Statement regarding cancellation of the 40th Cape Town Cycle Tour from David Bellairs

[Wannabe]

What special medal? The mythical medal for those who did both the 55mtb race and the road race...

 

Has anyone ever actually seen one of these? Like seen it?

 

I have two in my possession, for 2015 and 2016. 

[PygaSchmyga]

The only thing I learned from this thread is that Hotshot is a tool...

Yup!!

[PygaSchmyga]

You beat me to it - I was also thinking we should give a few peeps on here the opportunity to organise this event next year and see how they cope... 

 

For me, the only time I ever get on a road bike is to captain my blind neighbour on this event. Riding to the start with him yesterday was hectic, with all the other drama's adding to the mix I was very happy that they cancelled.

 

As I  had a bit of free time, instead of bitching, I took him for a coffee and then went and collected old clothes and headed down to Hout Bay to help out a bit. It was a humbling experience. 

 

I left Hout Bay just after two, and the Karbonkelberg fire was still raging and heading towards Llandudno - there were approximately 8 to 10 fire trucks that I could see and the helicopters trying to control the blaze (if you don't believe me search #karbonkelbergfire). Can you imagine them trying to move through 35k riders going up Suikerbossie!!

 

Cancelling the event was a massive decision to make, and it was the right one.

 

For all those posting on this forum, there have been some great ideas and some rather interesting ones... So instead of just posting here, why not engage with the organisers directly?

 

Tom

Karbonkelberg?  That is a thing - seriously?  Gotta love SA!  How do you even BEGIN to translate Karbonkel??!! (well, without a risk of warning points!)

Edited March 13, 2017 by PygaSchmyga

[Rouxenator]

 

 

We are so sorry that things did not work out for the 2017 Cycle Tour yesterday, but applaud the decision by the organisers to put the safety of the participants first. But should you let the fitness you’ve worked so hard to build up for the Cycle Tour, go to waste? 

 

We have a solution for you: Join us on Sunday 19 March 2017 in Malmesbury for the 102 km  WACT Ride (Week After Cycle Tour ride). 

 

Hell no! This whole road cycling thing is way to much of a gamble.

 

I'll rather do the Fine Breede MTB on Saturday. Much safer and a 100% guaranteed start. 

[Skubarra]

At the height of the unrest there a year or two back there was a mobile disaster management camp set up 500m away. Perhaps some police patrols or a mobile station set up close by would have deterred the protesters. Its a big event, many protests in the past = predictable, at least to some extent,  in my book. 

 

Perhaps, but again the organisers are not in a position to organise police patrols and set up mobile police stations. They have to rely on the city & police for their guidance & reaction. And what if the presence of police did not deter the protestors and only escalated the situation? (Remember the campus protests last year?) How many cyclists must be injured with thrown bricks before a final call is made?

[gazzacpt]

Yip. All the cars and bikes in my household combined are worth less than the bike this 'not wealthy' gentleman is in the process of replacing.

I assume that makes us destitute.

We should probably start breeding like the vermin we are...

I was thinking the same thing. I'm just above the bread line according to his comparison. Wish I could afford a nice 20k bike and here he has 4 x 100k+ bikes. One of his bikes are the same price as my car and my bakkie [emoji33]. Not wealthy my arse.

Although I'm comfortable I have everything I need, sure I would like more but I don't really need it, I also make sure I give.

 

Sent from my SM-A510F using Tapatalk

[flymango]

There are special insurance products for this type of scenario. I am hopeful that the PPA looks at these for future events.

 

But honestly, why would they?? We will moan for a month then all enter again next year.... they aren't really at risk here.

 

There must be a huge opportunity for an insurance product - except not for the organisers but for the participants.

 

When we enter I'm guessing but T&C's probably say there will be no refunds in the event of cancellation or modification of the race. And rightfully so. There are costs to cover and charities to support. 

 

Individuals can then elect to insure themselves against cancellation or modification. 

[Long Wheel Base]

I am a little bit suprised that Myles hasn't come here to say we should have all been wearing flats. Would have been much easier to push our bikes through there without cleats...........

P.S: yes I was one of the guys that had started and experienced the wind.

[flymango]

Don't know if this has been posted anywhere - from Facebook page of Geoff Hookins?

 

Well written, I thought.

 

https://www.facebook.com/geoff.hookins

 

If it hadn't have been the wind that shut the cape town cycle tour down today, it would have been this.

5km down the road from where I live is a huge informal settlement named Masiphumelele.

Without having to explain the difficulties of living in a tin house with no municipal services, one of the real plights of the people living there is perception. Both their perception of their situation, and other people's perception of their situation. This is every informal settlement in south africa.

So many opinions on my fb feed about situations like this.

In the end, everyone is fighting to be heard in a massive argument of who needs help the most. You get the people who use Facebook to show pictures of grizzly farm murders, you get the people who share a cause and get a month old kidnapped baby found in 3 days, you get black lives matter, and legalise dagga and the illuminati is coming to a kill us all, and it's easy to carry on with your day after you have contributed your submission to the massive argument of who needs help the most.

But then you get people who have been asking. Their questions become pleas and their pleas become anger and their anger becomes violence. And still no one thinks they need help the most.

So one year they decide that they will destroy a gem of the rich and hopefully then they will be heard. They plan to come out onto the road at 1am the night before the biggest sporting event on the cape town calendar and burn it and fill it with bricks and rocks. When all the tv cameras come to see what stopped the race maybe then they will be heard.

So they go for it. They throw everything in. The race may actually stop and the country will have to look for answers. And the residents of Masiphumelele truly believe that they will finally be heard.

But then.

The wind stops the race before it starts.

And the country is only looking at videos of rich people being blown off their bicycles.

And once again, the residents of Masiphumelele are forced back into their horrible little tin houses.

Dismissed and Unheard.

At least until this time next year.

Masiphumelele is, afterall, a Xhosa word meaning 'We Will Succeed'

['Dale]

Excellent piece of reflection there.

Saw it yesterday.

Thanx for sharing, flymango. 

[Capricorn]

 

Don't know if this has been posted anywhere - from Facebook page of Geoff Hookins?

 

Well written, I thought.

[snip]

 

best message in this whole drama so far.

Edited March 13, 2017 by Capricorn

[Headshot]

Perhaps, but again the organisers are not in a position to organise police patrols and set up mobile police stations. They have to rely on the city & police for their guidance & reaction. And what if the presence of police did not deter the protestors and only escalated the situation? (Remember the campus protests last year?) How many cyclists must be injured with thrown bricks before a final call is made?

I don't disagree with you or the organizers decision to divert. Its just that with the rise in protests we see annually, there is an element of predictability. The City organizers and police all work together on a plan for the event. The plan needs to take this kind of thing into account or we may never see another CTCT on the full route. That and the ease with which fires are started and also disrupt proceedings. 

[Slowbee]

Two things.

 

One.

If we had started somewhere else other than the wind tunnel, Sunday's ride would still have been cancelled. Making out like the wind in town was why they cancelled the ride is silly. They cancelled the ride because of the dangerous wind conditions on the entire route, in conjunction with the other risk factors that came onto the horizon.

 

We have (optimistically) maybe 500 people looking at this thread and the other CT ride thread. Multiply that by a factor of say 5 as folk who can handle their bikes in windy conditions. 2500 riders. Ok, lets double that , so 5000 riders. (fetching sompompie) That is 16% of potential starters. So lets say 20%. The other 80 are weekend warriors and fair weather riders and a mix inbetween. They did learn from 2009 that conditions on the road were horrendous and the majority  of riders would have been at risk. Calling off the ride under these conditions was the correct thing to  do. Calling off the ride because of windy conditions only at the start, maybe not so valid. The fact remains, conditions all over the course were terrible. 

 

Two.

While peddling around this morning, I put myself in the shoes of a shack dweller. Someone who has nothing, and try as hard as I can to get a job, there are non. And those jobs I do get I am treated like dirt and abused. All the time I go to meetings and hear about how great things are going to become. I ask for help and I hear help is coming. I ask again. It is coming. I ask again and I ask again. Ask again. Ask again.

 

I ask again. Government meets with me, and ask for time. So we wait ........... so I ask again. I am trying to get a job. Some people are trying to help, but it is not so easy. So I ask again. I ask again. I ask again. And ask again. Now I am gatvol. Someone needs to listen.

 

Lets stop this ride. It is so huge and so big and so important maybe someone will listen and help us. So we do and it works, well sort of cause they cancelled it because of the wind. So they cancel the ride for ever. So what, my life as a shack dweller is still hard and it is still hard to get a job and it is still hard to improve the chances my children have of getting out this hell.

 

And so I went through the various list of people who are/were affected. Charities, service providers, government, hotels etc. And the answer to the problem was not so easy to come by. So I peddled home, had a shower, stuck my head in the sand hoping someone braver and smarter than me was trying to solve the mess our wonderful predecessors left us.

 

Edit: I see Flymango posted something from fb along similar lines.

[Headshot]

There is nothing wrong with demonstrating but in SA the tendency is to break things, not build them up. There is also a palpable lack of capacity to see the connections between actions and future incidents or events. Causation in other words.

 

Its not as if the residents of the township have no other avenues of communication or protest. Some of them derive an income from the cycle tour no doubt. The amount of money spent in CT over the week leading up to the tour is huge. Sure some of it lands up in the fat cat (Hotshots :-) ) pockets, but there are also more jobs, because of it. Let's also not ignore the money charities receive and use to uplift the poor or needy.

 

I remember years ago, just pre -994 when a township resident received some foreign funding to open a creche or school. Her neighbours burned the place down apparently because she had dared to rise above them. That memory has stuck with me for twenty years and I am always reminded of it when I read about shops being looted and people murdered because they were different or successful or whatever. 

[Gringo111]

Not sure if this has been posted here before : https://www.facebook.com/geoff.hookins/posts/10212270774191292 

 

I still personally condemn the destruction of public property, regardless of your situation. Its like an angry child throwing a tantrum because you didn't get your own way. Similar to cyclists complaining about the race not taking place. Know your rights BUT use them responsibly...

 

Similar to the burning of schools...

 

Whats next, a mass landslide after torrential rains due to the loffelstein retaining walls that those guys damaged and removed, who will ultimately pay the price..? 

[bclark]

They gonna interview Dave Bellairs on Cape Talk