mecheng89 Posted March 13 Posted March 13 Good morning, Hubber historians. I spotted a race this morning called the Tour of South Africa, which took place once only in 2011. Some Englishman took the win, but a few big Saffas in the mix. Why did it die? Something funny about STAGE 2 - Sandton to Sandton was never completed due to too much traffic on the parcours. It seems like nothing has changed. https://cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/race.asp?raceid=19946 Stage 4 looked brutal.
FootballingCyclist Posted March 13 Posted March 13 35 minutes ago, mecheng89 said: Good morning, Hubber historians. I spotted a race this morning called the Tour of South Africa, which took place once only in 2011. Some Englishman took the win, but a few big Saffas in the mix. Why did it die? Something funny about STAGE 2 - Sandton to Sandton was never completed due to too much traffic on the parcours. It seems like nothing has changed. https://cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/race.asp?raceid=19946 Stage 4 looked brutal. @Action_Man and details?
J Wakefield Posted March 13 Posted March 13 Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know why this did not work
mecheng89 Posted March 13 Author Posted March 13 3 minutes ago, J Wakefield said: Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know why this did not work Please share, John. In 2011 I wasn't part of the cycling landscape so jokes aside I'm genuinely interested.
Skubarra Posted March 13 Posted March 13 33 minutes ago, mecheng89 said: Please share, John. In 2011 I wasn't part of the cycling landscape so jokes aside I'm genuinely interested. Also wasnt part of the cycling landscape then but I would imagine its super expensive and a logistical nightmare running a week long road tour over different provinces. At the very least you would need a dedicated big sponsor willing to throw a lot of money at this.
Danger Dassie Posted March 13 Posted March 13 1 hour ago, mecheng89 said: Good morning, Hubber historians. I spotted a race this morning called the Tour of South Africa, which took place once only in 2011. Some Englishman took the win, but a few big Saffas in the mix. Why did it die? Something funny about STAGE 2 - Sandton to Sandton was never completed due to too much traffic on the parcours. It seems like nothing has changed. https://cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/race.asp?raceid=19946 Stage 4 looked brutal. In short, rolling road closure doesn't work too well in Joburg and you need the right organiser/comms. I was there to help one of the teams with media images (Nedbank 360) and witnessed first-hand the behaviour of some of our Joburg residents for stage 2, in particular Sandton. It's a great concept and all, but really needs the right organising team. If I get a gap I'll see if I can dig up the photos I caught on the day. tinmug, Skubarra and mecheng89 2 1
Frosty Posted March 13 Posted March 13 Doesn't feel like 13 years have passed; feels like just the other day.
Shebeen Posted March 13 Posted March 13 2 hours ago, mecheng89 said: Good morning, Hubber historians. I spotted a race this morning called the Tour of South Africa, which took place once only in 2011. Some Englishman took the win, but a few big Saffas in the mix. Why did it die? Something funny about STAGE 2 - Sandton to Sandton was never completed due to too much traffic on the parcours. It seems like nothing has changed. https://cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/race.asp?raceid=19946 Stage 4 looked brutal. https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/tour-of-south-africa/2011 then there was this (put on by CSA i think), probably still paying it off. https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/mzansi-tour/2013/statistics/start https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/mzansi-tour/2014/statistics/start Pro road cycling scene was much bigger in SA in the 00s. barlowworld and mtnQ both got big funding to get all the way to the TdF. It was not sustainable and now we have peanuts left. Maybe it was unwise to spend so much money at the top end of the sport and very little further down. bit insane that Rwanda, Gabon, Benin, Libya, Cameroon, Mauritius, Algeria, Mali can all have a multiday stage race and darkest africa down south can;t muster anything up. https://www.procyclingstats.com/races.php?year=2024&circuit=11&class=&filter=Filter I'm sure if a rich dude (eg. Glasenberg/Q365) wanted to get a summer tour in the WCape as an alternative option to the pre season down under/colombian stuff it could work. You would just need to throw $$$$$ at it, and any local teams (if they existed) would get spanked,
David Marshall Posted March 13 Posted March 13 If I remember right Kristian House of the Rapha Condor team broke away on stage one and stayed away. The local teams looked at each other for too long and never came close. Backed up by a strong team (including Dan Craven) he just had to mark for the rest of the stages. The organisers idea was to showcase pro cycling to the cities of South Africa but unfortunately the citizens don't give a hoot about cycling, except on stage two where a lot of hooting and SUV pavement hopping took place, leading to the embarrassing conclusion. The tour put immense financial strain on CSA as no major sponsor was found so I doubt if it will be repeated anytime soon. I for one think that racing should be on country roads. Let the competitors have a great experience without the stress of dodgy road users.
Danger Dassie Posted March 13 Posted March 13 CellC were involved. You don't need to throw massive dollars at fluff nonsense, plough it into marketing/comms and operations and it can be a success. The event enjoyed success in several other metros. HSP (94.7 org) was originally involved at some point. But what killed it was the typical politics of bureaucracy, egos and money, this was clear during stage 2's post-media briefing. The organisers were blunt and defensive.
Jakkals. Posted March 13 Posted March 13 I followed it with keen interest and watched some of it in PE. It was either David George or Darren LillS tried to go solo to put time into the Englishman, but failed to gain enough time for the overall Danger Dassie and mecheng89 1 1
Action_Man Posted March 14 Posted March 14 On 3/13/2024 at 9:33 AM, FootballingCyclist said: @Action_Man and details? My memories of the race: Was a great idea and should have had long term potential if it were managed and implemented properly; that goes for the on the ground organisational logistics, proper road management, etc. as well as sponsorship management with Cell C... All the RSA pro teams messed up badly by not chasing House on stage 1. House had an exceptionally strong team mate who almost single handedly enabled him to hold onto his leaders jersey throughout the week (Jonathan Tiernan-Locke) who went to team Sky & tested positive shortly thereafter. Stage 2 was a complete disaster on too many levels to mention in a post. I had a very hard crash on stage 2 in the resulting chaos. I'd found myself without a contract when the World Tour team who I'd signed a 2 year contract with lost their title sponsor & laid off all riders & staff on 15 December which was too late to find a decent pro contract elsewhere in Europe as all the other teams were already full. I had just signed a contract with a local team, DCM. I won SA Champs for them early in the season and by the time we raced "Tour of South Africa" none of the riders on the team had been paid any portion of their salaries. Nor a month later when we won Tour of Boland. Nor the rest of the year for that matter.... Found some images of my jersey after the crash, the resulting road rash later on on my way to winning the queen stage that finished up Old Hellshoogte pass. Final thoughts - it's very sad that we don't have a proper early season stage race that attracts international teams and big name riders the way that the old Giro del Capo did. That event was well ahead of the likes of Tour Down Under that now occupy the early season racing slots. European teams would far prefer to come to RSA, it's substantially cheaper for them as well as not having to deal with long haul flights and time zone changes. DJuice, Skubarra, Prince Albert Cycles and 10 others 8 5
bleedToWin Posted March 14 Posted March 14 24 minutes ago, Action_Man said: Found some images of my jersey after the crash, the resulting road rash later on on my way to winning the queen stage that finished up Old Hellshoogte pass. I feel like I remember this. Did you guys do lap up the old pass and down the new one, or am I remembering a different tour around the same time period?
Shebeen Posted March 14 Posted March 14 5 minutes ago, bleedToWin said: I feel like I remember this. Did you guys do lap up the old pass and down the new one, or am I remembering a different tour around the same time period? that was Giro del Capo. as a student we all bunked morning lectures the day that rolled through town.
mecheng89 Posted March 14 Author Posted March 14 https://www.procyclingstats.com/rider/jonathan-tiernan-locke/2011
mecheng89 Posted March 14 Author Posted March 14 Mr House narrowly beat Mr Cervelo Test Team at the British Nationals in '09. https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/ncgreat-britain/2009/result
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