[Event] Bestmed Tour Of Good Hope

[Pure Savage]

It is, the team dynamic was by far the best part of the race last year.

We gotta work on that, our team dynamic is to see how many team members we can pop.

[Patchelicious]

We gotta work on that, our team dynamic is to see how many team members we can pop.

#FlatOutOrNothing - LOVE IT

[ASG]

Latest Tour of Good Hope news here: 

 

https://www.bikehub.co.za/features/_/news/road/sa-road-cycling/tour-of-good-hope-receives-official-csa-sanction-r3695?source=topic

 

or visit the website: www.tourofgoodhope.co.za

[ASG]

Still got some questions? Why not download everything you need to know about this fantastic event, available in a hand pdf guide. Just FOLLOW THIS LINK

[Patchelicious]

Yes, I have a question.

 

Can you please state, here in public that the event will be timed by Racetec ( as per the emails I have from ASG) and that it will not be changed the day before like the Sondela.

 

If you are not able to do that, we will need to discuss you refunding me my team entry as I am not inviting my clients down for it and spending R100k on a event again to go through the same embarrassment from last year.

[Pure Savage]

Yes, I have a question.

 

Can you please state, here in public that the event will be timed by Racetec ( as per the emails I have from ASG) and that it will not be changed the day before like the Sondela.

 

If you are not able to do that, we will need to discuss you refunding me my team entry as I am not inviting my clients down for it and spending R100k on a event again to go through the same embarrassment from last year.

can just ask racetec...

[Winstonian1984]

Yes, I have a question.

 

Can you please state, here in public that the event will be timed by Racetec ( as per the emails I have from ASG) and that it will not be changed the day before like the Sondela.

 

If you are not able to do that, we will need to discuss you refunding me my team entry as I am not inviting my clients down for it and spending R100k on a event again to go through the same embarrassment from last year.

According to the tour of goodhope website, it is stated that Great Time http://www.great-time.co.za/Home/ will be doing the timing

[Grogs]

Whisky Tango Foxtrot asg?

Are you guys bullying Racetec to try and get lower prices from them? Whenever I enter an event, the timing company is ALWAYS a factor (I've had too many bad experiences to risk entering a race that isn't timed by Racetec or Championchip). Also, Racetec results are always used for seeding in the big events (which don't even look at other timing companies).

I've given you my money, and one of the reasons I did so was because I was happy with the timing.

Please explain.

PS so glad I didn't do the Sondela last Saturday - would have been COMPLETELY miffed.

 

I apologise to ASG for the above comment (teenage rant).

 

I also withdraw the comment in light of the letter from ASG in the post "ASG - An open letter, a good an excellent response, insights about race situation in SA", which I have cut and pasted here:

 

"Thank you for your letter. It contains the most heartfelt and honest comments I have read in all my years following the Hub, understanding, of course, that the Hub is essentially a venting forum.

 

Against this backdrop your letter was like a breath of fresh air and you richly deserve a response.

 

Thanks for supporting us for so many years.

 

ASG took over the management of these mass participation road events because they were simply not going to continue if we didn’t assume the financial responsibility for their presentation.

 

We felt that we would get a measure of commercial value out of the marketing while at the same time doing a service to the sport by ensuring that these road events continue. Four years down the line, we’re feeling very differently.

 

Not only do these events still run at a substantial financial loss to us, even with external sponsorship, but they present a greater challenge every year to keep our riders (customers) happy in difficult traffic and road management circumstances.  ASG Sport Solutions, the import/distribution company (who ironically stand to lose most from poor brand representation) ironically has been funding the lion share of these losses over the past 3-4 years.

 

Cycling now also falls within the event’s act and most municipalities have become compliant this year, which has drastically increased costs. Road events are now pre-luded by at least 5 JOC meetings. This has further increased the financial burden on these events with various service suppliers all having to attend these meetings every time.

 

Although respondents on our post event surveys on our road races have given us an average 8 out of 10 thus far (and this includes the survey after the timing challenges on the Tour of Good Hope), we feel that these events are damaging our brand image and if we carry our current sentiments into next year, we won’t present them again.

 

The races you refer to – Carnival City Macsteel Classic and Race for Victory – have the same challenges, but they are run by non-profit organisations. These organisations only present one race a year and draw on lots of volunteers from schools, churches and rotary organisations who do things as a once off.  They don’t have to run a business and still they struggle to make these events finish out of the red financially.

 

You’re welcome to reference both the organisers of these events with whom we’re regular contact. They, in fact, assist us with the organisation – a lot of you would have seen Merv’s friendly marshalling face on the road at our events.

 

The Lost City Classic isn’t an ASG event, but the long time organiser there, Johan du Toit, has also approached us to take over the running of the event because he’s out of ideas on how to try and ensure that the Cancer Association benefits well enough out of the event.

 

Regarding the Sondela SuperClassic, I took the decision to do manual timing because the numbers on the event (370) didn’t justify Race Tec doing timing.

 

This year we have been influenced by ineffective CSA management of the race calendar, negatively impacting on three of our events.  First up was the Walkerville Classic, which clashed with the Magalies Monster, then came the Satellite Classic, which was placed on the same weekend as the Amashova.

And then, to crown it all off, they placed the Radio Pretoria Classic on the same day as the Sondela SuperClassic - a first year event in the place of a Classic that we have built up over three years to 850 riders last year.

The Sondela SuperClassic traditionally attracted 80% of its entrants from Pretoria. With another race, which is well organised by the Jacaranda Club in Pretoria on the same day, it was obviously going to affect the numbers drastically.

 

Let’s be honest, the Sondela Classic is as nice race in a nice environment, but it’s very similar to any other safe and well run road race. So if you have the option not to have to drive 200km to do the event when you have an alternative, you won’t.

 

But we still pushed through with the organisation. We have never cancelled an event because we don’t want to let riders down. At Sondela there were a total of 370 riders.

 

The results are published and we are happy to refund all riders who feel they didn’t get a good service in the absence of RaceTec. Please send me a personal mail and I will ensure your entry fee gets refunded (wynand@asgworld.co.za)

 

Manual timing is not an uncommon occurrence and our ASG crew competently do manual timing at a few of our events where it doesn’t make sense to do Race Tec timing.

 

Remember that in the Tour de Boland timing was done by Western Province officials and not our crew.  The Tour of Good Hope 2016 will have electronic timing - we committed to this from the outset.

 

Results will be shared with Race Tec and form part of the ASG seeding index.

 

Regarding the value offering at our events. The simple answer is that our entry fee increases this year were to try and limit the losses on the events.  It's hard to swallow all these comments about 'all about money and making profit' when anyone that's try to put a race together and truly understands the cost involved will tell you differently in no time.

 

I don’t think the entry deal at Sondela was bad. The long distance entry was R335, but it included a High 5 racing bottle with product valued at R130 as well as some other smaller goodie bag stuff. We don’t get these free of charge although heavily subsidised from HIGH5 (via ASG Sport Solutions - our sister company).  This is done in order to provide some kind of ‘added value’ at a race that is already more expensive to present simply from a location point of view.

 

Thank you again for supporting our events for such a long time.

From the honest tone of your letter, it’s clear that you are someone who appreciates the late nights and long hours our crew endure to successfully deliver these events year upon-year.

 

Your comments are valid and I hope that this explanation has put things in perspective from our side.

 

Regards"

 

Thanks for the letter ASG.

 

All I would like is a properly timed event that will be used for seeding purposes going forward.

[Patchelicious]

Ok, The have committed to electronic timing.

 

My team is confirmed and we will see you there!

[Patchelicious]

Whisky Tango Foxtrot asg?

 

Are you guys bullying Racetec to try and get lower prices from them? Whenever I enter an event, the timing company is ALWAYS a factor (I've had too many bad experiences to risk entering a race that isn't timed by Racetec or Championchip). Also, Racetec results are always used for seeding in the big events (which don't even look at other timing companies).

 

I've given you my money, and one of the reasons I did so was because I was happy with the timing.

 

Please explain.

 

PS so glad I didn't do the Sondela last Saturday - would have been COMPLETELY miffed.

WTF dude?

 

So they must use Racetec and Racetec only? That sounds like you are bullying them.

 

If they provide an alternative that has all the same upsides and they can do it in house meaning that they will have timing at races like Sondela, surely you should be happy?

[PhilipV]

WTF dude?

 

So must use Racetec and Racetec only? That sounds like you are bullying them.

 

If they provide an alternative that has all the same upsides and they can do it in house meaning that they will have timing at races like Sondela, surely you should be happy?

That depends on the integrity of the timing results. If there are funnies or issues with the timing, it spoils the race factor for a lot of people. Case in point would be the stuff up that was the WPGE enduro series this year. They didn't have one race without timing issues this year.

 

At least with racetec the results are trustworthy.

[Patchelicious]

That depends on the integrity of the timing results. If there are funnies or issues with the timing, it spoils the race factor for a lot of people. Case in point would be the stuff up that was the WPGE enduro series this year. They didn't have one race without timing issues this year.

 

At least with racetec the results are trustworthy.

Your point about data integrity is a good and valid one. If they are to gain the communities trust in another system, they must make sure that the results are correct. I agree 100% If it has all the upsides and accuracies then the box is ticked in my book.

 

For this to happen, we need to let them prove the technology and accept a bit of teething, just as any new things that are brought to market. The more they spend on QA before release the smaller the chance of failure, this is a commercial call they need to make.

 

The other chaps post above alludes to commercial bullying, which I don't believe is the case. RaceTec has a mini monopoly, I think it is good that there are other techs popping up allowing more cost effective ways of capturing the timing data. RaceTec should rather look at becoming the central repository of all race results and letting various other parties interface with their database to dump the data there.

 

This can open up cheaper technologies to captre the data at the races, driving the cost down and this will benefit all parties and Racetec is still the single place we go to go out results.

 

I am pretty sure that if Racetec had the most comprehensive results database in the country, they will be smiling.

[Grogs]

WTF dude?

 

So they must use Racetec and Racetec only? That sounds like you are bullying them.

 

If they provide an alternative that has all the same upsides and they can do it in house meaning that they will have timing at races like Sondela, surely you should be happy?

 

Comment withdrawn, and apology issued - see my edits above.

[Patchelicious]

Comment withdrawn, and apology issued - see my edits above.

Respect dude!!!

[ASG]

Following the completion of our routing journey, all the route directional information as well as placement of Sprint and King of the Mountain primes are now available on the Tour of Good Hope website.

To access the relevant page, click here.

Entries for the Tour of Good Hope close in three weeks time on 30 November or as soon as the entry cap of 1000 riders is reached.

ASG Events

[ASG]

3 WEEKS TO GO BEFORE ENTRIES CLOSE FOR TOUR OF GOOD HOPE

http://i3.cmail2.com/ei/j/08/C5F/BF5/csimport/BESTEMEDRACES2015editableTOGH.105741.jpg  

 

 

ENTRIES FOR THE BESTMED TOUR OF GOOD HOPE CLOSE ON 30 NOVEMBER, OR AS SOON AS THE ENTRY TOTAL OF 1000 RIDERS HAS BEEN REACHED.

TO SECURE YOUR ENTRY CLICK HERE