in the elite men’s competition, but will certainly not have things all his own way. Especially if Simon Steibjahn and Seewald’s South African training camp has sharpened their winter base fitness. The former is a canny racer with over a decade of experience on the world marathon circuit, while the latter was the Marathon World Champion in 2021 and is the reigning European Marathon Champion. The Germans have been in the country for a few weeks already and have adjusted to the hot temperatures expected for race day. The Singer KTM pair thus joins the likes of Joubert, Botha, Pritzen, and Foster as Beers’ key rivals.
A former teammate of Beers is also joining the fray. Sarrou helped the South African to his maiden Cape Epic title in 2021 and is back in the country for warm-weather training. Sarrou raced the Banhoek round of the Ford Trailseeker Series in 2024, finishing fourth that day. The BMC racer’s formidable trail speed will ensure the other favourites keep him within their sights in the singletrack.
In the women’s race, Lill and Keller are the clear favourites. Two years ago, the pair pushed each other through the trails of the Banhoek Valley until the Swiss star edged away from the local heroine in the closing kilometres. The Seattle Coffee Co e-Fort Sabi Sabi rider is not the type to actively seek revenge, but she will nonetheless be eager to start her year with a victory.
“I’m excited to line up for a race again!” Lill enthused. “I’ve built consistently over the pre-season, but of course, it’s only January, and I don’t want to be guns blazing just yet. I just want to get to some good race intensity in and see how the new bike feels in a race environment.”
“I always enjoy the Ford Trailseeker Banhoek route! They have built world-class trails in Banhoek and on Plaisir. I believe the route is slightly different from previous years, but 63.5 kilometres with plenty of singletrack and climbing sounds right up my alley. In terms of the terrain, I definitely expect it to be hot, dry, and dusty. I will perhaps use it as an opportunity to test some tyre combos,” the South African XCO Champion concluded.
Along with Keller, Lill will face fierce competition from the in-form Hayley Preen, Namibia’s Vera Looser, her mentee, Tyler Jacobs, and 2025 runner-up Sara Cortinovis. Preen started 2026 with a commanding victory, while Looser has opted to start her season at the Ford Trailseeker Banhoek. This leaves room for speculation as to her form, but as the most decorated marathon specialist in the field, the Efficient Infiniti Insure rider is never to be underestimated. Jacobs and Cortinovis, like Lill and Keller, will race predominantly in the UCI World Series in 2026. The young South African showed at the Van Gaalen leg in 2025 that she is more than capable of dominating marathon events, too, while Cortinovis started 2025 with the Ford Trailseeker Banhoek and finished second. With more knowledge of South African conditions and a new team to impress, the Italian Under 23 Cross-Country Champion will be even tougher to beat this time out.
Danielle du Toit is another who makes her first start of the year, and having closed the page on a difficult 2025, will be eager to get back to her best and winning ways in 2026. Doing so in such illustrious company will be a challenge, but a stellar result in the Banhoek, having committed to the entire series, will set her up to challenge for the overall crown. Her Safari Essence Titan Racing teammate, Roxanne Kemp, will be aiming for consistency and steady improvement over the course of the season, having stepped up from racing in the elite category as a privateer to competing for a professional team. The opening round is thus as much a benchmark for the year as it is an opportunity to prove herself.
Sarah Maré [née Hill] was a Ford Trailseeker winner in 2025, having won the final round in Wellington in September last year. Like Du Toit, she will be racing every round of the Ford Trailseeker Series, and as such, a strong showing will see her bank valuable points in the absence of rivals for the overall title, Bianca Haw and Samantha Sanders.
The elite women’s line-ups are completed by Cherise Willet and Lilian Baber. Willet juggles work, family, and training commitments, but is always a bellwether for performances by the full-time athletes and a fantastic spokeswoman for women’s cycling. Baber, like Jacobs, Ambrosi, and Stander, is preparing for a year of fierce Under-23 XCO racing, so a Ford Trailseeker result might not be her top priority, but the trail-rich course should suit her skills and punchy climbing abilities.
At 63.5 kilometres long, the marathon route for the Banhoek round of the Ford Trailseeker Series has historically taken the top men around 2 hours and 25 minutes, while the fastest women should take just under 30 minutes more. In 2026, the course includes 1 500 metres of accumulated ascent, with the three biggest climbs coming after the halfway mark. A steep and fast singletrack descent towards the Plaisir Wine Estate finish line provides an opportunity to recover, should the race be coming down to a sprint finish, or a final chance to create a second or five of separation for the most skilled racers.
The temperature is predicted to rise to 34 degrees in the afternoon, and the lack of any breeze to speak of could make it feel hotter on the bike. As will the ferocity of the racing.
To share in the action as it unfolds, follow @trailseekerseriesmtb and like the Ford Trailseeker MTB Series Facebook page. Highlights from the race can be viewed on the Ford Trailseeker Series YouTube channel. For more information, visit www.trailseeker.co.za.
