What a scenic race with favorable wind! HOWEVER...... I have never ever felt so unsafe during an event as I did today! The marshals were completely incompetent and seemed more interested in their cellphones and the stones on the ground, rather than protecting the cyclists or guiding the traffic. Our group was verbally abused by numerous motorists and no marshal was in sight to help out. I can count 6 times where cars just stopped in front of us and the group (+40 riders) had to dart dangerously around the car and swerve into oncoming traffic. My parents (Who were watching the race) later informed me that the bike marshal was sitting at the back of our group on his phone,. My parents also helped marshal a bit as an accident was becoming inevitable. Once the race was completed we were then guided to a gravel road with two exits, no marshal (surprise surprise) was present and we had to guess which way to go to reach the rugby club again. On my way home I saw the two marshals at the bottom of boys drive (Lakeside) picking up stones and chatting on their phones, not giving two hoots about the cyclists entering main road at speed or the cars in main road!!!!! This blows my mind, surely cyclist safety comes first! Then to top it off I was given half a cup of coke at the end and told I wasn't allowed anymore! This on top of a poor personal cycling performance left me fuming! I do not mind paying R160 for a "charity" based race. However, when my safety comes into question I will not stand for it! I know that I am not the only person who is extremely upset by the level of incompetence and lack of safety during the race! You will struggle to get me to attend this race next year! Could the supervisor or anyone in charge please email me at shabou08@gmail.com , so that we can discuss this issue further.
