[Event] Tour Of Good Hope 2017

[ASG]

Event Name: Tour Of Good Hope 2017
When: 6 March 2017 - 10 March 2017
Where: La Paris, Western Cape
Category: Road

Entries for the 2017 Bestmed Tour of Good Hope, presented by Scicon, are now open.

 

The Tour will take place from 6-10 March 2017 in the lead-up to the Cape Town Cycle Tour and cover 5 stages of racing for a total distance of 522km and 6168 vertical ascent.

For entries, route and venue info visit the event website.

The Tour format, venues and stages will remain the same for next year, with the exception that the three stages that toured through the centre of Paarl this year will follow their original routing on the ring roads around Paarl with all road works on these sections having been completed by then.

 

Franschhoek Pass, Du Toit’s Kloof Pass and Bainskloof Pass present themselves again on the two queen stages of the tour (stage 3 and 4) while the iconic finish on the final stage remains on the slopes of the Paarl Mountain at the Taalmonument.

 

All entries will be allocated on a first come first paid basis and close as soon as we reach the rider total of 500.

 

To eliminate the timing and registration challenges for next year we are putting a few measures in place.

 

We are using RaceTec timing and their timing technicians as time keepers at the event and not implementing time bonuses at hotspot sprints and stage finishes. This will makeRaceTec the sole judge of times and eliminate the need to use the CSA StageRace program.

 

CSA will manage line judging for positions at sprint primes, King of the Mountain primes and at the finish line, but riders times in the tour won’t be dependent on this.

 

We are creating and driving a strong awareness campaign about CSA licensing and which licenses are applicable to which category. We will also make riders aware that they have to produce their affiliation license of their applicable country at registration.

 

This will avoid cues created by CSA checking licenses and selling day licenses. The registration process will further be aided by the fact that the great majority of riders have RaceTec chips and they don’t have to be linked at registration. RaceTec will have chips on sale at registration for those riders who don’t have chips.

 

Then, we have received many phone calls and emails about the new 03h15 qualifying criteria (participants having to complete a 100km road event in under 3 hours 15 minutes).

 

The 03h15 qualifying was brought in mainly to try and limit the total time period of intersection control that we need to enforce daily. This year, on some days, traffic police and our marshals were on duty until 16h00.

 

Traffic Police said they won’t be able to assist again next year in the same fashion and we need to ensure that their pointsmen aren’t put in the same position having to be on their feet (on some days in 38 degree heat) for 7 hours.

 

Secondary to this, the qualifying measure was also put in place to ensure riders do the required training to meet the demands of the tour. It’s a very tough event and a rider can really damage him/herself if they come into the tour without the proper training.

 

However, to try and be lenient and accommodate as many of the participants as possible, we are relaxing the qualifying criteria to 03h30, in particular to cater for women but it will also be applicable to men.

 

Some more good news is that we will consider times in all events from 94km and up. If you have achieved this qualifying time in an ASG event, you can simply email us with the event in which you rode the time and we will check it in our back-office. If you rode this time in an outside event, riders have to email us their time and we will check it with the relevant time keeping company. These emails can be sent towynand@asgworld.co.za.

 

To cater for our mountain-bikers who would like to give the tour a go, we will also allow official finishers in South Africa’s top MTB stage races – Absa Cape Epic, Sani2C, Old Mutual Joberg2C, FNB Wines2Whales and the Liberty Encounters. If you have finished a similar event either locally or abroad you can send us the details thereof and we will consider.

 

Logistically on the road we will bulk up all the waterpoints on the route as well as at the finish line. We are on the verge of concluding a blanket waterpoint sponsorship deal for all our events with a well-known South African company and this will include the Tour of Good Hope.

 

The strong elements in the tour will all remain and we will continue to be vigilant and try and better on these elements – intersection control, on-route neutral service, sweeps, leads, road ranger assistance, venue, parking, ablutions, catering and goody bag items.

 

Besides receiving a Columbia event jacket, all riders in the 2017 will also receive a Scicon Rain Bag valued at R1800. The entry also includes 5 meals and various other race pack items.

 

An essential part of any cyclist's luggage is their race rain bag.

 

The Scicon race rain bag has several compartments to it which are all labelled and contain the important pieces of clothing a rider needs in the wet.

 

The difference to other cycling kit bags is this one has a compartment for every item you would need. This race rain bag has space for your shoes and covers, warmers (arm and leg), gloves, helmet, jersey, jacket.

 

Look like a pro as you pull your rain jacket out of this bag while your buddies are fumbling with their old rucksacks.

Go to Event Page

[MCDreyer]

Won't miss it again!

[Stricker]

So ....... 7 days to GO   :clap:    

 

Wont lie, I am seriously nervous and very exited at the same time, never done a stage race before so will be very interesting to see how body takes the load and keep on going at that type of intensity.

 

Never done a TT before  ,yes should have put in some time on the bars ..but where the fun in that. Going in Blind

 

So to the gents that's been there and got a shirt....please share all the how's, what to look out for ..the when ETC ETC

 

TNX

[milky4130]

Will be my first as well. Hope the Sub Vets Category goes gentle on me.

[Jurgens Smit]

My first as well. Just gonna take it day for day and hope I survive

[Pure Savage]

Last year on day three I remember thinking, I do hope everyone is as broken as I am today and that tomorrow is not as mental as today. Then I punctured at bottom of the first pass on stage 4. Team mate stopped and we rode a lekker TT for 120km. 

 

Did save the legs a little for the next day, 3rd up to the Taal monument

Edited February 27, 2017 by Pure Savage

[Stricker]

Will be my first as well. Hope the Sub Vets Category goes gentle on me.

Sub Vets as well

Would have actually preferred a team race for my first multi day event , have some support around me.

 

But 1 thing is for sure in sub vets ...there will be no GENTLE  

Edited February 27, 2017 by Stricker

[Pure Savage]

Sub Vets as well

Would have actually preferred a team race for my first multi day event , have some support around me.

 

But 1 thing is for sure in sub vets ...there will be no GENTLE  

 

Last year the team and Sub vets group finished with similar times +- 1 minutes, so there is not much hiding. 

[Donovan Le Cok]

So who is going to be racing this next week? It is going to be a great week!

[bobby]

yes i will be there, cant wait !!

[Skubarra]

Just got a late entry into one of the amateur teams that had an injury.

 

(Quietly deleting all the critical posts I made earlier about ASG/this race  )

 

The organisers took quite a beating on earlier threads & comments on facebook regarding the timing issues - hopefully it is sorted out this year

 

Not that I really mind, any excuse to ride my bike during office hours!

[Pure Savage]

Just got a late entry into one of the amateur teams that had an injury.

 

(Quietly deleting all the critical posts I made earlier about ASG/this race  )

 

The organisers took quite a beating on earlier threads & comments on facebook regarding the timing issues - hopefully it is sorted out this year

 

Not that I really mind, any excuse to ride my bike during office hours!

 

Racetec are timing it this year #I<3Racetec

[riaz]

anyone have a solo entry available?

[Meezo]

anyone have a solo entry available?

 

fallas?

[zaberniemandt@gmail.com]

What gearing are you guys running? I have a 11/28 and 53/39. I have done Franschhoek Pass and Hellshoogte but have not done Du Toits Kloof Pass and Bains Kloof Pass

[Stricker]

What gearing are you guys running? I have a 11/28 and 53/39. Not sure how steep Franschhoek Pass, Du Toits Kloof Pass and Bains Kloof Pass is.

and here I was thinking I'm the only unwise one to take on the TT blind.

 

You are very brave to take on those small hills without having done them at an easier pace before

 

Franschoek Pass = 7.3 km @ 6.6

Du Toits Back 26.1km @ 2.3%

Du Toits Front 12.1 @ 4.8

Bains 9,2 @ 3.5

Taal Monument = 2km Lots of pain ... only place where special gearing might be required, for the rest 39/25 should be fine but I will be running a 39/28 all the way for when I get dropped and nothing left in the legs