Perceptions of Johnny Foreigner ...... that's me. I live overseas and am one of those who travelled a stupidly long way to take part in the race, and would probably be classified as a late finisher around the 4h 30min mark judging by last year, which was then my only time taking part. FWIW this is what it has cost me approximately; 1,150 entry fee 30,480 air fares 9,405 hotel bill 1,900 car hire 800 transfers etc 2,000 Food & drink Total 45,700 ZAR approx Do I want my money back ? - No, none of it. But do I want an entry for next year - absolutely. And will I enter again ? Yes but begrudgingly and never again if I have to go in the public ballot. If I didn't get in next year I wouldn't enter again as there are better organised and more reasonable T&C's for other big events. And that's just shy of 50,000ZAR which the country would never see. Until now I had sung the praises of the event with my cycling colleagues encouraging them to attend and so far one did - this year and boy will she be annoyed when I see her. Would I recommend the race to others - yes, but with heavy health warnings about it becoming politically susceptible to protestors, with it being started in a stupid place and with it being at the wrong time of year. Most people, especially western softy European types like me will not want to be anywhere near a political protest in South Africa so you'll lose a lot of good will if those are not resolved. I cannot judge whether it was the weather or other reasons that caused the cancellation as I understand none of the politics here, and barely some of the locations quoted. What I can do is tell you how the people spending the most money to get into the country feel about their treatment. Nobody wants to ride outside their capabilities so the cancellation brought some small relief given it was going to be a very long day otherwise. What I didn't like, regardless of the Terms and Cinditions was the brusque attitude to taking the money and run, without even considering deferrals. To me that says the bottom line is the only thing that matters to the organisers. Their reputation is trashed in my view, even if the event isn't. In Europe or the USA a class action suit would have been under way by now as the organisers knew the problems of the start line, and clearly had no contingency for much else. The weather is uncontrollable which is why major events take out insurance - which this event appears to not, given weather is almost guaranteed to cause some issues judging by people's comments. And as to the luvvies trying to stop people complaining because of the terrible fire, the two events are utterly unrelated. Those affected need help and need it quickly - irrespective of the weather and whether the race was running or not. Finally I just checked the T&C's of the London Prudential RideLondon 100 - cancellation by the organisers results in a fee refund in total. That's what a professional organisation does - it takes out insurance. If the CTCC want to remain a Premier level event they are going to have to do things a little differently in my opinion because lots of travellers are going to give the CTCC a good hard look next time rather than just jumping in.
