Skubarra

Vaguely recall that argument but wasn't that Ariane Luthi when taking on the Trailseeker series when they reduced the elite men's races from 100 to 75km to be the same as the women? Can't recall that line really used for the Epic? Not that I think R/km is a particular meaningful argument anyway, if you are against equal pay there are certainly far better arguments to be made.

put the entry fee on the credit card and then use the prize money to pay it back, easy 🙃

Don't quite share your pessimism, +-100km per day on gravel is honestly not that hard if the aim is just to finish? Can't imagine there are many who would pay R50k(?) for and an entry and then not bother to train enough to finish the event.

I certainly get your point on different people placing different values on experiences so no point trying to guilt trip you into doing the Cycle Tour 😀 But for me having access to 109km of urban roads along one of the most beautiful stretches of coastline with no traffic to contend with, only sharing the experience with other cyclists. If thats not much value to a road cyclist then I genuinely wonder why would that person even own a road bike? 🤷‍♂️ I worry a bit for the future of road events in our country - somewhere between the rising costs / red tape and apathy in the cycling community the future of events like this is not as guaranteed as one might think (there is some news about the ownership of this race in the pipeline). I hope enough people disagree with your value assessment for a while still!

you are making the mistake of only considering the short term cost savings....

just to elaborate on my previous post - didn't do the October race last year but for the Feb event it was one bunch at the start and I definitely saw no ebikes. Vibe was much more aligned with the league races as opposed to your typical PPA funride. I would be kind of surprised if they allow ebikes but maybe one should email/phone the organisers and ask?

i can also only guess, but given that this is organised by the people who do the WP Cycling league races where there are no ebikes my gutfeel is that the answer would be no.

Agree with the others, if the plan is still 14 hours I wouldn't change anything. He is going to be slightly faster than you on the flats but not by so much that you can't slip him, even if you keep the 34t chainring. Maybe do a few training rides together before the race to get a feel for how/if the dynamics change?

Its a tricky one to answer because people have vastly different opinions on the usefulness of hydration packs, and also use it differently For me the key would be what do you want the pack to do for you, how much water do you need to carry, is the idea to replace your water bottles or carry water in addition to your bottles? Likely what is the distance / time on the ride the hydration pack needs to last for you? For me I chose the USWE Outlander 3 with 1,5 liter of water and an additional pocket of 1l that you can remove if you want. For me along with a water bottle that is more than enough water I would ever need between water points but some of my friends prefer a bigger bladder or not to ride with a bottle + pack. If you can borrow one somewhere before you spend the money that might be a great help to figure out what would work for you.

Any suggestions on what race organisers should do differently to attract numbers again? (In general not the WP gravel series)

Did the 200km Audax on Saturday. Malmesbury -> Darling -> R27 -> Melkbos -> N7 -> Philadelphia We didn't have any issues on the R27, but yes, I'm one of the "plenty" who is not a fan. Shoulder is wide but road busy and cars/trucks race past at high speeds all the time. Just feels unsafe to me. Also is it safe to cycle through Atlantis? Im also not a big fan of the R304, road bumpy without a shoulder and it always feels like there are dodgy characters hanging around. I would probably opt for going on the R315 through Darling to Malmesbury and then take the Kalbaskraal road to Philadelphia. R315 doesn't have a shoulder but the road seems to be fairly quiet.

It was part of the gravel series this year as well... Edit - as an aside, a bit disappointing that WP Cycling made zero effort to promote their gravel series this year. If it was actually cancelled I don't think anyone would have noticed.

Thanks - had no idea this race is happening this year, would like to do it!

Great tribute - I started cycling/mtb'ing in the early 2010's and Dirtopia was HUGE in WC mtbing Thinking back the Amarider 100 Miler you mentioned was also one of THE original gravel races, think I did one in 2011, Meurant was more than a decade ahead of the curve with the format. Pity it didn't really caught on at the time.... My condolences to Meurant's and JP's families.

I think the organisers just need to be clear about the criteria? From what I understand from the answer you would be allowed to ride if you can show you can complete the distance (I assume having finished a similar 100 miler type of event should be sufficient?) Not sure if I would be able to do this race next year but I really like the concept, will try to make a plan 😀

Only 3 non-" PPA/WP league" road events left around CPT (Winelands, 99er and Durbie Dash) - PPA has 2 outside of the Cycle Tour and their irregular Paardeberg Funrides. Not quite agreeing with @ChrisF on logistics being the reason Giro del Mar was cancelled - I suspect the whole format is dead, no demand for road stage races anymore. I predict the last remaining funrides will soon go the same way, even if the demand is there the costs of hosting these type of events are skyrocketing. I guess luckily the WP road league is still fairly healthy, seems that is the way to go, minimalist & cheap, just racing.

Honestly how would you notice the difference? As I have it the sum total of organising here consisted of a gps file emailed to you and maybe someone tracking you online.

Seems no good deed goes unpunished, the thanks you get for supporting local road events... Whatever you think of the company very bad news for the local riding scene if these races also drop off the calendar, not really something the local riding scene can afford. (And again I am annoyed by the apathy of local riders not supporting the Giro del Mar organisers but that is my issue to deal with 🙃)

At the moment you can't buy entries for either the Boland 100 Miler or the Tour du Cap on the TopTickets website. Also the facebook pages for both events seems to be deleted. So nothing official but not looking good for his other cycling events.... As an aside if Boland 100 Miler does go ahead he would need to address the problem that Du Toitskloof pass is closed in October for roadworks.

Went to the Top Tickets website and it was very obvious they only sell tickets for De Villiers races & concerts. Then googled Top Tickets contact details and got this https://b2bhint.com/en/company/za/top-tickets--K2025120295 Don't know if you saw the articles in Rapport this weekend about how this guy went about the concerts he was organising, but honestly I would not be confident that people who paid entry fees to any of his events will get money back. Would be very happy to be wrong on this.

Guess who is the co-owner of "Top Tickets" that handled the online entries for Gravel Monster... At least with Giro del Mar the entries were handled by Entryninja and refunds on cancellation were instant. Really hope you guys get your money back

I genuinely don't know what they should have done different. Maybe one should just be cynical and accept that road stage races are a thing of the past. I hear @Spinnekop's point about cost, My perspective - I help a bit on a funride that attract 1000+ riders, we can charge about R500 for the ride and make profit because we have headline sponsors & volunteers who don't charge for their time. Without headline sponsors we maybe break even. (So despite being a big established event, if we lose the sponsors or have to pay the volunteers the race is guaranteed to drop off the calendar) So from my crude assumptions R1K a day for a smallish event out of town without sponsors might be expensive from a rider perspective but also will be only slightly more than break-even for an organiser. But I don't think its about the entry fee, people will pay if they think the ride will be good. Possibly nowadays the only way to establish an event like this is to have deep enough pockets to run the event at a loss until the numbers pick-up and sponsors come on board. Also I think clever marketing goes a long way (lets not mention names but I can name a few races with mediocre cycling offerings that pull big numbers with slick marketing & bells/whistles), posts on social media are not going to create the buzz for you that you need to fill up the event.

Yes 'n remember the whole Tour de Boland / Tour du Cap saga becoming very messy. But to be fair the original Tour de Boland organisers also didn't cover themselves in glory, their attempt at organising a stage race was a shambles. The Tour du Cap/Tour of Good Hope has been going for almost 10 years now? So there is some organising ability to be found besides all the drama...

My take on it, the early bird discount was substantial, R2K off made a huge difference if this race was in your plans. I only booked accommodation for Lamberts Bay, the rest I would have driven from the Northern Suburbs & organised lifts - not ideal but doable. Yes logistics, leave, costs not great, I get that. But if one wants to race anywhere but around Paardeberg and up Bothmaskloof for the bazillionth time (+ CTCT once a year )then unfortunately you would have to get into your car and drive a few kilometers to the next town. Something about the CPT roadie mentality I would never quite understand, for gravel & mtb we are happy to travel and spend money to do interesting events & stage races, for road it has to be based within 30km of CPT otherwise most are not interested.

Extremely disappointed 🙁 But not really surprised, road events in SA slowly but steadily on its way to dying out. Probably in this case event organisers should have done more to market the event, but between rising costs to host events & general apathy of the road cycling community its not worthwhile starting new road events nowadays.