They call it the Tour de France of mountain biking, and you can follow it live on tuttobiciweb.it. We're talking about the Absa Cape Epic, which this year celebrates its 21st edition from March 16 to 23. The world's best riders in 2-person teams compete in the Western Cape of South Africa to conquer the prestigious victory in the largest and toughest MTB stage race that exists.

The Favorites for Cape Epic 2025

The menu includes over 600 kilometers of wild off-road with 16,500 meters of elevation across single tracks and technical terrain in 8 days. The best of fat tire racing is competing. Among women, standouts include 5-time Cape Epic winner Annika Langvad from Denmark, 2022 queen Sofia Gomez Villafane from Argentina, Vera Looser from Namibia and American Alexis Skarda (who won the title together in 2023), Dutch rider Rosa van Doorn and Swiss Janina Wüst, 2022 European MTB Marathon vice-champion.

In the men's field, all eyes are on eternal Nino Schurter, the Swiss multi-Olympic champion, world champion and overall World Cup winner in Cross Country, his compatriot Filippo Colombo, defending champion Matthew Beers racing "at home", American Keegan Swenson, German European marathon champion and 2022 Cape Epic winner Lukas Baum and his previous triumph partner Georg Egger, Belgian Wout Alleman, Czech and marathon world vice-champion Martin Stosek.

The Italian Racers

The 24 Italian riders will try to raise the tricolor as high as possible, challenging themselves and the natural elements in one of the planet's toughest competitions. Among the 750 pairs at the start, at least 18 will have an Italian rider, with 6 of these teams composed of two of our compatriots. Here they are divided by category: