PhilipV Posted January 29, 2017 Posted January 29, 2017 Whoever is organising must think long and hard about this. The first pmb dh and xc was free entry and the crowds were good. The last xc was in the region of 100 bucks and the crowds were pathetic. There are others ways to make money from the event...Well unless they have security guards on every piece of trails into the mountain, it will be really hard to keep the crowds off the course who don't want to pay. You can hike/ride in from a lot of places.
kosmonooit Posted January 29, 2017 Posted January 29, 2017 (edited) Where about is this track relative to Stellies CBD? Havent been there for a while ... Coords or Google Earth link would be helpful.. thanks in advance. I certainly wont mind paying a reasonable entrance fee to see this. And I think this aspect of sport has grown in public awareness since the PMB rounds and its been while, so I would think its going to attract a good crowd. Battle of the Blonds: I cant wait! Edited January 29, 2017 by kosmonooit
dev null Posted January 29, 2017 Posted January 29, 2017 (edited) Where about is this track relative to Stellies CBD? Havent been there for a while ... Coords or Google Earth link would be helpful.. thanks in advance. I certainly wont mind paying a reasonable entrance fee to see this. And I think this aspect of sport has grown in public awareness since the PMB rounds and its been while, so I would think its going to attract a good crowd. Battle of the Blonds: I cant wait! Walking distance (sort of). The mountainside next to Coetzenburg. http://www.trailforks.com/region/coetzenburg/ Edited January 29, 2017 by Moridin
DJR Posted January 29, 2017 Posted January 29, 2017 ..................Battle of the Blonds: I cant wait! Sounds like something a lot naughtier than XC.
cpelser Posted January 29, 2017 Posted January 29, 2017 I rode Coetzenburg last Saturday. Before that I haven't been there since Dec 2015. There's already quite a number of new additions going on there. Only ever rode it twice so kept getting lost (sort of). This is super cool!
NickGM Posted January 30, 2017 Posted January 30, 2017 Brilliant. I was beginning to think that Pietermaritzburg was the only place capable of being awarded international cycling. Let's hope the spectators support it. Pietermaritzburg lost their leg due to spectator support.Typically the majority of the racing happens in europe although there is often a canadian stage. So for all the teams to head out to southern africa for a race takes much more time, much more money and is seasonally out of sync with the rest of Europe/northern hemisphere. So it's a logistical issue more than anything. It was just inconvenient to go out to PMB. But my guess is that there are now so many international XC riders who train here that they are able to exert a little bit of influence on the UCI. Given that we have the mountains and infrastructure it would actually make logistical sense to have a DH and even enduro stage in stellenbosch too. Hopefully after 2018 that could be a possibility. DJR 1
kosmonooit Posted January 30, 2017 Posted January 30, 2017 For the last two years the first event on the calender was up the Gold Coast in Oz, that's much further for all than ZA, and a few chose not to go because of the travel, much more of an ordeal than here. But I think this will be popular because of direct flights to CT, same time zone as Europe (almost) and the Euros know and love coming to Cape Town, quite a few have training camps there pre-season. Wasn't the deal with Pmb a fix contract thing anyway?
Pure Savage Posted January 30, 2017 Posted January 30, 2017 You could have two types of entry, which is what I think they do overseas. Grand stand and finish area, you pay R50 bucks, get to look at big screens, fancy toilets etc. Free if you want to hike up onto the mountain. DJR, Danger Dassie and PhilipV 3
Stretch Posted January 30, 2017 Posted January 30, 2017 Given that we have the mountains and infrastructure it would actually make logistical sense to have a DH and even enduro stage in stellenbosch too. Hopefully after 2018 that could be a possibility. Nigel has discussed this at length before. Cape town does not have a site that meets all the criteria required for a DH course - drop over distance, proximity to a hub etc etc etc......unless you can build one down table mountain NickGM, (Deon) and DJR 3
Ratty Posted January 30, 2017 Posted January 30, 2017 This really makes sense. So many of the top XC riders are in Cape Town that time of the year anyway as they come out for the Cape Epic. I think its brilliant. Pity we have to wait more than a year..... kosmonooit and Gen 2
NickGM Posted January 30, 2017 Posted January 30, 2017 Nigel has discussed this at length before. Cape town does not have a site that meets all the criteria required for a DH course - drop over distance, proximity to a hub etc etc etc......unless you can build one down table mountain AH right, interesting to know. Helderberg could accommodate 500m drop over 2.5kms which I think is on par with many of the DH courses. And it's close to stellenbosch which is more of a hub than fort william. I'm not disputing you, I'm just curious. Was this discussion on a thread somewhere? Eddy Gordo 1
kosmonooit Posted January 30, 2017 Posted January 30, 2017 This really makes sense. So many of the top XC riders are in Cape Town that time of the year anyway as they come out for the Cape Epic... And they will get a chance to do a round of the UCI XC before they burn one too many matches doing the Epic Gen 1
Shebeen Posted January 30, 2017 Posted January 30, 2017 That's pretty good news all round. Excellent that local government are on board as it makes a lot of the behind the scenes stuff that is so crucial to success work. I'm there like a bear. Timing is clearly dictated by the UCI calendar overlords, but with fun ride world champs traditionally on the second Sunday of march i'm not sure if this complements or takes away from the two events on the same weekend. As a gauteng cyclist it would excite me to go watch and then ride. The other (very obvious) thing is that Grandstand currently do one (very big) race a year. This is also in March. They can't afford to stuff either of these up.
Captain Fastbastard Mayhem Posted January 30, 2017 Posted January 30, 2017 AH right, interesting to know. Helderberg could accommodate 500m drop over 2.5kms which I think is on par with many of the DH courses. And it's close to stellenbosch which is more of a hub than fort william. I'm not disputing you, I'm just curious. Was this discussion on a thread somewhere?It was, and yeah. But they would still have to apply for it to be held there, and that's an exercise in and of itself. I know that Jan was looking into it for the future though.
Danger Dassie Posted January 30, 2017 Posted January 30, 2017 Nigel has discussed this at length before. Cape town does not have a site that meets all the criteria required for a DH course - drop over distance, proximity to a hub etc etc etc......unless you can build one down table mountain Nothing that can't be accommodated though, either way it's good news more than anything else for a WC event to be returning to South Africa.
HOEKVLAG Posted January 30, 2017 Posted January 30, 2017 Great news! looks like I'm doing the CTCT again next year... Captain Fastbastard Mayhem 1
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