We have just ridden the 2011 S.A. road champs, the so called pinnacle of cycling in S.A. Having travelled with our team from Cape Town, Taking time off work and renting accommodation getting to this event comes at a cost. Needless to say your event was nothing short of totally disappointing, unorganised and an embarrassment to S.A. cycling. As a group we would not usually complain but let us give you some reason for complaining: - 1. The race was supposed to start at 7am, the time then changed to 8am this was communicated to us through the grape vine at 11pm before the night of the race. We arrived at the start and waited till 8.40am until someone announced that we would eventfully start at 9am. We eventually started at about 9.30am. 2. Further to the above and after a rider protest we were granted a neutral lap to ensure that the new revised course was safe. Safety was debatable ! 3. Surely the organisers must have realised that a race course that utilises parts of the city district , high density areas and main arterials would present them with some serious challenges. Perhaps the event should have started at 4am to avoid traffic. 4. The commisaire following the leading group of the 40 to 49’s made a point of announcing to them that this was the last lap. The riders asked the commisaire to reaffirm this and her answer was positive. The riders sprinted to the finish, only to be told by the announcer that there was a further lap to go. 5. Apparently a 50 to 54 age category rider was pulled of the course whilst lying in third place. 6. Prize giving still remains a mystery ! 7. We have just heard that the ladies is about to start , but the police have just gone to lunch. We understand one or two slip ups, but honestly this is nothing short of a joke. In summary these are just a few of the pointers that we are aware of. It seems that CSA has started to create quite a slick image for themselves through marketing. It however seems that there must be a bunch of Muppets running there events. Come on… we can host a world class soccer world cup, surely our national cycling champs could be better than this. An explanation is due ? Concerned cyclists Elton, Tim, Neil and Marius
