Brent

Thanks for the feedback on the map. I do notice that the op refers to a 101km ride whereas the brochure refers to 108km....anyways this looks to be a fast one.

Anyone have a route map for this new route ? I get a bit lost between the Fisantekraal and Windmeul areas.

I always look forward to fun rides that traverse the peninsula....not only for the parts that form the Argus route but also for the amazing scenery. However, today I was ashamed to be one of those cyclists on the road in this "organised" event. Some of the reasons being: 1. I actually witnessed the cyclist being hit by the taxi at the Sun Valley intersection. His bike appeared to be a total right-off and while he was alive lying on the centre island, he would probably end his day in hospital..That being said, it appeared as though the only marshal at this intersection was some civilian with a red flag. I do really hope and pray that he makes a speedy recovery. 2. The general quality of marshaling left a lot to be desired with many of those tasked with the control of intersections having very little "road use" experience other than perhaps being pedestrians. The traffic department officials that were on duty also appeared in some cases to not have been correctly allocated to the more dangerous intersections. 3. Cyclists are also to blame for not using common sense and approaching dangerous areas with caution. Surely, taking things a little slower in certain areas but guaranteeing themselves making it to the end of the "fun-ride" in one piece is the most important thing. Yes, ones time is important BUT ones life is even more-so !!! 4. The general trend these days with almost everything being open on Sundays is for more people to be on the road with their vehicles and this only makes it more dangerous for cyclists. The ride started way too late in my opinion. I was in K group and we only left the start at around 7:12am. If the various Cat/league groups need to be started with large time gaps between them, then let them start earlier !!! Its summer, those people could have been sent of as early as 6am. 5. As far as the coke thing, I actualy understand that 1 coke is 1 coke and dont have a problem with this....what I do have a problem with is the size of that 1 coke. Due to all the problems both stated by myself as well as others, I really do hope that this doesnt result in the fun-rides in the Southern Suburbs being prevented from taking place in the future. I come back to another point that has been raised here about the traffic services costing the organisers R 28,000.00. I feel that traffic services should be a community service in the interest of public safety and its perhaps time that PPA really put pressure on the mayors office to get them to understand that policing a route with thousands of cyclists is better for the community than the "we will only allocated as many officers as we have been paid for" attitude. In summary, I have found that this event lacked proper organisation, was expensive, was dangerous and I dont see myself entering it again.

Thanks for that feedback. Perhaps the traffic department can have a team of "semi qualified" officers similar to the Outsurance points people that can be called on for these type of events at a reduced cost. Talking about the cost of online entry, a few weeks back, I tried to enter online for the Journey for Site fun ride and noticed that the listed amount for long route pre-entry was R 90.00 only to see that the "online costs" was an additional R 13.00 (A whopping 14%). With the PPA coffers being what they are, maybe they should consider purchasing their own timing solutions for these sort of funrides. At the end of the day, the organisers are interested in giving money to charity and has been stated by HenryS above, "Our event did experience major cost increases and in 2012, despite our sponsors and volunteers, the amount cleared was so limited that we were considering not hosting the event in future." This would be very sad indeed if this was the eventual outcome of the spiraling costs.

To sportsworld.co.za, thanks for providing incite as to what happens elsewhere. I think though that many of you are missing the point when it comes to the roads being policed for fun rides. - Large group of cyclists riding a route together/at intervals - Many disrespectful/non law abiding/bad motorists - Cyclists being run over and killed ~ as unfortunately does already happen. Therefore the need from a community service point of view is to have the route policed by those that are essentially paid to do the task through our rates and taxes. Lets look at it another way. When one goes to the beach in summer and finds a lifeguard on duty as a result of the increased number of beach go'ers, this is from a community service point of view. We dont have higher beach entrance fees (since entry to the most beaches is free). Its about managing the traffic resources that are available not making those that are on leave work e.t.c.

And yes, you guys do deserve a medal

If this is indeed the case then they should be allocated shifts to protect the cyclists in the interest of social responsibility....simple as that. While I personally am all for dontating to charity and do so in various ways...the problem here is that of the entrance fee, I reckon that less than 30% goes to charity ~ perhaps some of the event organisers can actually step in here and inform us as to what the ratio of cost to donation actually is.

Having recently entered and completed a few of the funrides in the Western Cape, I am amazed as to how the costs to enter these events has spiralled. There will be a time if it has not indeed come already, where the number of entrants will certainly drop due to these high costs of entry. At some point the organisers will not see much benefit in hosting these events due to the limited amount that can be raised for charity by the entrance fees which in turn will only result in less funrides. Having spoken to a few organisers, I am lead to believe that the major cost facing these funride organisers is traffic management services.....i.e. the cost to get traffic officers . Well, this is where my rant comes in. Surely in the interest of public safety, the council should willingly offer the services of the traffic department for which we already pay rates, taxes e.t.c. at no additional charge. The council wouldn't want to have a whole lot of cyclists run over in a Sunday morning funride and therefore this should be a community service. It is after all the goal of government be it local or national to have a healthier population and cycling certainly helps people reach this goal. If this means changing traffic officer shift allocations to make them available on Saturdays or Sundays then this should be done. The community should not have to pay for these services at additional costs which are then past on the the funride organisers which in turn make the cost of entry so high !!! :angry: :angry:

I would think that if there is damage to you or your bike that required further attention that you claim from the dog owner at the small claims court. You will however have to get your ducks in a row to win the case though...witnesses, possible letter from the neighbours verifying that the dog is normally out of the property e.t.c. At least this will teach the arrogant #$%#$@% that he is indeed responsible for his dogs actions if not in his property or on a leash.