Skubarra

I heard that one of the organisers mentioned that one problem they had is that most of their entries were one-off, people ride it once then don't return. Seems successful events need a core group of riders that return to do the race (most) years. Might be worth trying to go the Eselfontein route? Make it cheaper and more accessible to families rather than the 5-star luxury weekend?

A bit more technical and rough terrain than Sani2C, but somewhat shorter distances. I would say roughly equal in difficulty (assuming the weather is not extreme, which is always a possibility in October in the WC)

I think all of that and also marketing? I think organisers underestimate how much proper marketing can boost your event. And then as you mention technical events that require proper skills have a smaller potential market, add the steep entry fee and you will probably kill of your event sooner than later.

Not going to defend them (very hard), I also think the Starck model is the way to go. But I know cyclists are not universally liked by all restaurant owners & other patrons so maybe they are going for something different. From what I heard that Bossa is packed over weekends anyway so seems they are doing well without the need to cater for us.

I'm not going to bash Meerendal for deciding not to cater for cyclists socialising after their rides, I'm sure they have their reasons and we have more than enough other options in the area. I will say the idea that cyclists will leave their bikes unattended to go eat/drink at a restaurant few 100 meters away is just daft - can't think of anyone that will do that.

On point 3 - if a club member have issues on how money is spent, they have the option to attend the AGM or they could contact the club for clarification (the club management is not some faceless corporate entity that cannot be engaged with, they are fellow riders living in our community). But I guess its much easier to just throw a rant on social media 🤷‍♀️

I disagree with a few things here. For one I don't consider R80 per month a lot of money for unlimited access to a trail network of over 150km, the "blasting" I'm seeing on this thread is pretty one-sided and not from the club and they do not have a monopoly, there are other trail options in the wider area (even ones without berms)

Clearly not, we would rather do public rants about bad jokes on newsletters and shame wine farms who don't give us trails without berms.

On our whatsapp group it said the bakkie fled the scene - so it seems at least that wasn't the case

Yes Seriously? A crude word in a newsletter and suddenly we start thread a thread on the hub and demand public apologies? 🤦‍♂️ Either we are now super snowflaky or there is a deeper resentment against the club and the offending word was just the excuse to let it rip.

Last time I was there for an after ride coffee (which is not recent) they did have locks you could use at the bike rack. Which is ok I guess but I prefer to have my bike in sight. And yes there are so many options in the area its just not worth the hassle.

You can always claim that 2015 sub-3....

I get that PPA is the convenient scapegoat when we need something to lash out at. Maybe we are getting what we paid for, we want PPA to solve all road safety issues on our behalf and throw in a CTCT discount for 200 bucks a year? In my personal experience I know they provided a lot of support to a cyclist friend that was robbed & assaulted on his bike a few years back when he made the effort to reach out to them, far more than what our useless police did at the time. If you have constructive suggestions maybe reach out and chat to them, think you will achieve far more than ranting about them on social media.

I think PPA does a lot for cycling safety awareness and advocacy - maybe not as much as you would like but certainly more than handing out stickers once a year. I would also say there are limits to what they can do, its also up to us to get involved.

In principle I agree with you 100% that you don't have to pay excessive entry fees to get great cycling experiences. For me the road closures, the vibe with 1000s of other cyclists are big selling points over normal funrides and yes I'm still one of the vets & wannabes that sometimes imagine what they do can be considered racing... If I was unfortunate enough to live in Gauteng I certainly would not be able to afford to do this trip annually (or rather I would be spending my cycling money on something else most years), lucky for us Capetonians its only the entry fee so the increase doesn't make much of a difference.

One thing I remember reading the Burger in the late 90's is that despite all the excitement, disruptions, traffic closures and loads of visitors to Cape Town in the week of the Argus, this event would be completely ignored with literally ZERO mentions, as if nothing is happening. There would be colour photos of some dog show on a rugby field but a cycling event? What cycling event?

Dug a bit in the archives for emails on my first one - got about 500 emails on the 2012 Argus with every detail you could wish for including payment confirmations but no mentions in any of those emails on the amount of the entry fee 🤣 fwiw the mtb argus that year was R275 Something else I remember is that bitching about the CTCT entry fee is an annual tradition on here as old as the hub itself, rivalled only by the complaints about the goodie bags

My gut feel is they will go for the same route again. Van Schoorsdrift in a terrible condition, organisers wont get permission for the N7 from Philadelphia again and Meerendal still not fixed (afaik)

In for number 10 R755 is a bit steep(don't think I'm going to bother with lap 2). But given that most funrides are now somewhere between R400 and R500 nowadays I don't think the price is out of line for a one-off annual opportunity to ride around the peninsula on closed roads.

Like @Newbie321 said, if you link up Klipheuwel & Faircape you can get roughly 35km of mostly non-technical trails and not too much climbing

I think the first half have some jeeptrack and a bit rougher terrain (haven't ridden it myself) which might be the official reason why they didn't allow gravel bikes to do the full. But anyway, good decision - let peeps decide for themselves.

Yes - and can one really expect a motorist to risk his/her safety to intervene on your behalf when confronted by a group of armed thugs high on drugs?

What is scary for me (don't know what WA's you saw) was that initially they got away from the attackers but then the perpetrators got into a car and chased them down. Also happened at a time when the road was fairly busy.

Happy to see this one back on the calendar. Will be there!

I know the people that were attacked on Bottelary - sadly all true, we really are not 100% safe anywhere on public roads, not even in groups.