[Event] Stellenbosch MTB Challenge

[Rouxenator]

I totally hate e-bikes but the race organisers are e-bike friendly so you'll just have to live with that. I do think they should start way at the back though. 

 

People in Stellenbosch complain (a lot) when there are bike events that even slightly disrupt traffic. As things are Stellenbosch has a lot of traffic issues as it is and unless they complete a road around town to alleviate the flow of traffic things won't change. 

 

Land owners DO NOT charge for access to the farms, we sure did not and the race does go over quite a bit of our farm next to Spier. We paid for entry like everyone else and it was worth it. Trafficops is the big expense and the old format required plenty of them. 

[Karman de Lange]

I totally hate e-bikes but the race organisers are e-bike friendly so you'll just have to live with that. I do think they should start way at the back though. 

 

People in Stellenbosch complain (a lot) when there are bike events that even slightly disrupt traffic. As things are Stellenbosch has a lot of traffic issues as it is and unless they complete a road around town to alleviate the flow of traffic things won't change. 

 

Land owners DO NOT charge for access to the farms, we sure did not and the race does go over quite a bit of our farm next to Spier. We paid for entry like everyone else and it was worth it. Trafficops is the big expense and the old format required plenty of them. 

 

I'm talking the old routes … new route I have no idea ..   

[Rouxenator]

Ah, ok, that would make sense - my bad. 

[Skubarra]

I'm talking the old routes … new route I have no idea ..   

 

If 6 or 7 farms charge 30K+ for access that's about 600 entries the organisers have to sell just to cover access cost (or they need a massive sponsor). That would be a killer blow to any event

[dev null]

No wonder we don't see many races in Stellies using the old routes. Eventually people will not do many races anymore and will just go for a ride.

 

Speaking of myself, we have done about a third of the races last year compared to 2017, and this year we only did one, though that had more to do with my shoulder injury.

[Shebeen]

the classic stellenbosch race for me was

 

start paulroos/coetzenburg.

race coetzenburg /cross the hangbrug at eikenhof

cross merriman near the highschool

blow a poepie valve up through botmaskop

cross under the helshoogte pass

do the whole idas valley/rustenburg section

do the Delheim forest like you're in star wars

cross the R44 under a bridge

cross the R304 over the road

come up the back of pappegai berg

scratch through town.

 

that was an epic 60-70km course.

and even better if it coincided with the winefestival

probably 30/40 landowners involved

traffic department had quite a bit of work too

 

so disappointed that BIKE town can't support this sort of thing for the masses, and Meurant has been round the block long enough that no one else could pull it off - but not like i have done it for a while so can't really complain. 

 

instead the closest thing to this is origin of trail (R1600 for a 2day race, no accom)

[dev null]

Which begs the question: where are they going to host the Origin of Trails which usually started at Coetzenburg?

 

Also, I don't get their traffic complaint. There is more traffic chaos in Stellies on a Friday afternoon than in any of these races that they used to host on a Sunday. I can sort of understand the Saturday issue.