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NicholasH

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Everything posted by NicholasH

  1. NicholasH
    Yep, we had no choice due to losing the race course as the start/finish. However, we believe that despite this change that this year will see our biggest and best event in many years. We are approaching record entry numbers plus the Trilogy was a huge success and we are building on it as well as having 3 road routes. We all loved to hate Odendaal (RIP) but we are now into a new era....
  2. NicholasH
    Yes, that was me again... We had to slow A down but then I never thought about B (I'm a software developer that loves cycling, not a professional cycling anything 🤣 and we all volunteer for this event as it is our school) So it ended up that the winning time of B was actually faster than A. This year with the route change the neutral will apply to ALL groups as we have a much more dangerous right turn this time onto Wellington but from there it is game on for everyone. H
  3. NicholasH
    Hi Yes, we have been forced to finish Adderly because of the loss of Odendaal.... sorry all but urban progress feels rocks for cycling 😞
  4. NicholasH
    drop me a mail and I will put you in contact with the right person. nicholashaupt@gmail.com
  5. NicholasH
    Hi. Yeah, sure. Its not about relevance per se. The point I am making is that we ARE still a unique race in terms of route. As I have explained, Durbanville has grown from 5000 people to 50,000 (I have lived here all 56 years of my life) BUT we still only have the same 5 roads in and out of the now, town, not dorpie like it was
  6. NicholasH
    This year's race IS OUTSIDE THE BOX, believe it or not.... we started route planning in July already and after "finalising" the routes 3 times we came up with what we have now.... it's not as simple as it seems. We are also actually quite different from Durbie Dash. Very good friends with the organizers. I believe that the 2 events actually compliment each other
  7. NicholasH
    Hi In short the route change: we were forced to change the start from Durbanville Racecourse for many reasons. After literally 2 months of scouting grounds, driving the routes a few times and looking at every possible option (remember I am a keen cyclist myself and head of operations) this was the only route choice we had. Durbanville simply does not have the infrastructure to support a 4000+ strong cyclist event. What people also don't realise is that you cannot simply send 1000 cyclists out of Durbanville on any route. You have to look at timing of when the elites and A and B groups come back to the start vs the other slower and short routes leave. It is ridiculously complex and respectfully to everyone here, unless you have planned a race yourself, you have no idea... Anyway, we try our best to still be unique, hence 3 road routes and a longer gravel route. Vissershok HAD TO be removed because local municipality refused to maintain the road and thus we couldn't use it. Odendal and D'Urbanvale fell away because we now HAVE TO end on Koeberg. We are still the only event that uses the Old Malmesbury road which is fast and safe. Looking forward to meeting you all on raceday
  8. NicholasH
    @-Az-, as explained in my e-mail to you this LOOKED LIKE the 2 following marshals were not controlling this group thus my comment 'poor marshaling' - Your email to me does explain but I still stick to the opinion that these guys should have kept these cyclists to the left. No offence intended, BTW, this is all constructive observations
  9. NicholasH
    Hi I have contacted WP Cycling and am waiting for their feedback... As I have said, we are their hands and have zero control as you know. Best we can do is engage with them in a positive way to ensure this does not happen again 🙏
  10. NicholasH
    Yes, I recognize the De Rosa 🙂
  11. NicholasH
    At my marshal safety meeting I tell all the marshals "The CYCLIST safety is your concern. The driver of a car has a big metal box around him. He will suffer no harm when he hits a bike. Thus you keep the car AWAY from the cyclist in the 1st place" I was tailing one of the 51km groups at one stage and the ENTIRE group of 60+ cyclists were ON THE LEFT AND RIGHT ie over the white line. There was a ThinkBike marshal literally in front of my bonnet watching this and making zero attempt to keep the cyclists to the left of the white line. I immediately got on the phone to the ThinkBike head for the day and reported this. We still have to have a follow up with them. There was some BRILLIANT bike marshaling on the day and some very poor...
  12. NicholasH
    I have already received an email from a rider explaining it from his viewpoint. I am open to others. It won't change standings but it MAY prevent this type of thing happening again...
  13. NicholasH
    The 100km timing is at the railway track crossing - furthest point. 51km is after the 51/100 split near the silos. And the Trilogy has 2 on the gravel roads
  14. NicholasH
    Chris, another initiative of mine after we lost the King Of the Mountain with the demise of Vissershok. I came with a TdF style Intermediate Sprint at the 74.5km mark. Simple rule : 1st person over the line wins the jersey/prize. There is a 1km warning, a 200m warning and a 50m warning via road markings and signs. WP cycling has a comm there to adjudicate. However, we do not have a FinishTime device there so we are unable to provide actual timestamps. (It costs us a lot for each additional timing point and we already deploy 6 for the entire event). So, unfortunately we cannot give a list of times. The comm there has a camera and the only the winner is chosen.
  15. NicholasH
    Can I ask that those of you who were involved in this stoppage can send me YOUR version of what happened and why you think it was right/wrong or whatever. Please mail it to operations@99er.co.za I can't promise anything and it won't affect the results but it would be great to get BOTH sides of story. I have heard the COMMs version already. Now it is your turn
  16. NicholasH
    LOL! No I capitalized to indicate that you ARE giving positive feedback! 🙂 sorry for the confusion... Def her, I spoke with her afterwards for a bit esp wrt this stoppage. I will give you guys a summary once I have it.
  17. NicholasH
    Hi. Any CONSTRUCTIVE feedback is always welcome! (which is what you have done 🙂 )I *think* you are the 2nd person giving that comment. Shumeez IS experienced as far as I am aware. Her 3rd year doing it under my role as Head Of Ops. Let me see what the race report says when it comes out
  18. NicholasH
    Thanks for your input! We are addressing the eBike issue as a whole and will definitely attempt to get it sorted (road race and Trilogy). Also, we will try and secure Halal vendors for next year. Very good suggestion. Thanks!
  19. NicholasH
    I hear you! Unfortunately, we hire the venue from Cape Racing who are the license holders for vending. We have ZERO control (and get ZERO revenue) from vending. However, a valid point you make and I will bring this up too at our committee debrief. Thanks for constructive feedback!
  20. NicholasH
    Teething troubles... I am in contact with them but unfortunately it does reflect badly on US even though it is totally out of our control. By the next 99er I am sure it will be sorted
  21. NicholasH
    Again, you have my apologies wrt eBikes. I have explained the situation in other threads but fully understand the frustration (esp in your case when your wife wanted to join!) I was at the start line and I had to hide my visible horror when I saw about 10 eBikes in the AG group.... Definitely will be resolved next year.....I am trying to work in more gravel but we are reliant on the farms in the areas and while some are very happy to play along, others do not want bikes on their land... Yes, the A-Frames.... Initially I was going to have 14 marshals on the route - 1 at EACH A-Frame. The MTB club guys said that "was overkill" as MTB riders know what an A-Frame is. Apparently not.... I'm glad it was announced repeatedly so we can say that we did our best to make it safe We will definitely market this as a gravel race next year and try and decrease the % of tar vs % off-road.... And, yes, you certainly are a lucky man! Free entry this year and next! See at the start 🙂
  22. NicholasH
    I am a big fan of the Old Hermon gravel race. Did both of those mudfests since inception. We don't want to compete or "steal" from other races. Also, as I said, resources to pull off one event is hard enough to come by. A 2nd race would just not work... sorry man!
  23. NicholasH
    Hehehe... there is NO WAY we can run 2 days of this... Logistics, costs, etc just does not make it possible. Many years ago we split an MTB race and the road races over 2 weekends and it just about broke people (volunteers, remember). We have learned our lessons and now we focus on what we do well.
  24. NicholasH
    Thanks Rudii! I rode the route about 5 times over the last 2 months to check and recheck. We are certainly expecting huge growth on what is a unique event on the SA calender
  25. NicholasH
    Thanks for the photos Chris! :-)
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