Cava

Seems unlikely as it's not indicated anywhere in the race rules. Where did you guys see this?

It's not about whether they care about the white elitist cyclists, it's about the repetition of the message that the government is not in control of crime. Crime is typically more prevalent in poorer urban communities, this is the case worldwide, but it's when violent crime hits the rich (white or black) that it really emphasises just how out of control things are. So in a country where black people are the majority victims of crime, you can be sure that it's a major concern for them and will influence their voting behaviour more and more, particularly for the black middle class in urban areas. And that politicians do care about.

I don't think this was the best possible outcome for these criminals. They have been getting away with attacking MTB riders out of sight on trails, but the public outrage and media attention this time might help a small amount to make this a less attractive option for a while. As a cycling community, we should never accept this as the norm, and maybe we need to learn to become better at making a lot of noise when one of us is hurt or killed, whether by gun or by an aggressive or drunk driver. Politicians hate this kind of noise, so do the police and so do would be criminals. The media in turn loves it, and that attention seems to be one of the few ways to effect change in this country. It won't change the state of the country, but it might make keep our sport a little safer for a little while longer.

Maybe something like this that they have in the UK: https://www.bikeregister.com/

This was my first Kremetart and easily the most fun I've had in a race in a long time. The organisation was great; the route is stunning and felt very safe. Found this to be a very festive event with a lot of socialising, but also plenty of hard and fast riding.

The whole cradle is the tourism site. "The Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site (COH WHS) is a geospatial tourism project in Gauteng covering an area of 52 000 hectares in the north west of Gauteng Province, with 10% extending into North West Province. It extends across approximately 30 farms, many of which have been sub-divided, in the north western quadrant of Gauteng. Considering the unique environment, the World Heritage Status of the area and the restriction on further development apart from limited tourism development it was concluded that the identified CoHWHS sensitive roads can be treated differently to any other rural provincial road. The Road network that was considered as sensitive consisted of: D1701, D540, D374 and D101 which also formed the proposed cycle route." https://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/45550/Gusha_Implementation_2014.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

The leaders of the group did announce their actions. They called for the group to go single file and indicated for the truck to slow down. They didn't brake, but obviously some of the riders in the back had to in order to go single file. Depending on how quickly you try to go single file, braking is often necessary and not everyone brakes perfectly. Why do you insist that the group was not disciplined?

Unfortunately that section was very crowded, as it often is on a Saturday that time. The only way for trucks to pass both the groups on the left and right handed side of the road safely is to do drive in the middle of the road. That gives the groups on the left space to move into the road suddenly if needed and leaves enough space for the group on the other side of the road. This happens many times every weekend and fortunately mostly without incident.There was a bus a few hundred meters on doing the same thing, passing multiple groups in the middle of the road. The truck was moving slowly as the situation demanded. It's simply not safe to have trucks going through that section of road during that time on a Saturday. Those roads where in fact built not as a transport corridor, but to serve the tourism needs of the cradle world heritage site. As for single file riding, there are points for and against, but the simplest answer is that it's safer to ride indoors on a trainer, but still people ride outdoors. Any club or group that employs a single file only policy will soon have very few riders. Many people ride for the social experience as much as the exercise. Most group riders do understand that there is inherent risk to riding two abreast vs single file, just like there is more risk to single file than riding indoors. But we except that risk and try to mitigate it as much as possible.

A faster group like that will pass slower riders all the time, so even riding single file, they would end up not being single file at every given moment. The cyclist was not riding in the middle of the road.That's where he ended up after clipping wheels with someone else during the group's attempt to go single file. This was a freak accident with a large number of factors contributing, all of which can be questioned, but none of which is the single cause. I get that you don't like road riding, but your criticism of road group riding is like saying a mountain biker that falls and breaks his neck should have known better than to ride on unstable terrain.

That's not entirely accurate. The club introduced an additional group tier last weekend in an attempt to reduce the size of one of the larger batches. If a group is too large, they will be split before the ride starts. The challenge is that a group can easily double or triple in size on the way to the cradle and often these are non-members joining up, so there is very little control in terms of which group they join along the way.

Not having full control of the behavior of each and every bunch rider (a mixture of club members and non-members) does not equate to not taking any sort of responsibility. And also don't assume that riders misbehaving are not given a talking to or that it's the same person offending repeatedly. I have experienced people being asked to leave a CL group because of undisciplined behavior, but unfortunately by then the damage is done. It's easy to try and simplify the solution, but in reality you are dealing with adult individuals and it only takes one to have bad judgement for a few seconds to create the perception that the bunch is not disciplined.

I have noticed that often cyclists in the cradle will try to push their way into passing bunches rather than joining from the back. Others will just increase their speed a bit and sit on the inside, not trying to join the bunch but also not allowing the bunch to return to riding two abreast in the yellow lane. Obviously it's a public road and you are entitled to change or maintain your pace at any given time, but maybe appreciate that the request would have been from a safety perspective and not to bully you.

Seems like the entry date has been extended to end of September with current entries at only 26960

Not impressed with CRC at the moment. They sent my order in various parts, with 2 parts of my order via Parcelforce. Part 1 has been stuck on status "exported" for the last week and part 2 sits as "prepared for export", also for the last 7 days. Contacted them and it's being investigated, but that takes up to 5 days apparently. Part 3 has not even been dispatched. Originally placed order 30 days ago, but one part was not in stock, so eventually swapped it out. I have used DHL with Evans and it's really impressive how quick they get the stuff over here.

They shouldn't have been, most large sport events should be prepared for acts of terrorism, i.e."the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims." In this context, we can't simply call it protesting, even if we sympathise with the grievance, which in this case apparantly was about land, not the loss homes due to fires in Hout Bay.