Hi all. Hopefully the topic title would of got everyone's attention to look at this. I competed in the 99er this weekend and must congratulate the organizers and marshals for a well run event. The following morning I went out for a light ride and landed on the last 30 km’s of the 99er route from the turn off at the silo’s to the four way stop at the bottom of Fissershoek. Along the way all I noticed were energy sachets littering the entire 30 odd km’s. I knew just talking about this would not really make an impact so later on that day I drove through on my motorbike armed with a plastic bag and started to collect some of the sachets. After 7km’s of stop starting and collecting 67 energy sachets and 5 energy bars I had to give up as my bike started overheating. I know I could of doubled this figure as I had seen plenty more along Malanshoogte and Fissershoek. I would hate to know what the count would have been on the entire route. I have been riding for almost 30 years now and yesterday I was ashamed to call myself a cyclist. So what can we do about this? Well I don't litter so its not my problem is what we all tend to say. Well it is a huge problem as we are all grouped as cyclists and all get blamed for either riding two abreast and now, littering. I have even suggested to PPA that they increase the race fee by R20 to send a sweep vehicle on the route to retrieve the cycling pigs litter, but this is actually unfair, why should I pay the penalty for some idiots who have no respect for the environment. So what I intend to do is at every race while riding in a bunch and witnessing a so called cyclist trash our environment and name is to make everyone in the bunch aware that we have a litter bug riding with us. I will make sure that that individual gets the message loud and clear no matter if he's a league rider or a weekend warrior that they are not welcome at races if they intend on littering. I challenge all of you to do the same so this disgusting habit disappears from our cycling community. On a lighter note it looks like GU is the preferred litter bugs choice of gel, coming in at 40 gels over the 7 km stretch, 2nd USN with 12 and third Hammer with 8. The rest were unfamiliar brands. Mark
