The Queen Stage of the Garden Route Giro on Friday, 17 April, saw 127 kilometres of close racing in the men\u2019s competition. In the elite women\u2019s race, Mari\u00eblle Trouwborst surged away solo but almost fell short when a puncture slowed her progress in the final 37 kilometres. Behind the battle for stage victory, second in the general classification, Lisa Bone needed to rely on friends in the peloton to nurse her home.<\/p>\n
Lisa Bone had to dig deep to avoid losing second place to Vera Looser on Stage 5. Photo by Shift Media Co.<\/em><\/p>\n On paper, Stage 5 looked to be the toughest of the race, but the front-runners made short work of the 2\u00a0040 metres of climbing. Prince Alfred\u2019s Pass was the highlight of the day; it provided Trouwborst with the terrain to gain time, but also nearly proved her undoing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Earlier in the stage, Trouwborst\u2019s fierce tempo put Bone in trouble. While Vera Looser and Catherine Kruger could follow, the woman in the First Ascent Velo Purple Jersey, as the Intermediate Sprint classification leader, found herself in no-man\u2019s-land between groups.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll be honest, that was the toughest day I\u2019ve had on the bike,\u201d Bone admitted. \u201cI was flat from the start and wouldn\u2019t have made it if it weren\u2019t for the group I found myself in. Having Cherise [Willeit] there really helped. She\u2019s a good friend off the bike, and she really motivated me and kept me going today.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bone was then able to stabilise her time losses to Looser and Kruger, but at the front, Trouwborst kept gaining on the women\u2019s field. She went through the first Queen of the Mountain hotspot, 51 kilometres into the course, with a four-minute lead on Looser and Kruger. She then extended that advantage to 10 minutes over the next 40 kilometres. Just when it looked like she would be riding away to a dominant stage victory, Trouwborst punctured.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI had to plug it, then bomb it twice, but it still kept losing air,\u201d Trouwborst said. \u201cIt made the final kilometres nerve-wracking, because I\u2019d been on my own for 65 kilometres and I didn\u2019t know how far behind the other women were. I just knew I was going slow and losing time!\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Trouwborst hung on to win the stage, just 34 seconds ahead of Looser. Having sensed that she would be able to gain time on Bone, Looser rode hard throughout the stage, thinking of moving up on the overall standings, but very nearly securing a stage win too.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Cherise Willeit and Bone crossed the line in third and fourth, five minutes and 15 seconds after Looser. Kruger was fifth. The Stage 5 results mean that Trouwborst takes a 12-minute and 10-second lead into the final stage. More importantly, perhaps, 10 minutes and 38 seconds separate Looser from second place overall, currently held by Bone.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cTen minutes sounds like a lot. Especially on a 75-kilometre stage, but feeling like I feel right now, it really isn\u2019t much,\u201d Bone grimaced after the Queen Stage.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n For the men, the final stage will also be a last-chance showdown after a stalemate of sorts on Stage 5. Herman Fourie and Keagan Bontekoning tried to animate the racing, but were reeled in. Fourie claimed the early sprint points, then faded, while Bontekoning went to work for Wessel Botha.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWe tried about 100 times to get away,\u201d Botha said. \u201cBut the race kept coming back together. Eventually, in the last hour, Marco [Joubert], Cronje [Beukes], and I got a gap.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The three strongest men in the race were effectively inseparable, though each tried repeatedly to distance the other two. In the final kilometre, Beukes surged from the back of the group into the second-to-last corner and carried enough speed to steal a march on Joubert and Botha. Turning onto the Knysna High School fields, the overall race leader was five metres ahead of Joubert. A last acceleration earned Beukes a fourth stage victory.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Joubert and Botha had to settle for second and third. One minute later, Ignatius du Preez and Keegan Tullis thundered down the finish line in a sprint for fourth, which Du Preez edged.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Heading into the final day of the 2026 Garden Route Giro, Beukes leads Joubert by four minutes and 23 seconds. Just 13 seconds separate Joubert and Botha, making the battle for second the fight to watch on Stage 6. Further down the general classification, Tullis holds fourth, while Bontekoning, in fifth, has just 16 seconds in hand over Dan Loubser.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The final stage features an undulating 75-kilometre course from Knysna to Wilderness; the 1\u00a0100 metres of climbing on the Seven Passes Road offer limited opportunities for anyone to gain significant time, without a rival cracking dramatically. In the men\u2019s race, that seems unlikely, but the seconds Botha and Loubser need could be won with intelligent racing. The final women\u2019s podium could be determined by how Bone recovers overnight.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n To follow the final day\u2019s action, like the\u00a0Garden Route Giro<\/a>\u00a0Facebook page and follow\u00a0@gardenroutegiro<\/a>\u00a0on Instagram. Cycling fans can also tune in for daily highlights on the\u00a0Dryland Event Management<\/a>\u00a0YouTube channel and read the daily news releases on their favourite cycling platform.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n