Matt Beers defends Gravel Burn title as Nele Laing led from start to finish across South Africa’s Great Karoo

Off-road specialists Matt Beers (Toyota Specialized) and Nele Laing (Canyon DT Swiss ATR) conquered South Africa’s Great Karoo to claim victory at the 2026 Nedbank Gravel Burn. Beers secured his second consecutive title despite not winning a stage, while Laing dominated the women’s race, leading from start to finish and claiming two stage victories across the seven-day event.

Beers moved into the overall lead after finishing second to Filippo Colombo (SCOTT-SRAM) on stage 2, setting up a closely fought battle between the two riders for the remainder of the race. The South African prevailed, finishing 32 seconds ahead of Colombo. Tristan Nortje (Toyota Specialized Imbuko) completed the overall podium, 59 seconds behind the winner.

“I love stage racing and I love gravel, so this suits me. I had a really lucky week and it was such a close race. Racing abroad is always really hard, but racing at home on a big stage like this is great. I always try to take advantage of it and represent South Africa,” Beers said.

Laing made an immediate impact in her first gravel stage race, pulling on the orange leader’s jersey after winning the opening stage. The German reinforced her grip on the race with a second stage victory on stage 3 and maintained her lead through to the finish. Hayley Preen (ChemChamp Honeycomb), who also claimed two stage wins, finished second overall, 1:05 behind Laing. Clara Koppenburg (Tudor Pro Cycling) secured third place, 4:28 back.

“This was my first gravel stage race, and my first stage race this long. Being here in this beautiful environment in South Africa is special, and being here with my whole team was the best way to end the season,” Laing said.

Going into the final two stages, Beers held a 32-second lead over Colombo while Laing was still in the orange jersey with Preen at 56 seconds back.

The penultimate stage challenged the riders with highly variable road surfaces and several river crossings over the 76km route and 700m of climbing to the orange windmill finish outside the gates of Shamwari Private Game Reserve. American Griffin Easter (OpiCure Foundation) took the win from the breakaway in the pro men’s race.

“I crashed out last year after Stage 3, so I’m beyond stoked to be here this deep in the race and take the stage win. I’m pumped!” Easter said after his first stage win. “On Stage 2 I broke a wheel, which killed my GC hopes. Since then, I’ve been trying hard to get away, and today it worked. I want to be here [at Nedbank Gravel Burn] for as long as this event is running. This win will stay with me for a long, long time.”

In the pro women’s stage, Nathalie Eklund (58&fam) was awarded the win after a commissaires’ ruling relegated three riders in the sprint. Nine riders were sprinting to the line, with previous stage winner Preen crossing the line first, but following a protest and a review of race footage, the commissaires relegated three riders - Preen, Koppenburg and Carolin Schiff (Canyon DT Swiss ATR) - for failing to heed a safety warning issued by a race official in the run-in to the sprint.

The final stage was shortened to 59.5km with 1,050m of climbing. With time and kilometres running out, Colombo launched attack after attack, but though the accelerations forced a split, he was not able to drop Beers from the lead group. As the finish line approached, Hugo Drechou (Gravel Nation) launched from the back of the group and surged up the right-hand side to take his first stage win of the week.

Beers finished sixth in the tight group, to claim his second title. “The racing was a lot more intense and tactical this year. Filippo made my life properly difficult and gave it everything,” said Beers. “There was too much wind to do anything today other than cover the moves. I just had to race a clever race. Sometimes it’s boring, but often that’s how you win.

Five riders pulled away on a climb in the pro women’s stage, with Laing, Preen, Koppenburg, along with Alexis Skarda (SCOTT-SRAM) and Olivia Hottinger (SCOTT-SRAM). Skarda took advantage of Laing marking Preen to get away in the closing kilometres to take her first stage victory in the race.

Approaching the final finish line, Laing accelerated away from the bunch to add an additional 9 seconds to her GC lead.

“I was a little nervous this morning because I felt the pressure. We wanted to get the climber’s jersey back and keep the GC,” said Laing. “I was also quite excited about the race being shortened, as we knew the GC was pretty much safe.”

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