Skubarra

I think saying Argus is quite fine using a sportsfield is a bit misleading, I mean the sportsfield is part of the Cape Town Stadium complex with the infrastructure that comes with it + highways + CTICC + Waterfront nearby. I think Joburg stadium is the only obvious suitable venue for the RideJoburg in the city. All the security issues raised can be solved by employing a better security company and with some better attention to details. I did a 94.7 at Steyn City few years back and the traffic was gridlocked for miles, we were way late for our starting groups. Last year I had a far better overall experience at the JHB stadium (as I recall the only real complaint on the hub was the sugar free Coke handed out at the finish), again I think all the issues are fixable.

Apart from all the other issues with this approach already mentioned - you give those okes a "stern bollocking" but then disappear from the scene for 3 hours+ leaving your expensive car alone with them? I fail to see how this protect you from the "hussle"?

I miss the full road race calendar as much as anyone on here, but I do think we are living a bit in the past. Reality is that road races have become expensive & more difficult to organise + risky from a profit perspective if you can't attract the numbers. Cynical me don't see the funride concept making a comeback anytime soon. My observation just from my hometown is that cycling clubs (both social and formal) have taken the place of "events" for new people to get into the sport. There will hopefully always be events, but we are going to have to get used to see less of them.

I think the funride event concept is dying a slow death, maybe not so much the sport. We now have way more options when riding our bikes than 15 or 20 years ago with mtb'ing and gravel biking added to the mix. Personally I do fewer events but ride way more kilometers than years ago, we have club rides & trails for days for marginal cost if I want to get on my bike on a weekend. No need to spend R500+ to do an event. The very big events like DC and Cycle Tour still well attended.

Can't help but think that they thought - lets just host a race on the Burger slot and numbers will come, no need to actually market. I still think its a good slot.. I would even do any crappy race on that date!

I genuinely did not know this event was still on the calendar, just assumed it was cancelled as I did not hear anything about it (tbf I block the organisers email spam so partly my fault as well). Would have ridden it if it happened. Always keen to do a road race after the months of DC training, hoping the PPA might have a fundride in Dec.

Yeah the logistics + entry fee + travel puts it on par with a stage race 😞 Can't afford to do it every year. Luckily this year I am in a group and we are sharing costs & logistics. With you on the timing, December is the best possible training period for me. Why people choose long warm days when you are on holiday to take a break from cycling is beyond me😕 That is what the middle of winter is for.

2024 planned highlights for me: My Ratel Attakwas in January - then I have to do one more of this cursed ride after this to actually ride with the black number board Race to the Sun - going up north in May to check out the big boys doing the National Gravel Champs Trans Baviaans - haven't done this one in a decade, will skip the annual winter break next year to actually have a semblance of fitness in August Lazy Hippo Stage Race - just to try something different and take the family along Then a big maybe - depending on finances - fly up for the RideJoburg 94.7 - I feel like I have still unfinished business with that race.

Looks similar to the Sedgefield500 that was also discussed on the hub From the website 500km. Self-supported. This means no aid stations, no route markings. You get a route gpx file and you ride it your way. Two classifications. Solo, Groups/Touring. Try beat the solo record, or tour it before the cut-off. Basically you pay around R2K for a GPS file and your name gets published on a website if you finish in time. Not my cup of tea but based on previous discussions there are a few fanboys around who dig the idea.

There were a number of incidents, not just one.... That said I cycled waarburgh this morning - no problems... What makes that road treacherous imo is that it appears like an distant country road but in reality its just the N1 and a few 100 meters that separates it from a big township. In your case you would avoid Fisantekraal but now pass close to Bloekombos/Wallacedene. Also the road is very quiet so if you do run into trouble there don't expect any help or even someone to notice. I think its ok to cycle if you are vigilant but be prepared to turn around if you see characters hanging around. Sandringham feels a bit creepy to me as it is even closer to Bloekombos but I am not aware of any incidents that happened there.

I think with the clash of dates the turnout will probably be small, might just turn out to be a long solo 140km if you get dropped early.... but since I have never done it before and the normal date always clashes with other events I will make the effort. With Oudtshoorn done its the only road race in the WC I still need to tick of my bucket list.

Between the cycle tour Trust, PPA and local municipalities they really dropped the ball on that one. They already had the numbers, could have been a massive boost for tourism and the local economy if they allowed it to grow. Ironically the last one I did, hosted at Val de Vie they had even worse traffic shambles than last weekend's One Tonner. One of the things that killed off the event imo

Seeding wasnt any different in principle, there were just more road races. Your seeding was determined by your best 3 races so it took more races to build up a proper seeding to get into the faster groups, however you also had more opportunities (that were relatively cheap) to build up a good seeding. So generally speaking you had less inexperienced cyclists in the racing bunches and there was less likely to be someone there that got lucky with one fluke result (like what happened with you in the 99er?) When I took up road cycling it took me about 6 months and quite a few races to work my way up through the alphabet soup groups to A, it felt like quite an achievement back then. There weren't really more races with full road closures. The Langebaan race had (mostly) road closures but I think this was not really something valued by our local roadies. Stellenbosch/Burger at its height had about 10K riders but never managed to get road road closures. Stellenbosch/Paarl municipalities refused to play along. In my view if they managed the Stellenbosch cycle tour could have rivaled the CTCT for number of participants given the timeslot in December and people coming down and doing the race as part of the Christmas holiday.

https://pedalpower.org.za/seeding/

Agree with the last bit - the route from Kruisrivier to Calitzdorp is a hidden gem, one of the most beautiful back roads to cycle in the country. From Calitzdorp to Kruisrivier though... what a flippen neverending drag 😬

Slight hijack - there is no way to cycle from Bosluiskloof/Gamkapoort dam directly to Prince Albert? Including a bit of hike-a-bike. You have to go all the way round Calitzdorp to Prince Albert?

Don't think there is really a difference between Racetec and PPA sites with regards to seeding, they just happened to update the one and not the other. I hope the PPA MTB challenge and Old Hermon get updated before the CTCT, assume it is a manual process. Maybe send them a strongly worded email as extra motivation to get it done....

I see seedings have been updated on PPA's website (not on the Racetec site) Proper Beta this year 1.66. Thats my Cycle Tour seeding sorted 👍

Given that this is not PPA/Racetec/Finish Time i dont think normal seeding would apply? Also same date as Winelands Cycle Tour which is disappointing

My 2c - people have been complaining about races on the hub since the start, nothing new here. There will always be competent racing organisers and organisers getting a few things wrong. On the parking shenanigans from this weekends One Tonner. What makes it disappointing is that PPA have been organising road races for years and they have a formula that works ok. Previous One Tonner venues at schools (Stellenbosch and Wellington) worked fine, I imagine that they got the wine farm venue for cheap (or free?) which enabled them to make some extra money on the event. However an event with 1000+ riders and only one badly corrugated farm road as entry point was obviously going to create problems. Was it incompetence or greed that led them to just ignore this? Probably a little bit of both so they can't complain if people criticize them on this.

Not relevant to the point you are making but it seems most if not all of the people disqualified in the Durbie Dash were reinstated. Not sure why the mat to mat thing is causing complications for Finishtime. Surely the starting time is fixed, (the first mat just confirm that you started). you record the finish time and the difference between that & the official start time is your racing time?

Other than giving me a little heart attack when I drove to the venue and see cyclists already out racing, thought I missed my start (which I eventually did but thats another story)

Would be nice if there was an option on the view to just see the times of the group you started in, but I guess with the current view you can sort of figure it out. Anyway, great ride yesterday milky, getting to slip your mixed team for most of the ride really saved my day after I missed my start 👍

Parking stuff up - Honestly more angry at myself than at PPA, not the first time they host a road race at a wine farm and then the parking turns out to be shambles (nor the last time). I knew I should have been there early but somehow only got to the venue 20 minutes before my start and obviously I had to start 6 groups later. Timing chips - As I have it the permanent ones are ordered and will be available at the CTCT, I also don't know why we can't use the temp ones more than once. Also a bit annoying that we can't see our times vs our starting groups on Finishtime. Cannot think that this should be that hard to implement. Oh, and the race was tough, challenging & enjoyable as usual. Probably my fav road event outside the CTCT. Doing Bothmas 130(?)km in was very tough, Helz on warmed up legs was better experience.

yes - but 2 completely timing systems. I assume they are figuring out how to do the seeding as they go along, nothing really planned ahead.