[Event] Stellenbosch Cycle Tour

[Stricker]

Bad day at the office for me.

Got dropped up helz     The sad part is I have gone up there with more power then what I did , must have been the "neutral zone" sprint to helz and the fact that I was at the back.

 

 

Anyway +-10 of us and some tandems made a group and had a leka ride and @ +-70 Km % caught us and all hell broke loose.

 

Because some guys are afraid of the wind they actually ended up riding in the opposite lane (oncoming lane), the sad part was they actually completely blocked the road , was so bad that we had the marshal(car) and bikes had to slow down in the right lane to force guys to move back, Some of the guys actually swore at them and just no way of controlling it.

 

The oncoming Cars/Trucks had to stop in the yellow lane as there was no place for them to drive, total chaos and the guilty parties just didn't care. I couldn't believe what I was seeing , basically a forced road closure  . 

[Dubber]

 

 

They have to think of full road closure from klapmuts, even if its just till ~9:30 as bunches was getting massive.  Few times close calls with oncoming traffic .

 

Looking at the numbers from Racetec:  2014 = 5400 finishers.  2015 = 4300 finishers.  So maybe people are voting with their wallets?    Not sure if it is going to make any difference?  But we can hope...

[dev null]

If they (SCT) what this race to succeed, they must do road closure at the peak times for that run in from Wellington, before somebody dies.  Imagine the SE was at full pump.

 

Or they must think of reversing the direction of the race (which I will support).  This will provide better support for the weekend warriors that have to complete the race in the later heat and wind of the late morning and mid day.  They will only have to contend with Hels at the end of the race then.

 

And there is much less traffic on the road from Paarl via Franschhoek. 

[z@z@]

1C was hard and fast, got dropped on hells and waited for 1D to latch on, we formed a nice group and lost half of the group turning to the R44, not long we caught the front of 1C who had picked up some 1A,1B & % riders, then it became hell as the bunch become huge with guys riding in the far right dodging oncoming traffic etc.

 

After all that effort got dropped by 83km very disappointing.

 

Jy I thought the 520 will make you faster   lol saw you going up hellz but my mouth was to cold to talk.

 

We had a accident , hope all was okay  ... I did my far share of attacks to keep the pace up but we just battled in the wind....anyways 500m to the line I was placed 40th don't know how i ended up 7th lol  

 

all in all was a lekker ride in 1c

[andre_ct]

I paid for my past sins for not having done races in a long time and had no seeding.

Started 4K @ 7.15 and back riders don't know how to work together

Hels sorts out the fit guys immediately but the 6 other guys I got seemed to not want to form a group.

Had quite a few wheel suckers all the way until coming out of Wellington. So basically a time trial for myself with 1 other guy helping.

Actually enjoyed the R44 pain home.....all the training paying off

Ended up with 3:23

[Maniax]

If they (SCT) what this race to succeed, they must do road closure at the peak times for that run in from Wellington, before somebody dies.  Imagine the SE was at full pump.

 

Or they must think of reversing the direction of the race (which I will support).  This will provide better support for the weekend warriors that have to complete the race in the later heat and wind of the late morning and mid day.  They will only have to contend with Hels at the end of the race then.

 

And there is much less traffic on the road from Paarl via Franschhoek. 

Reversal of the route will be brilliant in my opinion!

[Skubarra]

This will provide better support for the weekend warriors that have to complete the race in the later heat and wind of the late morning and mid day.  They will only have to contend with Hels at the end of the race then.

 

Interesting suggestion, not so sure about that last bit though - doing Helz in the summer heat after 90kms might be one hell of a challenge for many!

 

But yes, things do need to change - still wishing they would consider at least partial road closures 

[Disylizzy]

Just a thought, two other options for traffic control along the R44:

 

1.  Road is wide enough to demarcate 3 lanes: 1 for cyclists, 1 for traffic in to Wellington, and 1 for traffic towards the N1/Stellenbosch

 

2.  Stop and go and only have one lane of traffic operational.

[Tubehunter]

Jy I thought the 520 will make you faster   lol saw you going up hellz but my mouth was to cold to talk.

 

We had a accident , hope all was okay  ... I did my far share of attacks to keep the pace up but we just battled in the wind....anyways 500m to the line I was placed 40th don't know how i ended up 7th lol  

 

all in all was a lekker ride in 1c

 

There were a bunch of riders from earlier groups ($, %, 1A and 1B) that we caught who were jostling at the front for the sprint, which is why it seemed like that many more. My riding mate is 7th with you and even though I crossed the line next to him I've got a different placing.... We rode the same time though!

[Spank]

Yesterday's race was one of the most dangerous i have taken part in.

There was a massive group of riders that consisted of %,A1,B1,C1, and D1 riders.

No marshals!

Trucks, buses and cars passing the big group only to swerve in front of the group to avoid oncoming traffic, causing dangerous surges.

I am sure i was not the only one in that group that felt the same....

 

[Tubehunter]

Just a thought, two other options for traffic control along the R44:

 

1.  Road is wide enough to demarcate 3 lanes: 1 for cyclists, 1 for traffic in to Wellington, and 1 for traffic towards the N1/Stellenbosch

 

2.  Stop and go and only have one lane of traffic operational.

 

3. Road closure until 09:30 should sort all the mess out! It's only the front groups that echelon all the way out into the oncoming lane.

 

(Amazing how many strong riders there are with very poor group riding skills!)

[raptor-22]

wanted to gauge what the bikehub thinks of this.

Was chatting to a pal of mine last night. He had a good race but started complaining about the MTB's in the fast bunches. Was saying they tend to make life very difficult due to the very wide handle bars some  of the bikes are using ( I assume he was refering to 29ers since I can't imagine theres too many DH bikes in a road race).

Anyway he was saying on a few occasions he got tagged by mtb bars and very nearly had a few accidents. He's pretty experienced on the bike having been riding for something like 30years.

 

This got me thinking about my own ride and I recall more than a few near misses with mtb's and their wide bars. Also when they stand up to pedal they tend to slow down a lot more than a road bike. Riders tend to scatter which creates danger when a bunch is on a road without full road closure.

 

I recall there was a period when MTB's had their own category. Not sure what others experiences are but perhaps this is something that needs to be looked t in terms of safety

[Disylizzy]

We rode out of 4C, my boyfriend dropped back from 2B to assist.  I think we passed a large majority of 4A and 4B going up Hels.  From the bottom of Hels until just before Wellington we were pulling a large group and then I popped due to the heat.  From Wellington until the last 15km I was just trying to spin out the legs on the flats and downs and my bf pushed me up the hills to try to get my heart rate down.  The last 15km though I got a second wind and was able to push harder again.

 

I got a 3:57, which I'm very happy with seeing as I only got back on the bike end of August.

[Disylizzy]

3. Road closure until 09:30 should sort all the mess out! It's only the front groups that echelon all the way out into the oncoming lane.

 

(Amazing how many strong riders there are with very poor group riding skills!)

 

True, when we came along the R44 people were just riding in the yellow lane, but occasionally had to pass just outside the yellow lane.  Pity is that the cars don't slow down at all when passing and made for a couple of very hairy close calls.

[babse]

% bunch was massive

 

it got extremely dangerous on R44 as the bunch took up both lanes comfortably which most thought was ok 

 

again respect to motorbikers for trying to marshal these big bunches but it seems this is a accident waiting to happen.

[Skubarra]

wanted to gauge what the bikehub thinks of this.

Was chatting to a pal of mine last night. He had a good race but started complaining about the MTB's in the fast bunches. Was saying they tend to make life very difficult due to the very wide handle bars some  of the bikes are using ( I assume he was refering to 29ers since I can't imagine theres too many DH bikes in a road race).

Anyway he was saying on a few occasions he got tagged by mtb bars and very nearly had a few accidents. He's pretty experienced on the bike having been riding for something like 30years.

 

This got me thinking about my own ride and I recall more than a few near misses with mtb's and their wide bars. Also when they stand up to pedal they tend to slow down a lot more than a road bike. Riders tend to scatter which creates danger when a bunch is on a road without full road closure.

 

I recall there was a period when MTB's had their own category. Not sure what others experiences are but perhaps this is something that needs to be looked t in terms of safety

 

I think that is a discussion for a whole new thread!