Wilier-Vittoria’s Avondetto and Braidot close in on the yellow jersey at the Cape Epic

Second by second, Wilier-Vittoria's Simone Avondetto and Luca Braidot are edging closer to the overall lead at the 2026 Cape Epic. At the end of Stage 2 — 102 km and 2,250 metres of elevation gain around Montagu — the Wilier-Vittoria duo once again finished second, this time behind Samuel Gaze and Luca Schwarzbauer, and are now just two seconds off the yellow jersey held by Matthew Beers and Tristan Nortje.

A strong fifth place, just 11 seconds behind the winners, went to Juri Zanotti, paired with Mathis Azzaro, who can be more than satisfied considering how their day unfolded. Early in the stage, Zanotti suffered a mechanical issue that threatened to cost the duo several minutes, but thanks to a controlled race from the leaders and their own strong legs, they managed to stay in contention. Zanotti and Azzaro remain fourth overall, 34 seconds behind the race leaders.

“Today it was crucial to stay near the front and avoid losing time,” said Braidot and Avondetto. “These aren’t our favourite stages — they’re still too fast, and we’ve seen that our rivals are very comfortable on this kind of terrain. We’re getting closer and closer to the lead, so we just need to stay focused and wait for stages that suit us better.”

“I had an issue at the start of the long descent,” explained Zanotti. “Luckily we were close to the feed zone, so I stopped briefly and we managed to fix it. We were about three minutes down, but we paced it well and made it back. We risked losing a lot today, but instead we stayed in the game — so overall it’s a very positive outcome.”

Tomorrow’s stage will take the riders from Montagu to Greyton, a long 140 km route with 1,750 metres of elevation gain — demanding, but expected to be relatively fast.