Roses Are Red, Chains Are Tight - The Herald Cycle Tour Season’s in Sight
February can mean many things, depending on who you are. For some, it’s the month of love. For others, it’s filled with birthday celebrations.
But for many riders and cycling enthusiasts, February holds a special significance - it’s the month of the Herald Cycle Tour.
That’s right! The time is fast approaching to once again take on the roads and trails head on in this exciting event. So, let’s break down some things for the upcoming event, shall we?
What is The Herald Cycle Tour?
The Herald Cycle Tour is a long-standing annual cycling event held in Gqeberha, South Africa. It’s one of the biggest cycling events in the Eastern Cape, attracting riders of all levels, from families and social cyclists to competitive racers. That’s right, it’s got something for everyone.
Each year the Tour features both mountain bike (MTB) and road bike events spread over two weekends in February. In 2026, the MTB races take place in Addo at the Addo Polo Club, while the road races kick off around Pollok Beach in Summerstrand, Gqeberha.
Highlights include:
- MTB Challenges: Multiple distances from the tough 80 km Extreme to more relaxed routes and rides.
- Road Races: Classic distances like the 106 km Classic and 55 km Pursuit, plus junior and fun rides for younger cyclists.
Also, The Tour isn’t just a race — it’s a community celebration of cycling, fitness, and fun that brings together riders, families and spectators from across the country (and even beyond). So, if you’re not a cyclist or don’t fancy yourself the racing type, fear not! This event has something to offer everyone.
For the MTB event, race day takes place on the 8th February 2026.
For the Road Bike event, race day takes place on the 15th February 2026, the following weekend (Happy Valentine’s Day, you lovely riders).
Alright, now that we know when race day kicks off for each event, let’s take a look at what we can expect from the various routes.
Routes:
The Road event features the main 106 km event, whilst it also offers a 55km race where the routes for each one can be seen below.
106km route:
55km route:
The MTB event features an 80km extreme, 60km Adventure, 30km Leisure and even a 5km family route (yay for family bonding time!)
To get more information on each event, The Herald Cyle Tour website has it all in-depth. Feel free to check it out with the links provided below.
Action Cycles Always Delivers – A Velotex / Action Cycles Deal You Don’t Want To Miss
To add our own contribution to this event, Action Cycles is running a special in collaboration with FrameX by Velotex, to support our cycling community and the cyclists taking part in The Herald Cycle Tour. To show our gratitude to our community, we want to give back and so, we’re running a pretty awesome special between February 6th – February 7th. Check out the poster below to see what all we have to offer you if you bring your bike in for a wash and lube by yours truly.
An Online Store to Accommodate Everyone
We get that some of you may be coming from far and wide for the event, so we needed to start making better plans to reach everyone and help in any way we can. So, it was about time we opened an online store to reach all corners of South Africa.
Yes, haven’t you heard the news?
We’re live people! Our online store offers a wide variety of items waiting for you to take home…or be delivered. The choice is yours. You can find our link below as our website is once again up and running, and because we’re more than just a bike shop, we offer a variety of other information you can check out about our store, coffee shop, team and more – all here and available at www.actioncycles.co.za
To all our riders taking part in The Herald Cycle Tour, good luck! Wishing you good weather and a smooth ride.
The Cape Town Cycle Tour comes up next in March, so look forward to reading about it in our March Newsletter.
Warmest regards,
The Action Cycles Team