[Event] Cape Town Cycle Tour 2023

[DieselnDust]

SO R2-00 in 1978 is valued at around R75today.

So todays entry fee is roughly R20 value in 1978

 

Might be better to compare to the price of a coffee....

wait coffee was free back then or on the house as they said

[The Ouzo]

7 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:

SO R2-00 in 1978 is valued at around R75today.

So todays entry fee is roughly R20 value in 1978

 

Might be better to compare to the price of a coffee....

wait coffee was free back then or on the house as they said

cant use the big mac index as there was no big mac in SA back then, how about a bottle of coca cola

[MORNE]

23 hours ago, ouzo said:

Wish my Gmail went far back enough, I think my first one I paid something like R175. 

 

2 hours ago, ouzo said:

I go back, but I dont go that far back.

When I entered my first one in 1998 for the 1999 event I already had a gmail account (gmail was by invitation only back then).

But I remember waiting patiently for my seeding and magazine in the post.

 

56 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:

SO R2-00 in 1978 is valued at around R75today.

So todays entry fee is roughly R20 value in 1978

 

Might be better to compare to the price of a coffee....

wait coffee was free back then or on the house as they said

 

48 minutes ago, ouzo said:

cant use the big mac index as there was no big mac in SA back then, how about a bottle of coca cola

 

 

Edited October 5, 2022 by MORNE

[DJR]

2 hours ago, DieselnDust said:

.................The PPA letterbox was filled with paper letters of protest written in the Queens English. Since many of the Rotarians of the time were retired school teachers they spent much of their reading these protests and correcting the Ingrish to English before placing your corrected protest letter along with their polite reply back into an envelope and mailing it back to you.. ................

Lekker lag ek nou .......... where I grew up, those English letters would have looked like they were from the special school for dyslexics (aka farm boys).🤣

[Skubarra]

 

1 hour ago, ChrisF said:

 

When the Burger  newspaper "jumped" in price from 3c to 4c in 1978 my parents moaned as much as we do about the increase in the CTCT entry fee.

 

By 1976 the fuel prices jumped.  Just before that it was 8c a liter.

 

R2 was a significant amount back in 1978.

One thing I remember reading the Burger in the late 90's is that despite all the excitement, disruptions, traffic closures and loads of visitors to Cape Town in the week of the Argus, this event would be completely ignored with literally ZERO mentions, as if nothing is happening. There would be colour photos of some dog show on a rugby field but a cycling event? What cycling event?

[ChrisF]

1 hour ago, Skubarra said:

 

One thing I remember reading the Burger in the late 90's is that despite all the excitement, disruptions, traffic closures and loads of visitors to Cape Town in the week of the Argus, this event would be completely ignored with literally ZERO mentions, as if nothing is happening. There would be colour photos of some dog show on a rugby field but a cycling event? What cycling event?

 

Argus vs Burger .....

 

There was only ONE cycle race in the Afrikaans papers .... "Rapport Toer" ..... wonder if it got mentioned in the English papers ....

 

 

some really daught stuff in our history .....

[Andreas_187]

Were the roads closed off in the early days? 

[DieselnDust]

1 hour ago, Andreas_187 said:

Were the roads closed off in the early days? 

Always as far as I can remember 

[Shebeen]

17 hours ago, DieselnDust said:

It was a simple process.

Somewhere around October the year before The Argust (more formally known as the The Argus Rotary Cycle Tour) entry forms would be made available in the PPA Newsletter or at your nearest Bicycle Shop.

You would guard the piece of paper with your life as you contemplated the madness of cyclin all the way around the Cape Peninsula in a single day.

You would run to your mum (nobody asked their fathers for favours back then. The road to all favours was through your mother.) and ask her for a Parker Pen which would often solicit a snot klap or i she had woke tendencies,... a stern look. You see a Parker Pen was a direct descendant of the device NASA invented for its astronauts to write in space (while the Russians used a pencil). She would reach into her hand bag and hand over a Bic pen which you would safely tuck under our long sleeve shirt cuffs and run off the room to rear trhe latest PPA newsletter while filling in the Entry Form by hand.

With that done you now had two more important tasks..

1. Get your parents to sign the form and

2. write out a cheque for R50 to the Rotary Club of Rondebosch or was it Mowbray.....nevermind, or the alternative was to head down to the Post Office (yes they actually worked in those days) and buy a Money Order. You gave the cashier R50 and she/he would hand you a Post Office guaranteed cheque. ( I last used this facility when buying tools from Paul Morningstar in the US)

3. Once you had your Cheque/Money order you placed this into an envelope along with the entry form and mailed it to the rotary club.

4. About a month later you would receive a letter from the post man confirming your entry to The Argust.

You would now proceed to start training. This meant entering every single fun ride on the calendar for a Kings ransom of R10ea. The out cry when this was raised by 10 wilson blocks to R11.00 was staggering. The PPA letterbox was filled with paper letters of protest written in the Queens English. Since many of the Rotarians of the time were retired school teachers they spent much of their reading these protests and correcting the Ingrish to English before placing your corrected protest letter along with their polite reply back into an envelope and mailing it back to you.

Naturally by the time you got this reply you had calmed down and got on with the business of training. Your parents money spent, the reply was merely for info and confidence building before grade finals in November. it was good English practice. Win win.

Now at the fun rides you were timed by your group start time and the time recorded when you crossed the finish line. This timing was often undertaken by the same retired English School teacher who probably remembered your name as she did for the 10,000 other students who went through her class. If you gave her too much much work with your protest letters, further time penalty would be applied a the finish line so you sort of made sure she knew you appreciated her response and ingrish corrections. Win win..

Then there wouid be the summer break and everyone would be enjoying Christmas and New Years before the fun ride season resumed in January. By the 2nd to third week of Feb everyone who received and entry would be pacing up and down the drive waiting for the postman. You knew the day he had Argus Magazines and Number packs in his large letter bag because he'd drop everybody else's letter off and your last even if your house number was #1.

You'd run inside, turn on the wireless and wait for a lekker Rick Astley number to play on GoodHope Fm before opening the package. Your race number would be on the letter and there was a nice new PPA Magazine to peruse instead of doing homework.

That same postman would deliver a large package the month after the Argust. Racephoto would print every single picture of you doing the race in large format. You needed to send either the pictures or a cheque back in the self addressed envelope provided. Failure to comply with this would result in a black mark and entry restrictions going forward

[Tim Brink]

6 hours ago, DieselnDust said:

Always as far as I can remember 

1990 the event moved to a Sunday for the fist time (SKANDE) and with it the beginning of closed roads. Roads were still open to 'controlled' traffic in 1989. 

1990 - entries capped at 14 000, the event could cope with no more.

ALSO 1990 - helmets mandatory for the first time.

Exciting times.

 

[The Ouzo]

20 minutes ago, Shebeen said:

That same postman would deliver a large package the month after the Argust. Racephoto would print every single picture of you doing the race in large format. You needed to send either the pictures or a cheque back in the self addressed envelope provided. Failure to comply with this would result in a black mark and entry restrictions going forward

When I still stayed with my parents and they had a postbox the envelope would be perfect with hardly a mark on it.

When I moved into my own place, despite having a postbox with an opening big enough to get a magazine in comfortably and the envelope stating in big letters DO NOT BEND, the postman would bend the envelope in half and shove it in the postbox.

[ChrisF]

21 minutes ago, Tim Brink said:

1990 the event moved to a Sunday for the fist time (SKANDE) and with it the beginning of closed roads. Roads were still open to 'controlled' traffic in 1989. 

1990 - entries capped at 14 000, the event could cope with no more.

ALSO 1990 - helmets mandatory for the first time.

Exciting times.

 

 

Thank you for these insights.

[DieselnDust]

36 minutes ago, Tim Brink said:

1990 the event moved to a Sunday for the fist time (SKANDE) and with it the beginning of closed roads. Roads were still open to 'controlled' traffic in 1989. 

1990 - entries capped at 14 000, the event could cope with no more.

ALSO 1990 - helmets mandatory for the first time.

Exciting times.

 

1989 was my first but my memory does not recall any cars on the M3. YOur memory is way better than mine on this or your're ancient!

I do recall sections Cramps Bay main road open but the finish was just up the road. Suilerbossie had the opposite lane open to traffic from the roundabout to the traffic lights

M3 inbound was always Open. I don't recall Muizenberg to Cape Point status and I rode in M group that year

Edited October 6, 2022 by DieselnDust

[Spinnekop]

21 hours ago, Andreas_187 said:

I can't afford it, I just bought a R300,000 bike

None of my 150 club mates own a R300k bike.

secondly.  I can ride most of the days most of the route for FREE.

The whole "timed event" thing is dwindling to say the least with mostly egotistic Vets and wannabe pros still "racing".
The rest of the people just want to have a good time on the bike.  Which they can do any day of the week.  Free.
These days R750 can goes a long way to pay for fuel (or breakfast) to go ride a route that you have not done before instead of a day out in the Cape the has a 80% chance of getting cancelled and that you have done previously.

 

Edited October 6, 2022 by Spinnekop

[The Ouzo]

3 minutes ago, Spinnekop said:

80% chance of getting cancelled

but it doesnt have an 80% chance of being cancelled, if I recall its only been cancelled the 1 time.

 

4 minutes ago, Spinnekop said:

that you have done previously

this is the point. If you've been training hard you can gauge yourself against yourself over the same route. Sure there are other factors like weather etc. that can influence your time.

 

Sure you can ride it mostly for free on other days, but the atmosphere on the day is what makes it.

947 up here in the big smoke is pulling the same amount of entrants, but for me its purely a test of my abilities as there is bugger all atmosphere (unless you count the angry motorists).

[MORNE]

10 minutes ago, Spinnekop said:

None of my 150 club mates own a R300k bike.

secondly.  I can ride most of the days most of the route for FREE.

The whole "timed event" thing is dwindling to say the least with mostly egotistic Vets and wannabe pros still "racing".
The rest of the people just want to have a good time on the bike.  Which they can do any day of the week.  Free.
These days R750 can goes a long way to pay for fuel (or breakfast) to go ride a route that you have not done before instead of a day out in the Cape the has a 80% chance of getting cancelled and that you have done previously.

 

I'm sorry but you cant ride the whole route, not to mention on your own these days..you are not allowed to ride on the m3 anyway and you ar basically garenteed to get bike jacked somewhere along oceanview these days. 

You can watch rugby on TV 'for free' on your own too...but people still enjoy hanging out in crowds and being part of an event🤷‍♂️. I do it because i cant ride the routes any day on my own, and i enjoy the vibe of the event.

 

Edited October 6, 2022 by MORNE