SeanMort

The Seven Passes route between George and Kynsna is one of the cycling gems in that area. The N2 is very rideable, with a generous shoulder, for the section between Wilderness and Sedgefield. The N2 between the Goukamma River and Knysna is dicey, and the same between Wilderness and George along the N2 (I've done both these sections and personally wouldn't again - the climbing doesn't scare me, but the traffic safety does !). Getting to the Seven Passes route from Wilderness via Whites Road is a worthwhile climb though ! Eugene Roux of Cycleworx in Sedgefield is most knowledgeable about the routes and road conditions in that neck of the woods. Very friendly and helpful with information.

Very sad to hear this outcome. Heartfelt condolences to his family and friends.

I came across the accident scene after it happened, and it got me thinking as to what could be done to minimise this type of unfortunate accident. Just some ideas ... - a prominent Warning Sign for cyclists at the top of Suikerbossie (possibly sighted where most everyone stops to have a drink etc), and well before they are prone to building up speed, warning them of the traffic light danger down the hill. - a prominent Warning Sign for motorists at the relevant traffic lights, warning them of cyclists and other traffic dangers to their right. - remove or trim the bushes that obscure the view of both cyclists and motorists at this point, and/or install a two-way traffic mirror. - adjust the traffic light timing appropriately to give cyclists and motorists a reasonable amount of time to take action.

Our club (City Cycling Club) used this route, and variations, a few times as an annual mid-year tour event over a week. We initially did it as a MTB event, starting in Sedgefield, and then a road event. The last road tour we did was along the length of the R62 over 7 days, which we called the Tour De Route 62, which was as follows: Stormsriver - Joubertina - Herold - Oudtshoorn - Caltizdorp - Barrydale - Worcester - Slanghoek - Bainskloof - Wellington - Cape Town (Edgemead). We had our support Kombi with, for the drive up from Cape Town to the start point (Sedgefield etc), and pre-organised the stop overs at various B&B's. The one year we had no-one to drive the Kombi, so we took turns every hour or so to drive ! I would say that your best route option would be heading out via Northern Suburbs: one way to get going out the Southern Suburbs is via Palmyra - Rondebosch - Ob's - Salt River - Woodstock - bike path through Paarden Eiland (or into town and then back on the highway shoulder to Paarden Eiland if not with a significant number of riders) - Milnerton - Bosmansdam Road (or through Sandrif) - Bothasig bike path through to Burgundy Estate - up and over Tiekiedraai into Durbanville. From there, there are several routes further North avoiding the highways, each with their issues and safety concerns, especially if riding alone. Just an idea .....

This past weekend Conrad guided a visually-impaired triathlete friend of mine, David Jones, at the PTVI ITU World Cup in Sarasota USA, where they finished in 6th place. During this year Conrad has also guided David to a win at the Discovery Tri World Cup in Cape Town, and a 7th place at the PTVI ITU World Cup in the UK. David is the current SA and Africa PTVI Tri Champ, winner of CTCT blind-tandem category, a close runner-up at the recent K2C mtb tandem category, and first SA blind swimmer to complete the Robben Island to Blouberg swim. I train regularly with David on tandem and the occasional run, and he has incredible form. Thanks to athletes like Conrad, David is able take on the world with his aspirations !

It's positively insane as to how the organiser's come to a decision to seed only the top 30 tandems into # group ?? I really don't understand the rationale as to how this happens. Why not put the top 60/70 - 100 tandems into this one group, like practically every other race in SA, and then the rest into a social tandems group further down the starting order as they used to ? They will pretty quickly self-seed from the start, and it will be safer for all concerned with no fuss. It's pretty hair raising on a tandem in the 1's and 2's groups among the single bikes, which they don't seem to understand at all. We petitioned to be granted a spot into # as per last year, but they blah blahed about the top 30 seeding ad-naseum, and then yesterday didn't we just catch and pass 2 # tandems who didn't look anything like # form (or shape). Even my blind stoker could spot this a mile away. Ugottawonder !!

Somewhere on this page I think - http://results.finishtime.co.za/startpage.aspx?CId=35

I competed in the sprint duathlon event with a blind partner, and we were one of two tandems on the cycle course at that point, the other tandem also with a blind participant as a stoker. Negotiating the Sea Point turn-around on a tandem was always going to be tight, but we had planned our strategy for this well beforehand - switch to a lighter gear approaching the turn-around, take it as wide as possible from the right-hand kerb around to the barrier, and then kick off again. On our first lap we had some persistent drafters on our wheel (saw so much of this happening between riders in spite of the limited drafting rules), and in the turn around bend ahead of us, one of them cut the apex and ended up clipping another riders wheel bringing three riders down almost in front of us. A paramedic then foolishly decided to run in front of the oncoming bikes to help them, almost compounding the current situation. We managed to get through and away fortunately, but from then on we had a group of riders sitting on our wheel for a free tow. Where I could, I rode the gutter at 40+ kph to drop them, but soon picked up others again. It's near impossible to police this limited drafting rule though. Approaching the end of our bike leg one of the riders on our wheel thanked us for the help ... ugottawonder ! This is my third year taking part in this event, and I think there will always be some aspect of this event that would be tricky to organise, given the available facilities, course layout and taking into consideration other activities taking place around a busy city. Well done to organisers though for keeping the event on the map, and in Cape Town. We had seven teams of visually-impaired (blind) participants, and they all achieved, some of them standing on the podium ! PARA-TRIATHLON Athlete: Cornelia Liebenberg Guide: Celia Pienaar Athlete: Scott Field Guide: Alec van Wyk Athlete: David Jones Guide: Conrad Stoltz Athlete: Gavin Kilpatrick Guide: Michael Harris Athlete: Cindy Jacobsz Guide: Petro Neethling PARA-DUATHLON Athlete: Francois Jacobs Guide: Hansie Louw Athlete: Kevin Murfitt Guide: Sean Mortassagne

I am aware of the organisers efforts, and do sincerely hope that said communities embrace the efforts they are making, but this is flip-flop politics at play. So far all I have seen from their original grievances are just words. Here's hoping the situation is addressed and appeased.

Possible protests are my only concern. The protesters had a light-bulb moment last year and the light-bulb is still burning ......

The road surface has settled and, to me, is perfectly good for racing on, but there is that damn pothole in the road just coming into Hout Bay. It's been there for months and nobody 'official' seems keen to sort it out. Choice of wheels will probably come down to wind conditions in my opinion.

Unless you are competing in a licenced group, nobody cares what brakes you have. Perfectly good to go from A - Z.

It's being followed on this thread - https://community.bikehub.co.za/topic/157470-two-cyclists-killed-in-kzn/page-24 Also looks like it's going to get 'messy'

Hayley Godfrey can be contacted directly at 0726730523 for those able to assist. According to a close friend of the cyclist involved, he is currently still in hospital recovering from his injuries.

Saw this posting today on the "Constantia Society" FB page from a Hayley Godfrey - "*urgent witness information needed** This is a long shot but hoping my fellow hout bay people can help. My husband and daughter were involved in the head on collision on the coastal road on Christmas eve. The man who caused the accident had been driving recklessly from camps bay to Hout bay and tried to overtake a myciti causing a huge accident which involved hitting a myciti bus, my husbands car head on, causing a cyclist to be thrown down the mountain and another car was also involved. Unfortunately the police have now lost all the witness statements (there were a few from people involved in the crash and witnesses driving behind the guy who caused the accident). There are 2 cases open against him for negligent and reckless driving but now with no witness statements I'm afraid this will get thrown out. I don't want this guy to do this to someone else. Sick of people driving like idiots on that coastal road putting us all at risk! Please DM me if you have any info available to help us" So, seemingly SAPS has 'lost' the witness statements .. go figure ! If anyone can assist this woman, let me know and I'll send her a message with your contact details.

Given half a chance I'm pretty sure he would have tried to run off, but that Fortuner was too wrecked to go anywhere. Thankfully no fatal injuries to any of the parties involved.

Aaah dang !! Sorry to hear :-( You'll bounce back - pardon the pun - and be on your bike before you know it.

We didn't have many issues with others drafting off our team, and for the most part we rode them off. There were the usual sections where we got stuck in the shoal, but it wasn't for km's on end. Our team also had some frequent unscheduled stops, due to a recurring mechanical (pilot/stoker chain on one of tandems came off about 30 times), which cost us at least 20min, but we finished as a complete tandem team in 6H32. There was one slightly hairy moment when some of us were blasting down the hill shortly after Op De Tradouw, and split some of the Pure Savages at the back, and then a car came up the hill while we were all a 'little' over the white line !! This caused much excitement with a pedestrian walking on the side of the road. Too much fun we had :-)

.. and not forgetting Killarney Nite Series on 18 & 25 Jan, and 1, 15 & 22 Feb (provisional dates)

Hopefully not stormy in Masi'

Nah .. there are plenty more road races before then ;-)

Oh no !! .. and you were just recovering. Don't be disheartened, there's time enough for the upcoming events in Jan. Take time to recover your mind and body. You shouldn't lose much fitness. The wet weather obviously changes the dynamics of a race. A lot of riders have little or no experience of riding/racing in the rain, and of course rain lifts the road debris and vehicle oils to the surface, making it worse for punctures and tyre slips. Bunch positioning changes to avoid the gutter (where the most punctures occur in the wet) and wheel spray from the rider in front of you, and this sees the bunch riding on/around the slippery yellow line where the cat-eyes are. Braking is less effective, and you have to constantly feather the brakes to keep them useful. As it is, Gav and I overshot the last left-hander into Stellenbosch and went straight through the cones, between the traffic cars and other traffic, and fortunately found a line into the far right lane further down the road from where we could safely turn the tandem around and resume onto the finish line, losing about a minute but saving our bacon .. and this despite feathering the brakes the whole way down that hill before the turn. I tested the brakes a few times down that hill and decided to go to the outside of the bunch in case, and just as well :-) All Gav was worried about, was where the other tandems where that we had dropped We were thinking of getting some of the tandems together for a Dec peninsula cruise, so if you and Ali are keen we'll message you.

.. which is why I find Endomondo quite economical in terms of cost, battery power, simplicity and features. On my Samsung S5 it has enough battery life for at least 9 hours. Over the years I've tried numerous apps and for my purposes this is what I've settled on. My other half gets the free tracking (currently forever) of my event in a simplistic way, and I get some extended features for a reasonable fee. Granted, it doesn't have the instant "Help" features, but then I've set my smartphone up to do that (the latest Samsung Android OS has a feature that can send location, a sound byte and picture on 3 rapid key presses of the side button, regardless of Lock Status). I also have my ICE details on displayed on the locked screen,

I don't think you're going to get away from the rider having a smartphone with them for what you want (unless you're prepared to probably part with some $$'s). I use Endomondo premium (think it costs around R350 annually) and also has free live tracking. My other half has Endomondo free version on her smartphone and can live track wherever I am on a ride/race. It's dead simple to use and isn't overly complicated with detailed ride data/segments and all that blah blah (I could care less about most of that stuff). I start the app, put my phone in a ziplock bag and into my pocket (has auto-pause, so little need to see it again until I get home and stop the app).

Perhaps Carbon29er would be best placed to answer your questions privately (?) I don't see that he's on this thread anywhere, and perhaps that's for a good reason given his position with CSA. To add to the discussion; Lotto funding is a thing of the past unfortunately, but how about a properly managed crowd-funding initiative for the next World's ?