Skubarra

That crash happened just in front of me, very traumatising to see! Really hope he is ok!

To add what @BuffsVintageBikes was saying, further problem is that there is a list of good races (also mostly happening in May/Sept) not on the list - Swartberg, Ronde van Riebeek, Race to the Sea (add nationals in May Race to the Sun if you are serious) & Prince George comes to mind. So the opportunity cost chasing the WP noddy badge is quite high.

I agree lumping 3 races together in May and then another 3 in September is daft and impractical, also not going to do it. I do think though 4 of the 6 should be fairly priced and close enough you can do without booking accomodation (36One half makes for a very expensive weekend & Ceder the other one where it is impractical to drive through for the day)

Because there is now a short route that has to go out & back on the M3 where in the past city could open up the M3 once the long route riders went past Tokai. So long route riders squeezed into a shorter time frame, which was fine until entrant numbers started picking up again. Edit - did a bit of googling. 2015 the last group started at 10h00, 2024 the last group (long distance) starts at 8h57. Sure there were more entrants in 2015 but can't help but feel these changes were not made with rider safety in mind.

Agree on the Tour de PPA - don't think it made much of the difference, seems like everyone in B to C were already in the racing vets groups even before the event. On the front groups, no, it wasn't this big. Its hard to compare with previous years because the organisers played around with formats. At one point they had smaller groups with smaller (like 30 second gaps) between them. It was also real hard to get into the racing vets, before the fires/storms cycle tours often a finish time of 2h50 would not be good enough to get you into racing vets the next year. I pretty much get the impression the organisers all but abandoned the concept of vet racing groups. I am real worried about chaotic starts, its not just about people getting dropped on Edinburgh, its going to be real important not to be blocked by the masses getting dropped on Edinburgh, so starting aggressively is the only way. Not thrilled by this but at least we know what we are in for.

I wonder if the timeslot is not hurting the event, June school holidays was great for me for a 1st outing and we combined it with a Kgalagadi holiday, but on an annual basis it competes with other family holiday options on my very limited family time and holiday budget. Possibly a date over a long weekend or short holiday will work better. Really hope they can resurrect it in some way or form, again one of the better & worthwhile events around.

Very disappointing to see, one of the better and more memorable events I have done. Thought this one had the potential to hang around for many years. Hope the organisers can come up with something new!

Suspect its more aimed at high-end Glacier clients who will get sponsored entries + a few pros will be invited to give the event credibility. If you notice the entry fee you are not the target market...

Agree that the larger groups will compromise safety, in the recent past @ and & were noticeably safer than the alphabet soup groups, likely not anymore. Not sure about 60% but yes most likely @ will scatter on Edinburgh and then & will pick up a whole lot of stragglers and then climbs like Smits can get messy. I am also fairly worried about Sunday, if you rate yourself one of the stronger riders in your group its important to get to the starting chute early and start fast, hanging in the middle to back can possibly leave you stranded behind dead wheels or crashes.

Yes, entered both, made it back fairly comfortably but I did have a very early starting time for the full race. Its not possible to do the second lap legally anymore as they use the beginning of the route for the short distance, but it should be possible if you want to risk doing it "unofficially", you just keep on going where the short route turns around at the blue route, sure one can find an excuse if a marshal is nosy.. I started right at the back for the short route, was already late in the day when I got back from the "1st lap" so maybe that contributed to the anti-climax. For me the finish at the grand parade was also a bit of a downer, lacked the vibe of the cape town stadium. But glad to see others had a positive experience 👍

Did the short route last year in stead of the 2nd lap, very uninspiring and boring, can't see the short route surviving in the long run if numbers on the long route pick up again.

Maybe I just have odd body measurements but the algorithms from their fitting program didnt work for me, it was very obvious the recommended saddle height is too low and the fitter (cant remember his name) had to make some thumb suck adjustments to get to a set-up that more or less worked. Later went for another setup at Irmfit and that worked much better for me.

Normal road rules don't apply though, you pass on the side where there is a sufficient gap and when it is safe to do so. Most important thing is to ride predictable (and if there is a gap to your left it is very predictable that someone might use it to their advantage)

He initially blamed the B bunch riders as well. I disagreed with that part of the argument, not with the part that officials were partly to blame. If A race to win but is not fast enough to stay ahead of B then that it sucks to be in A on that day, that often happens to the elite ladies/vets bunches, I rarely see them moan about that on here. Its part of racing, you deal with it.

I was in the front of B and my recollection differ from yours, both crashes A was ahead of us and B riders were not involved. There might have been B riders that got dropped initially that hooked onto A when A stopped after the 1st crash, but the main B bunch was not mixed up in A until after the 2nd crash

Agree (with the benefit of hindsight) that the groups behind A should also have been neutralised, no argument there. But that B bunch was still faster than A on the section after Vierlanden and catching up with A, no sympathy from me (as it is with B bunch/elite ladies/vets on any other day you are always aware that fast bunches are coming from behind and can potentially catch you if you don't work hard enough early on) - thats part of racing and you have to adapt on the day, no point moaning about it afterwards. On your points 3 & 5 - because no one in a bunch will stop unless you are specifically told to stop by an official, with both crashes we only had a few seconds to process what happened in front of us. If you chose to stop you lose your bunch and your race is over, simple as that. With the second crash B bunch got split anyway because the front rides managed to negotiate the crash site quicker and opened up a gap on the rest, so the crash even spoiled the B bunch ride. Anyway, neither of the big crashes were the fault of B bunch so no point criticizing them.

In the organisers defence, you wouldn't expect B to make up 5 minutes on A in the 1st few kilometers of the race. Normally A/Elites would be at least 15 minutes faster over 100km so the neutral zone should not make a difference time wise (my snarky comment for the day - given how many bunch crashes happened in A it was a good thing you guys were neutralised through Vierlanden...) But I get your point, probably the 1st 3 or 4 bunches need to be neutralised. I think today B would likely have caught A even if you didn't crash, we were only a few 100 meters behind you when the 1st crash happened at the fruitsellers.

I would be very very surprised if people get bumped down in CTCT seedings? Did the organiser say something to that effect? Have never heard of that happening.

As I recall Cycle Tour withdrew their association from the mtb race somewhere around 2018, Dirtopia still organised a few but then around Covid times lost interest in organising mtb events all together. Argus mtb was a good example of the power of marketing & branding, just being associated with the cycle tour always brought in a guaranteed 1000+ entries, despite the route being crappy and unimaginative for most of its existence.

Curious how this "Live Web Tracker" will work given "Estimated times will be provided on rider's current pace"? I mean current pace varies a lot over the course given where you are (big climbs like Chappies, Suikerbossie), direction & strength of the wind etc. Unless there is a serious complex algorithm in there I would not be surprised if that tracker is complete rubbish.

I get both sides of the argument... Control the risks you can and all that. I daily commute to work by mtb so that I have the option to hop onto the pavement whenever I pick up the vibe that the road is too busy or risky for my liking. What I won't do is blame (or insinuate) a cyclist that was taken out by a road user riding recklessly/illegally for being irresponsible. I think it is a very unhelpful slippery slope to find ourselves on.

Yes some roads are more risky, but I also see enough accidents (and had close calls) on "safe" roads with wide yellow lanes to not be under the illusion that us as cyclists are the cause of the problem by being on roads that "produce dangerous results". Again for me being critical of cyclists being on supposedly dangerous roads is victim blaming and framing of us as lesser road users, a slippery slope imo.

I think if this goes to court then the person in the wrong lane and/or speeding will be the guilty party

Finishtime basically bought over Racetec, so it is one combined company now. Think its very unlikely that your Racetec results will be deleted. From what I am seeing they still use the Racetec platform for seeding and entries, and the finishtime platform just for timing. (manually copying over results to the Racetec platform for seeding).

No wonder I almost died trying to stay with the bunch in the neutral zone! Thought it was just me being off the pace