My husband entered the Cape Argus Cycle Tour in 2009 for the 2nd year. He owned a very valuable, first rate bicycle. With hindsight he has realised that with the windy conditions on the day he should not have started the race, however he did. About half way through the race he was literally blown off his bike. He sustained an injury to his shoulder. He was picked up by an ambulance and taken to hospital for treatment. Before he got into the ambulance he specifically asked what would happen with his bike. He was assured by the <?: prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />marshalls that his bike would be safe with them. They would load it onto the recovery vehicle and it could be collected at the end of the race. Our son, who also took part in the race, returned to the collection point on the afternoon of the race to collect the bicycle. He waited for over 2 hours and was told to come back the next day. <?: prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> For the next few days, we made numerous phone calls to the organizers, who were not able to locate the bicycle. It became clear when over a week had passed that the bicycle was ?missing?. During one of the phone calls to the organizers, a lady actually said ?we only lost 1 bicycle, I don?t think that?s a bad record?. Of course its not, unless of course its your bicycle. A few more days passed with no-one able to locate the bicycle, and about 2 weeks ago the tour director, Ken Sturgeon, contacted my husband. After several conversations Mr Sturgeon indicated that there was a possibility that The Cape Argus? insurance would cover the replacement cost of the bicycle. We were then informed that this would not be the case, the insurers were not prepared to cover the cost of replacing the bicycle, however, Mr Sturgeon committed to arranging a substantial discount on a replacement bicycle from Cycle Lab. Mr Sturgeon told my husband that he would contact him in this regard. Over a week passed with no contact from Mr Sturgeon, and I decided to contact him myself. I made a specific point of reminding Mr Sturgeon that my husband was assured by the marshalls that his bicycle would be safe with them. If he had been told that there was a possibility that his bicycle would be ?lost?, he would not have left it, but rather made arrangements to have it safely collected and then taken himself to the hospital. I received a reply from Mr Sturgeon which basically stated the following : ?We have made extensive efforts to find out what happened to your bicycle and it does appear to have been lost between its collection at the Perdekloof Refreshment Station and the delivery point at the finish? The insurance would not cover the replacement of the bicycle All competitors sign an indemnity form No discount could be arranged with Cycle Lab as the new bicycle on order was a higher value than the ?lost? bicycle, and has already been ordered He has admitted that the bicycle has been ?lost? by the tour organizers. The statement regarding the value of the new bicycle is completely false. The new bicycle is only worth about 2/3 of what the ?lost? bicycle was worth. I am sure that most people would agree with me ? the organizers of this event have effectively ?lost? this bicycle, and are not prepared to accept any responsibility. I find this totally unacceptable and I would urge any cyclists to be very careful when entrusting their bicycles to any organisers / marshalls in the event of an accident or injury during any event, in particular the Cape Argus cycle race. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO MAIL ME YOUR COMMENTS / SUPPORT TO dpitro@mweb.co.za
