JRH

Thanks a lot for your involvement.

It is supposed to be on their website, but despite an assurance on their site that it would be up shortly after the race, there is still nothing posted.

Thanks for your involvement! See my post about eBlackwatches meeting with the SAPS on Monday.

I saw on the eBlaockwatch FB page that they will meet with Captain Steenkamp of the Garsfontein SAPS on Monday to discuss these attacks. I suggested they invite him for a bike ride from Mooikloof to Woodhill on Wednesday afternoon. Lekker downhill, suitable for all levels of fitness... I will arrange a bike.

This incident is indicative of a failing police service. I think that we must use any legal measure at our disposal to expose the real problem, which is the police's inability to protect us. I will take a picture of every police vehicle that I see at a fast food outlet or shopping center on my cycling route and post it here. Criminals were scared when the people that guarded law and order in this country were trained and not too **** scared to confront criminals that victimizes innocent people. In my neighborhood we rely on Chubb, ADT and Garscom for our safety. The police is non existing and only seen when you have to have something certified as an original copy. That is why I initially suggested that we get together and cycle for our own safety. Maybe we should have the Station Commander of Garsfontein become a cyclist?

The Beast of the East was one of the smaller races on the MTB racing calender in Gauteng and is nothing compared to the Trailseeker series. (Whose Curro Hazeldean course they incidentally duplicated partially yesterday). SS Timing and Spectrum Sport, who times the Advendurance races, had the results out on the evening of every Trailseeker Race, each with far more than 3000 participants. Race Time still doesn't have theirs (Beast of the East) out as promised on their website. At the finish line I asked one of the guys with the hand held scanners to scan my SAS chip, to make sure that my finish time was recorded. He indicated that they cannot scan SAS chips individually and that they rely on the overhead scanner, in which case I would have been stopped if it did not scan my chip. Those scanners failed me at Sondela. If you want to jump on the SAS band wagon, I suppose you must be able to play in the band? One must be fair in criticizing race organizers, but they must also take into consideration, the hundreds of people who paid a lot of money to participate in a RACE (not a fun ride), to whom things like seeding indexes, results, etc. actually means more than the drink and medal afterwards. In future I will stay with Advendurance and their races, with the occasional stage race during the year. That will save me a lot of frustration.

It is election time. Maybe a well formulated argument, forwarded to Nick Pascoe of the DA, followed up with a letter to the press to keep the DA honest, will get everybody off their asrses?

That was close!!! I'm glad that you came out of it OK. This makes me really cross. That barbarian almost shot you through the head, for your bike!!!! In essence these guys are now preventing any cyclist from using Garsfontein Road and nobody (read the SAPS) is going to do something about it. I agree with Badass that we as a community should do something about it. That is why I think that we should either force the SAPS to prioritise this matter or tell this story to someone who can force them to look at it. There were two attempted murders in three days, probably by the same suspects, who can be found in the squatter camp, next to the road. If this happened to a taxi driver they would have closed the road or embarked on some other kind ofnprotest a long time ago.

At what time did it happen?

Recently there was a spate of attacks on Mountain Bikers in the Woodlands area. It seems as if the attacks are launched from the nearby squatter camp in the area. It is common cause that the SAPS is not able (prepared?) to protect cyclists because, despite the attacks, I still could not notice any police presence in the area, besides the occasional visit to the nearby fast food outlets, not frequented by Mountain Bikers. Me and a couple of buddies frequently cycles in the area, but I also cycle alone quite often. Is it not possible that we join up with other cyclists in the area to form sort of a group, larger than the usual two or three guys, to ensure that we are protected? This might seem like a schlep, but I really believe that we should start looking after our own. Anyone interested must please contact me via this forum.

From Garsfontein left just after the Hills Estate entrance, under the power lines, up the little hill. Carry on straight to Nkwe Road, right on Nkwe to Graham. Or left at the first street after turning from Garsfontein, first right, long downhill and follow the road to Zwavelpoort road, which also link to Graham. From Garsfontein to Graham - downhill. From Graham to Garsfontein - climb.

Between Bronkhortspruit and Pretoria-East you will find some of the best MTB roures in that part of the world. Register on Strava and go look. I loaded a number of routes ranging between 30 and 80 kms. Look in the Donkerhoek area, Boschkop, where Rosemary Hill is and the closer to Pretoria in the Nkwe area. Great climbing and relatively save.