The Space Between: What cycling events might look like in a post Covid19 world

[Robbie Stewart]

You must be a lot of fun on holiday. I can just picture you in the Piazza della Signoria gesticulating with a gelatarian who has no English beyond what he sees on The Voice about how two blocks away you can get an ice cream for a whole Euro less, and in actual fact back in South Africa where you come from you could get three cornettos for the price of one of his ice creams, and they're actually better anyway.

 

I actually enjoy the CTCT expo, always nice to find new products and go bargain hunting.

 

It was a bit disappointing this year to be honest. 

no Solomons! that was a turning point.

But i agree with you on the covid interactions there this year, but the thing is you don't actually need to go to the expo anyway to collect your number. You can just get a cycling friend who is going to collect for you. You do have cycling friends right?

 

 

no Solomons! that was a turning point.

 

Me, [edit] - price fight over ice-cream? never! In fact the only argument I will gladly engage in is with anyone wanting to share some of my gelato...I might share my last Rolo, but ice-cream? Go get your own.

 

I am not a miser when it comes to spending, but crowds always bring out the worst in me. I do crowds like a claustrophobe does confined spaces. I'm more of a one on one kind of bloke. I even get annoyed when leaving a building when people gather in a doorway. Immediate moer-meter-innirooi. But for the record, I recognise that as a personal weakness, and thus I rather minimise my engagement and if you didn't already know that about me, you wouldn't either cause I am good at suppressing my agitation.

 

I would love the expo if there was say, oh I dunno, maybe 98% fewer people...

 

As for cycling friends, I have a few yes.

Edited July 27, 2020 by Robbie Stewart

[Underachiever]

I will disagree with you on sport (not just cycling) not being top of mind.

 

Sport matters. Not only are some sports such financial and economic powerhouses that they keep entire economies afloat, even marginal ones have a dramatic effect on the overall wellbeing and morale of a population. 

 

Listen to lance's Forward podcast with Charles Barkley, they unpack it and explain it a lot better than I can, but it's a real effect. Look at how a simple feel good around the springbok's winning a world cup buoys our economy and drives investor sentiment. 

 

So much happens based on emotion you can't discount it.

I hope you're right and my prediction is wrong!!!  A case of a murky crystal ball....

[DieselnDust]

The future surrounding sport is very clear. It will continue. Since ancient Greece first engaged in "the Games" man has has been fascinated by sporting competition....except in those days people really lost their lives as part of the spectacle.

In the last 110yrs the Olympic movement has survived Two World Wars, the Cold War, terrorist attacks, boycotts, doping scandals and some downright cheating.

 

The analogy of comparing this SARS- COV2 pandemic to the Spanish flu is likely a good one. We don't enough to make judegements about the future other than what we know we can do to limit the spread  till we either build whatever herd immunity is or a vaccine is found.

 

What we do know is the hardest hit countries have an obesity problem. Of those there is a large elderly population with low immunity due to the more advanced living conditions.

 

SA has a gap of some 12,000 deaths where there is uncertainty as to whether these should be attributed to SARS_COV2 virus or not. Heck we don;t even know if assymptomatic people can transmit it or not. WHO experts seem to think not but the policy makers prefer to say they can and take the cautious approach.

 

Much of where we are ow is down to political decisions by politicians, and  not science lead decisions.

In SA there seems to be more policital agenda in the decision making process than concern for community health so any crystal balling should be informed from a perspective of whatever furthers that agenda. I'll bet we middle class won't like it one bit . This gov seems to think that it will solve the problem by taxing its way to wealth and that by buckling under union pressure i serves the interrest of the people....

and then theres the fact that the crystal ball is "Made in China"....

[The Ouzo]

Me, [edit] - price fight over ice-cream? never! In fact the only argument I will gladly engage in is with anyone wanting to share some of my gelato...I might share my last Rolo, but ice-cream? Go get your own.

 

I am not a miser when it comes to spending, but crowds always bring out the worst in me. I do crowds like a claustrophobe does confined spaces. I'm more of a one on one kind of bloke. I even get annoyed when leaving a building when people gather in a doorway. Immediate moer-meter-innirooi. But for the record, I recognise that as a personal weakness, and thus I rather minimise my engagement and if you didn't already know that about me, you wouldn't either cause I am good at suppressing my agitation.

 

I would love the expo if there was say, oh I dunno, maybe 98% fewer people...

 

As for cycling friends, I have a few yes.

echos my thoughts (even the part about the gelato)

 

My wife long ago saw the wrong side of this a few times whilst we were out shopping, resulting in us hardly shopping together anymore. 

[Alien Racer]

Why not instead off doing the old regular races, try a new race, that is smaller and with  more personal  touch and go to a place where you've never been!

Cyclist is so much creatures off habit, I try to at least every year do 3 to 4 new races that I have not done for few years or never before.

You meet new people and get to do more races by doing more smaller ones rather than the over priced larger ones.

 

[Rocket-Boy]

Why does anything have to change?

Did the world change after the previous pandemics that killed way more people?

 

Sure it might take a while to get back to normal but assuming it cant go back to the way it was before seems nonsensical to me.

 

Maybe Im naive and there is more to it, but we arent going to spend the rest of our lives on lockdown and hiding away from each other.

[DieselnDust]

Why does anything have to change?

Did the world change after the previous pandemics that killed way more people?

 

Sure it might take a while to get back to normal but assuming it cant go back to the way it was before seems nonsensical to me.

 

Maybe Im naive and there is more to it, but we arent going to spend the rest of our lives on lockdown and hiding away from each other.

Unless The Zuma faction get their communist way. But then I suspect we will have a proper and overdue civil war with real bullets and ****

[b-rad]

Why does anything have to change?

Did the world change after the previous pandemics that killed way more people?

 

Sure it might take a while to get back to normal but assuming it cant go back to the way it was before seems nonsensical to me.

 

Maybe Im naive and there is more to it, but we arent going to spend the rest of our lives on lockdown and hiding away from each other.

Agreed. People might be more cautious in the way they live but eventually normality will return. As soon as media stops harping on about Covid we'll see a big change for the better and if everyone tried to stop watching the news for a while the levels of positivity will return in a big way.

[Robbie Stewart]

echos my thoughts (even the part about the gelato)

 

My wife long ago saw the wrong side of this a few times whilst we were out shopping, resulting in us hardly shopping together anymore. 

 

I think we're twins, and we married sisters...

 

my wife gets PO'd with me while we're getting in the car at home, as she just knows...

[MORNE]

Unless The Zuma faction get their communist way. But then I suspect we will have a proper and overdue civil war with real bullets and ****

This post is not aimed at you personally...just a general observation about the subject matter.

 

Lol i always snicker at hints of civil war by the middle class in this country. There will be none. There will only be Zim. They will take rape and pillage and you will be able to do nothing other than run. Who is going to fight for the other (supposedly our) side In this war. This country’s taxpayers is filled with a bunch of all talk and no action people. On the other side you have people who basically will kill for food without hesitating...and in the most brutal ways imaginable. When we stll lived in GP, on my morning commute i drove past a ekectronic SARS Info panel on the highway that would during tax season show the amount of taxpayers that have filed up to that stage. It never went over 4milion poeple. So in my head atleast...4milion people alone are carrying this country...and that number is getting smaller everyday. Thats also basically the same 4 million who’d be on one side of the trench in that civil war imo. I read somewhere last late year that there are only about 2million registered tax payers left in this country.... odds don't stack up. EDIT: sorry read that wrong...Its circa 7mil, but only 2mil collected from income rax. Still though...

Hardly 10%.

 

https://www.news24.com/fin24/Budget/why-budget-2019-will-create-more-pain-for-taxpayers-20190220

 

When the push comes to shove...we’ll all rather fabricate a family lineage from Europe to get a passport than get down and dirty.

Anyway, I am starting to share many of your sentiments regarding the final outcome of all this BS though. It’s clear as day. Time for the braindrain to start accelerating imo.

Edited July 28, 2020 by morneS555

[Shebeen]

I like to reflect on history a bit, reflect where we are now and then venture a guess on what the future will look like....

 

History: 1918 Spanish flu.  I did a top line read somewhere and they conquered the virus after about 2-3 years.  Also went through the 2nd and 3rd waves, and they found people to have natural high levels of immunity + a vaccine. Life was back to normal circa 1921.

 

Current: 2020 - Globally,we are < 7 months into Covid, As we all know, some are over the 1st wave (Italy, France, Germany, etc) and some are very much still in it (RSA, India, US, Brazil, Russia).  Some are in their 2nd wave (Australia and perhaps Spain?).  Initial indications are immunity is temporary, no vaccine yet.  Truth be told, we know very little on how to conquer this one.

 

Future:  Perhaps oversimplified - if we get the vaccine/immunity combo right, we will have life as we had from 1921 - 2019. If not, who knows, but cycling will not be top of mind, survival - economic and otherwise will become the focus.

actually incorrect.

 

the 1918 flu never ended, and what we know as the common flu can be traced back to H1N1 from 1918.

how do we know this for sure? this guy

 

https://www.si.com/more-sports/2020/05/27/johan-hultin-the-virus-hunter

[Jase619]

Agreed. People might be more cautious in the way they live but eventually normality will return. As soon as media stops harping on about Covid we'll see a big change for the better and if everyone tried to stop watching the news for a while the levels of positivity will return in a big way.

 

This is very true, people that i know that never watched the news now follow it religiously and are super negative all the time

[Underachiever]

actually incorrect.

 

the 1918 flu never ended, and what we know as the common flu can be traced back to H1N1 from 1918.

how do we know this for sure? this guy

 

https://www.si.com/more-sports/2020/05/27/johan-hultin-the-virus-hunter

Yep, conquered means exactly that. 

 

Point is that life went from social distancing and masks to back to normal.

[dave303e]

Why does anything have to change?

Did the world change after the previous pandemics that killed way more people?

 

Sure it might take a while to get back to normal but assuming it cant go back to the way it was before seems nonsensical to me.

 

Maybe Im naive and there is more to it, but we arent going to spend the rest of our lives on lockdown and hiding away from each other.

 

Honestly I want to use it to change as much as possible:

 

Humans should do as best they can to work from home, it saves time, money and is really good for traffic and more importantly the environment. A lot of companies will not return 100% to an office environment.

 

Same goes for flying, fewer flights and flights for only special occasions not people flying to ct from jhb for a meeting and flying home same day.

 

Use it to highlight value in places that were under valued. Like our medical staff and the poor people who have to clean hospitals. 

 

Highlight how we need less footballers and more doctors. Less politicians and more scientists(and far less facebook politics and facebook science)

 

I hope we use it to change our ideas as to whether we breed or not because overpopulation is a runaway train.

 

How many should be realising they have a drinking problem, in stead they are buying over priced booze or home brewing concoctions when they could be improving their life in the long run.

 

There are so many things we can take away from this pandemic to improve the world. Reality is none of the above will happen and we will go back to square one and most will be happy about that.

[VicanZA]

happy to see that some people here know whats best for me! how about you stay home till nobody dies and i will get on with it? SA is still a democracy, how about we try to preserve that?  never be afraid to be the one who stands against thousands.

[VicanZA]

Honestly I want to use it to change as much as possible:

 

Humans should do as best they can to work from home, it saves time, money and is really good for traffic and more importantly the environment. A lot of companies will not return 100% to an office environment.

 

Same goes for flying, fewer flights and flights for only special occasions not people flying to ct from jhb for a meeting and flying home same day.

 

Use it to highlight value in places that were under valued. Like our medical staff and the poor people who have to clean hospitals. 

 

Highlight how we need less footballers and more doctors. Less politicians and more scientists(and far less facebook politics and facebook science)

 

I hope we use it to change our ideas as to whether we breed or not because overpopulation is a runaway train.

 

How many should be realising they have a drinking problem, in stead they are buying over priced booze or home brewing concoctions when they could be improving their life in the long run.

 

There are so many things we can take away from this pandemic to improve the world. Reality is none of the above will happen and we will go back to square one and most will be happy about that.

 

how about you go first and we will all follow, start by stopping you family from breeding.

 

We waiting..