Double Century 2021

[MTBeer]

5 minutes ago, ChrisF said:

Is the Ashton Montagu pass open ?  It is often closed after heavy rainfall .... that area regularly has flooding ....

Not sure. I slept in Montagu last night. Was wanting to head back to CT via Tradouw pass. Not sure if that is open.

Edited November 27, 2021 by MTBeer

[J Wakefield]

This was never going to take place all week. Not sure why many are suprised it was cancelled. 
 

they should of made this call on Wednesday already 

[Jbr]

3 hours ago, J Wakefield said:

This was never going to take place all week. Not sure why many are suprised it was cancelled. 
 

they should of made this call on Wednesday already 

Not sure why ? The weather was so undecided I said on monday it could go either way and it did, the minute they said the race was cancelled the weather suddenly was perfect. But apparently there was safety concerns due to the rainfall during the night not so much due to conditions for the race. Anyways, making that kind of call suck for the organisers I’m sure they had good reasons. It also sucks for us but less than losing a friend.

Edited November 27, 2021 by Jbr

[FootballingCyclist]

20 hours ago, TCTG said:

All the best to DC teams out there. A shout-out to Team Pitstop, looking for a 10 man finish.

 

And a 10 man finish it was with no casualties, thanks LOL...

 

Naah we did the sensible thing and went back to the accommodation when the race was cancelled, last thing we all wanted was to go ride at our own risk and risk the chance of someone getting injured. There will always be next year.

[TCTG]

Another sign of Global warming at its best. Seasons are changing and more of this will become the norm.

[DIPSLICK]

This year the wind WTAF

 

IT USED TO BE AUGUST and a few days in September 

in JHB

[NotSoBigBen]

1 hour ago, DIPSLICK said:

This year the wind WTAF

 

IT USED TO BE AUGUST and a few days in September 

in JHB

Nuts mate! 

[DJR]

17 hours ago, TCTG said:

Another sign of Global warming at its best. Seasons are changing and more of this will become the norm.

The weather system that we are experiencing right now is nothing out of the ordinary for the Southern tip of Africa. We live on a pointy rock that sticks out far into the most volatile ocean on earth and severe weather comes with that territory. Think back as far as our history and the pattern of severe droughts and severe flooding goes back a very long way. 

[TCTG]

59 minutes ago, DJR said:

The weather system that we are experiencing right now is nothing out of the ordinary for the Southern tip of Africa. We live on a pointy rock that sticks out far into the most volatile ocean on earth and severe weather comes with that territory. Think back as far as our history and the pattern of severe droughts and severe flooding goes back a very long way. 

So global warming and Seasonal changes doesnt exist? 

[Jbr]

31 minutes ago, TCTG said:

So global warming and Seasonal changes doesnt exist? 

not what he said

[ChrisF]

5 minutes ago, copperhead said:

My bad... thought this was the DC thread ????????‍♂️

 

DC was cancelled, so this is now officially the bad weather thread ...

[Pure Savage]

Nice weekend away.

[splat]

On 11/27/2021 at 8:29 AM, 'Dale said:

There’ll be a few HTFU teams that will probably attempt to complete the course today. Feedback will be interesting.

The weather cleared after a short while and we all jumped in cars and went for a drive to survey the drama and damage on the route - there was very little of either.  There were a LOT of cyclists out on the road and many did the whole course. Kudos to them!

So, after a short while, we all felt very frustrated with the situation and with ourselves. We would have felt much better if we had gone for a ride.
Our excuse was that we were still at our cottages when the race was cancelled (after 2 delays). Were had 10km of dirt road from the N2. If we were kitted and in Swellendam, it would have been much easier to go for a spin. I am sure that there are many other frustrated cyclists. Hopefully none that are too angry.

At the time (after sheeting rain and lightning for most of the night), the decision felt right. We were quite relieved to not have to head out in the rain and hope that the lightning would stop.  But. the weather cleared and we saw no reasons to cancel the race (we didn't drive the whole route, so could have missed the real storm damage). 

Hind sight is great though, isn't it ?

Edited November 28, 2021 by splat

[DieselnDust]

Back home and the Weekend has just about percolated...

2am Saturday morning I was hoping I'd get a race cancelled notice. Nothing came through.

At 4:30 I was up making breakfast and getting my kit on. 

At 5:45 we hit the road from Robertson to Swellies.

6:01 the first notice comes in: start delayed a further 30min...

This is not good, it's a prelude to cancellation.

Pull into Swellies and the race cancellation notification comes in

At first the relief that finally there was finality. For much of Saturday I didn't give the race much further thought.

This morning over breakfast I started reflecting on 2021 and realised that cancel culture is well and truly embedded. What this means is that the risk of entry to an event now lies squarely with the entrants.

Now before the Karen's get up on their soap boxes and preach, I believe that cancelling the Double Century was the right thing to do based on adverse weather conditions. 

However we have had strong winds and rain in the past and the event went ahead.

Insurance costs for hosting events under these state of disaster regulations has escalated. Those costs won't come down. When this "pandemic" is over we are to be counting far more costs than we ever imagined. Events are going to be cancelled for far less in future.

[Titleist]

The decision to cancel was not the right one. The organisers should have put the risk back to us as participants to decide if we wanted to ride or not. The weather prediction indicated from Wednesday already that the rain would clear up from 7:30 onwards. We had the WHOLE Saturday to ride. At 12:00 it was 30 deg C. They could’ve delayed the start by 3 hours. 
The weather during the Winelands race in September were much worse and we all survived and finished unmelted…

Million of rand down the drain. It’s decisions like this that keep sponsors away.

 

 

Edited November 28, 2021 by Titleist

[DieselnDust]

18 minutes ago, Titleist said:

The decision to cancel was not the right one. The organisers should have put the risk back to us as participants to decide if we wanted to ride or not. The weather prediction indicated from Wednesday already that the rain would clear up from 7:30 onwards. We had the WHOLE Saturday to ride. At 12:00 it was 30 deg C. They could’ve delayed the start by 3 hours. 
The weather during the Winelands race in September were much worse and we all survived and finished unmelted…

Million of rand down the drain. It’s decisions like this that keep sponsors away.

 

 

DC isn't a cheap event to participate in either. I for one will be very hesitant to out my own money on the table if an event can be cancelled so easily. We haven't seen the evidence of the Rock falls and flooding and since many teams went onto the course and completed it how dangerous was it really?

Was corporate brand risk appetite more the issue here..?