[Event] Unite4Mandela Ride 22Nov 67km 808vm R150k - Road Closure!

[arendoog]

Did the first half with the backmarkers on mtb .Advendurance organized the event well .Did n mtb detour on klapperkop and then my own way .Stayed away from Union building [i might get infected with the greed virus ] .With proper planning this can also be a 20 000 entrants event like 94,7 .There is ample opportunity for a Great event in PTA .The highlight was gunning down Rigel without cars on my tail

[RABUBI]

Not full road closure, that part was a bit of a white lie.... more just regulated traffic.

 

Did a 2:15 on my mtb and was glad I was on fat tyres. Went of the road voluntary a few times as the traffic was really ***.

 

Overall well organised and a tough route

[Joeboy69]

Thoroughly enjoyed it, nothing much to complain about, nice vibe on the lawns afterwards with the colour runs and music. Thanks guys.

[Grondpad]

Great event. Good job advendurance. Great traffic marshals and only saw one driver being an idiot. Most of the time it felt like full road closure. I really liked the route. Klapperkop, freedom park, vtm. You saw so much of PTA. Thanks to everyone involved. Lets hold thumbs for an annual event.

[Alfa147GTA]

Great event, I took gentle ride with my wife and we really enjoyed.

 

Great respect to all the marshals and to everyone who organized. Couldn't have been easy, but worth it.

 

I am proud of the government for taking this up, much easier doing a single event at a stadium. Organising a ride around Pretoria, they get a thumbs up from me

[Lone Rider]

I really enjoyed this. Amazing route...almost suffered as much as with the 94.7.

 

As stated, it wasn't full road closure as with the 94.7. In places a lane was demarcated for us, in other places we had marshals stopping traffic. At times we'd catch up to a slow moving vehicle, and had to slow down and attempt to overtake, other than that there were no major issues with road traffic for our group (VB).

 

I do feel sorry for the slower guys though. There were still cyclists trickling in at 12:00...the marshals had their hands full trying to control peak hour traffic.

[Helpmytrap]

I really enjoyed this. Amazing route...almost suffered as much as with the 94.7.

 

As stated, it wasn't full road closure as with the 94.7. In places a lane was demarcated for us, in other places we had marshals stopping traffic. At times we'd catch up to a slow moving vehicle, and had to slow down and attempt to overtake, other than that there were no major issues with road traffic for our group (VB).

 

I do feel sorry for the slower guys though. There were still cyclists trickling in at 12:00...the marshals had their hands full trying to control peak hour traffic.

You guys did a horrible job to accommodate the mtb group, I was bleeding from my eyes.

[TrackGuy]

My experience was all positive, nothing to complain about, they can't predict and stop all things. Most of stuff people ranting and complaining is just to have something negative to say.

I did hear something about the traffic becoming a bit a crazy at around 11 or so throughout the city part coming close to finish, some of the cyclist had to stop or slack down a lot for crossing cars.

Like I said, I enjoyed it didn't stay for the event part rode back home after the finish. But from what I could see it was chaotic busy and a lot of litter everywhere but that is to be expected.

 

[RDK]

Great event I enjoyed it alot, one driver was an idiot trying to get into a lane that was blocked off and almost drove over me but once I let him know I was at the rear off his car he swerved back to where he was suppose to drive.

 

The route I thought is going to be an easy one, well it was not it was tough. I am not a seasoned cyclist but the start was great and I rode lekke until we got that headwind past the army base.

 

Then again that incline behind the monument now that killed me eheheheheh, overall I loved the event and hope that we can get an annual event in PTA.

[TALUS]

Sadly I think the show is raining out. We were very lucky with fantastic weather.

 

Results up.

[ddj]

Great event, I took gentle ride with my wife and we really enjoyed.

 

Great respect to all the marshals and to everyone who organized. Couldn't have been easy, but worth it.

 

I am proud of the government for taking this up, much easier doing a single event at a stadium. Organising a ride around Pretoria, they get a thumbs up from me

 

X2

[ddj]

Apparently the government has given around R10m in sponsorship the unite event. Predictions are 1000 riders (not more than 1500 have been catered for by police or any agencies) & 2000 runners. That's R3333 per participant! 

 

The whole of the Union area is in lock down because JZ is firing the start gun on the runs. There is also a color run happening at the same time and they have been predicted 3500 entrants and not a cent in grants. Classic.

Reports are over 22,000 people took part in the events today. And I am grateful to my government for putting on a cycling event around the theme of #unite4mandela. Glad that considered us worthy recipients too.

[SPARTA-cus]

Couldn't do a late register yesterday. Watch a bit on tv this morning and when I went for a ride, I bumped into the 27km running group. Decided to cycle the route. Managed to climb Tom Jenkins without traffic. Runners were very accomodating. Ended with a lekker traffickless 50km.

[SpOkeD]

I really enjoyed the ride. There were some seriously steep climbs! Had some guys even walking up them.

 

Would like to say thanks to the organizers. Even though it wasn't full road closure there were plenty of marshals and traffic officers.

I wish this could turn into an annual event.

 

I watched the highlights and it looked like there was a bit of a mess up with the last 2km's of the elite race with the group taking a different road in the run in to the finish?

[Nibali]

What a race! Thanks to the organisers for putting up an excellent display of Pretoria. Also got to meet Marianne Vos and the Maincheese

 

Personally this race was much tougher than the 94.7, I was broken when I got back home. I hope this becomes an annual race, with an extra 30km worked in this can become one of the toughest races in the country.

[Bateleur1]

This event can have huge potential and hope someone will develop it. It got to meet Talus which was nice.  Must say I bled through my eyes from the 45 km mark onwards holding on your tail.  I suppose the drinks the night before was probably not conducive to nice carboloading.

 

The positives:

I like the route and profile. It was hard and not too long.  Think a shorter high intensity ride just after the 94.7 is great.

The start venue is at Loftus is great.  The finish is also great.

Nice to have a race in Pretoria again.

 

The negatives:

I think in general the marshaling was not good. In specific the Metro Cops.  It was easy to spot which guys have marshaled at a cycling race before and which ones did not.  Most of the time the cops would not tell you which way to go until you are almost in the intersection.  I had three unpleasant experiences with traffic due to the roads not being closed. So this is something I think that can easily be resolved but is a requirement for such an event to be successful.

 

Overall I hope they will have such an event again.