Knysna cycle tour 2021 cancelled

[bleedToWin]

While I'm sure most are sympathetic to charities, very very few (if any) enter an event because of the charities involved.
Riders enter cycle races. There's money exchanged with certain expectations. Organisers donate proceeds to charity. Those are two independent events. It's similar to how your co-worker who has 4 kids should not earn more money simply because he has a bigger family. Organisers should not unilaterally back out of agreements simply because they have made secondary agreements with charities.

People are rightly suur, because events can and should be organised with preempted cancellation procedures in place. Tell me up front that there will be no deferred entries, or better yet get insurance and make the entries 20% more expensive to cover this insurance and tell me I will get a full refund since the insurance will cover sunk costs. You could then give the option to donate the refund to charities and we could revisit that argument again...

[DieselnDust]

1 hour ago, TheAntoine1 said:

Its not a case of losing the money at all. Its the way the organisers wasted no time from CRs announcement of further stricter lockdowns to cancelling the event. That leaves a bad taste in most peoples mouth. Why not make an effort to formalise plans and proposals to try work around CRs new shooting from the hip one size fits all rules. 

COVID 19 presents a high risk for the very few and negligible risk for the many. The infection fatality rate in different age groups:
<19 y, IFR= 0.003%
20-49 y: IFR= 0.02%
50-69 y: 0.5%
>70y, IFR= 5.4%

 

ok still in denial are you. Do yourself a favour and go out and contract COVID. Then come back here if you recover and tell us the same story.

More so, tell the children orphaned after both parents died of COVID that their parents where just a fractional statistic.

Einstein was once asked to compare the Universe and stupidity. He said the Universe is finite but he wasn't sure about stupidity....

 

Enter an event under Disaster Management regulations at your own risk. End of story

[KingZA]

Sorry but I'm not impressed with the organisers on this one. How do we go from statements such as:
 

Quote

We would like to assure our entrants and those who would like to enter the 2021 @KnysnaCycleTour - that come rain, hail, COVID or shine - the Knysna Cycle Tour will be taking place! ????????‍♀️????‍♂️

We have plan A, B & C covered and outlined in the below graphic - fear not, you will be riding in July ????

 

To cancel the event and don't even carry the entry over to the following year. I wont be supporting this race in the future and instead will support the many other events that actually care about the participants.

[TheAntoine1]

2 hours ago, DieselnDust said:

ok still in denial are you. Do yourself a favour and go out and contract COVID. Then come back here if you recover and tell us the same story.

More so, tell the children orphaned after both parents died of COVID that their parents where just a fractional statistic.

Einstein was once asked to compare the Universe and stupidity. He said the Universe is finite but he wasn't sure about stupidity....

 

Enter an event under Disaster Management regulations at your own risk. End of story

Im definitely not in denial regarding Covid. Im simply pointing out a freely available statistic to try and illustrate the risk of Covid fatalities as it affects the various age groups. In fact I am possibly more at risk than most people on this forum. (Im 60 y.o.) I have not contracted Covid myself but used the stats as a source of comfort to myself and my Mom (aged 83) when she contracted it a few months ago.
Obviously I would not like to inform orphaned kids whose parents have both died as a result of Covid that they are a small percentage. The same would apply to kids who have lost both parents in any other type of tragic event.

Yes - taking part or attending any event with many people during the time of ever changing government disaster management protocols is a risk.

[Sid the Sloth]

3 hours ago, Robbie Stewart said:

You'd be willing to risk a potential death (even just one) so that you can ride a bicycle...

Can't believe they are letting the TDF go ahead after all these crashes...

[DieselnDust]

33 minutes ago, TheAntoine1 said:

Im definitely not in denial regarding Covid. Im simply pointing out a freely available statistic to try and illustrate the risk of Covid fatalities as it affects the various age groups. In fact I am possibly more at risk than most people on this forum. (Im 60 y.o.) I have not contracted Covid myself but used the stats as a source of comfort to myself and my Mom (aged 83) when she contracted it a few months ago.
Obviously I would not like to inform orphaned kids whose parents have both died as a result of Covid that they are a small percentage. The same would apply to kids who have lost both parents in any other type of tragic event.

Yes - taking part or attending any event with many people during the time of ever changing government disaster management protocols is a risk.

No event can afford the liability insurance should the event be deemed to be a super spreader event. 

This is not the TdF that can impose all manner of interventions to lower the risk. The only reasonable and affordable course of action is cancellation.

[Robbie Stewart]

10 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:

No event can afford the liability insurance should the event be deemed to be a super spreader event. 

This is not the TdF that can impose all manner of interventions to lower the risk. The only reasonable and affordable course of action is cancellation.

And we're not France, in the middle of summer and not in the middle of a new variant Covid wave originating from a country it just devastated either. People comparing SA to France, or a backwater bike race with the TdF are just laughable. 

Anyone who spilt the money on any event during these times were gambling. They might not be sitting at the blackjack table, but they were gambling. Some you win. Some you lose. Make peace with it and move on. {Diesel, not speaking to you here - this is a general comment}

[DieselnDust]

1 minute ago, Robbie Stewart said:

And we're not France, in the middle of summer and not in the middle of a new variant Covid wave originating from a country it just devastated either. People comparing SA to France, or a backwater bike race with the TdF are just laughable. 

Anyone who spilt the money on any event during these times were gambling. They might not be sitting at the blackjack table, but they were gambling. Some you win. Some you lose. Make peace with it and move on. {Diesel, not speaking to you here - this is a general comment}

and then there is a reckless gambling and smart gambling.

entering events that are arranged to be on the cusp either side of the projected periods for the "waves" is really reckless gambling if you can't afford to sink the cash. The third wave was projected in March already when May through July was the period identified. Entering any event that far out was just reckless, hence I didn't enter anything that fell within that period unless the event requires entry payment as late as a few days ahead e.g. WPCycling. September through November appears to be a lower risk period according to the expert so CTCT got some cash

[Robbie Stewart]

13 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:

and then there is a reckless gambling and smart gambling.

entering events that are arranged to be on the cusp either side of the projected periods for the "waves" is really reckless gambling if you can't afford to sink the cash. The third wave was projected in March already when May through July was the period identified. Entering any event that far out was just reckless, hence I didn't enter anything that fell within that period unless the event requires entry payment as late as a few days ahead e.g. WPCycling. September through November appears to be a lower risk period according to the expert so CTCT got some cash

I was sitting on the fence about CTCT and then when I thought to take a chance and enter all entries were sold out. Ah well, I'll ride  events again when (if) this shyte storm passes.

[Skubarra]

1 hour ago, KingZA said:

Sorry but I'm not impressed with the organisers on this one. How do we go from statements such as:
 

 

To cancel the event and don't even carry the entry over to the following year. I wont be supporting this race in the future and instead will support the many other events that actually care about the participants.

I concede that you make a good point here - the organisers did not communicate well. Yes they did give the impression that no matter what something will be hosted. (Although personally I was never interested in Option C)

But it is still hard for me to be really sympathetic towards people losing money on entry fees a year and a half into the pandemic. How long does this pandemic have to go on for people to figure out that events get cancelled all the time and often organisers don't refund the entry fee? If this is a priority to you pay attention to the terms and conditions or delay entering until you are sure the event will happen. 

[KingZA]

43 minutes ago, Skubarra said:

I concede that you make a good point here - the organisers did not communicate well. Yes they did give the impression that no matter what something will be hosted. (Although personally I was never interested in Option C)

But it is still hard for me to be really sympathetic towards people losing money on entry fees a year and a half into the pandemic. How long does this pandemic have to go on for people to figure out that events get cancelled all the time and often organisers don't refund the entry fee? If this is a priority to you pay attention to the terms and conditions or delay entering until you are sure the event will happen. 

I also wasn't hugely keen for Option C but I would take that over nothing.

I don't actually see any reason why this option isn't going ahead. No start/finish infrastructure necessary, no groups, just mark the course and let people ride it at will. They could even use Strava to handle the timing if they don't want to put out timing mats.

[Kom]

1 hour ago, Skubarra said:

But it is still hard for me to be really sympathetic towards people losing money on entry fees a year and a half into the pandemic. How long does this pandemic have to go on for people to figure out that events get cancelled all the time and often organisers don't refund the entry fee?

I only entered three weeks ago. The organisers set a precedence last year about entry rollover, so as i saw it, entering now was good as an entry in the bank for this or next year.

In terms of decision, the ability to run this event was already in doubt at Lockdown Level 3 with 100 person limits for outdoor events, literally the next day the Around the Pot (Om die Pod) organisers made a call, yet the Knysna cycle tour continued to take money off of people until now.

In the end its not the first time many of us have donated entry fees to charity, its a solid win-win, but i think the organisers for the Knysna cycle tour are a little dodge on this one ...

[Mike Mac]

3 hours ago, Sid the Sloth said:

Can't believe they are letting the TDF go ahead after all these crashes...

In TDF, only the riders who want to race and sign up for it will be at risk. With a potential super spreader event, like a cycling event, the risk pool is significant and impacts on people who did not “sign up” for it. Huge difference. 

[babse]

is it 100% confirmed entry fee is not going to be refunded or have they just not communicated yet?

 

if there are no travel restriction in place, I think many will be going down to knysna

[DieselnDust]

The organisers are between a roc and a hard place here.

If they ximply mark the course they will be viewed ad inciting a gathering (people will not  roll over the line all hours of the day, they will organise themselves and this by definition under Level 4 is a gathering.

Yes they took money up until last week but Level 4 lockdown wasn't a certainty until Friday last week. There was a good chance that only certain regions would face the further restrictions e.g Gauteng and CoCT. So if Knysna stayed level 3 they could have held an event and split the groups to fall within the regs.

 

Yes it seems Sh*tty but I'm doubting they would willing want to allen bolt their market over this knowing that they will need the tourism in future. People have long memories when being bolted. I think we all have to take a step back, breathe and look at the situation and how quickly events escalated to understand that no malice was intended, however difficult that may be today.

 

PS: Its not often I defend an event organiser but here you have it....

[Mark James]

3 hours ago, Skubarra said:

events get cancelled all the time and often organisers don't refund the entry fee?

Some do, some don't... Most don't

Stilwater reimbursed me 75% of my entry fee for the Origin of trails event in April (and allowed me to keep my freebie jersey I received). Why did they do this? Probably because it is the right and honourable thing to do... So kudos to them for doing so, and for having been very clear on their website about the risks of the event being cancelled, and their reimbursement policy in the event of it being cancelled  ????