The pairs of David George and Kevin Evans and Cherise Taylor and Karien van Jaarsveld won the respective men's and women's first stage of the opening day to take the leaders' jerseys at the Subaru sani2c on Thursday.

The Nedbank 360Life duo of George and Evans completed the 87-kilometre stage between Underberg in the southern Drakensberg and Mackenzie Club near Ixopo in 2:49:16 to hold off MTN-DoItNow's Max Knox and Adrien Niyonshuti by six seconds.

Three seconds further back were RE:CM's Neil MacDonald and Waylon Woolcock who edged out Itec Connect's Brandon Stewart and Darren Lill for the final podium spot.

"We knew that when the racing has been as hard as today, the sprint is tough enough to make small gains," said Evans.

The four-time winner said their intention was to make the race as hard as possible with a view on Friday's queen stage through the Umkomaas Valley. "You might hurt yourself in the process, but you're certainly going to hurt a few others as well.

USN's Cherise Taylor and Karien van Jaarsveld won a keenly contested women's race in 3:20:48.

Team bizhub's Catherine Williamson and replacement partner Candice Neethling lost ground in the closing stages to finish second in 3:21:01 with teammates Yolandi du Toit and Nicci Grobler third in 3:32:10.

"It was extremely hard," said Taylor, who flew in from China on Tuesday. "I suffered all the way, but Karien kept me motivated.

"We noticed that Candice was starting to struggle at the end and knew we had it in the bag."

The Contego pairing of Erik and Ariane Kleinhans stopped the clock on 3:06:01 for an easy win in the mixed section.