[Event] 99er Cycle Tour

[DieselnDust]

49 minutes ago, Paul Ruinaard said:

Hmm,I  am from up country, so my first 99er event. I dont do much road racing any more but used to do a lot in Gangstas Paradise. I asked how many riders at red registration and when he said 4700 and they expect 5000 i was a bit taken aback, especially as i asked about road closure and he said no. 

That’s a lot of cyclists down a busy road on a Saturday morning.

Can i ask why this event is run on a Saturday ? With 5000  riders entered you proceeded to irritate an enormous number of motorists with the big bunches all across the road. Some seriously scary overtaking from cars and trucks trying to get past scared the cr@p out of me once more. Large trucks and queues of cars in to oncoming traffic on blind rises. That is a recipe for disaster. 

I have seen what happend when one of those cars hads a head on next to you in a cycling bunch and its not pretty.

Maybe its me but why not run it on a Sunday as there wil be less traffic and secondly take it as far out in to the main roads with large shoulders as soon as possible.

We have enough cyclists dying from motorists hitting us from behind already - surely someone should think this through a little bit > 

Nice race - also flat and fast so you will have large bunches forming and with that amount of people they will join up and then you have them all over the road.

What am I missing or does the cycling community not think this is an issue?

Sunday is the Christian Sabbath which means many churches in durbanville are full. The race organisers also observe the Sabbath as they practice their Christian faith. 
so it’s easier to get permissions for a Saturdays event when the tour de PPA takes place on a Sunday. Two events on a Sunday in durbanville would create a problem for organisers as the community would be less receptive.

back in the day , the northern suburbs events were always on a Saturday for this reason.

 

i don’t get your “pissing off motorists “ reasoning. This happens everyday of the week not just or especially on Saturdays

[RossTopher]

36 minutes ago, ChrisF said:

 

Thank you for the introduction.  Always nice to put a face to the Hub names.

 

 

I have always started way at the back, litterally hung back to make sure I do not mix it up in the racing for the rest .... as our group moved down the road I noticed a LOT of ebikes to the front of our group, so I just kept my spot behind you.

 

As we past the barriers you saw a gap to the right and made a nice clean move ... and I followed.  After that first turn we somehow ended on the far left, you spotted an open lane and went for it ... again I followed.  Robot to robot the lane was congested, and we all just stayed in place.  I lost track of you in this section.  Once on Wellington road I could not believe it .... first time ever I made it out of Durbanville with my start group, all the way to the Phisantekraal turn. 

 

 

I got stuck behind a couple of riders and saw a group make a break for it over the railway bridge and then just extending the gap.  By the airfield I was well past the back group ... never caught up to the front group again.  Strange how small the gaps look on a photo, but just no way to bridge it ....

 

 

It was a nice hard ride.  After a 3:01 in 2025 .... I just kept my head down and kept GOING as much as my sinuss ridden body would give (keeping an eye on my heart rate, just to be safe .... leaving home on Saturday morning it was not clear if I would be able to complete the ride).  Super happy with my sub-3 ....

Ha, yes in the early stages I like to take the outside line on corners, so much sugar flowing through veins, you dont know how people are going to cut corners. I'll also always rather eat the wind than not see whats going on up front.

Everyone always pulls the handbrake up the airport hill, so I moved up at fisantekraal and attacked at the base. One ebike and my friend followed. We bridged a few groups and then took shelter towards the silos before a freight train of youngsters came up from P and we latched on. Those kids must have weighed as much as my leg, but they tore it up all the way to the finish, very impressive.

 

Congrats on the sub-3, great photos, and glad the sinuses behaved, and didnt affect your ride

Edited February 8 by RossTopher

[Dawn Louise Herbert]

The variety of the trilogy event made it one of the most fun events I have done in a while. After much deliberation as to what bike to ride I settled on my gravel bike.  All the stiles were perfectly rideable on the gravel bike and the bit of what I imagine cyclocross would be like through the wet sections was fun.  Will definitely enter next year.

 

[Alliesmeister]

1 hour ago, DieselnDust said:

Sunday is the Christian Sabbath which means many churches in durbanville are full. The race organisers also observe the Sabbath as they practice their Christian faith. 
so it’s easier to get permissions for a Saturdays event when the tour de PPA takes place on a Sunday. Two events on a Sunday in durbanville would create a problem for organisers as the community would be less receptive.

back in the day , the northern suburbs events were always on a Saturday for this reason.

 

i don’t get your “pissing off motorists “ reasoning. This happens everyday of the week not just or especially on Saturdays

I couldn't have put it better myself i.t.o. why it's on a Saturday and not a Sunday (without having any inside knowledge whatsoever other than being born & bred in Durbanville 😊). 

See also the Durbie Dash held annually in October, that also continues to be held on Saturdays. I also prefer Saturday races because it leaves the rest of the weekend for recovery/relaxing but that's just personal preference. 

Where I do agree with @Paul Ruinaard, is w.r.t. the dangers of cars and riders mixing in the one lane meant to be open to traffic. At every road race where I see this happening (not unique to the 99er) I wonder how one could address this.

I think this is primarily a rider behaviour problem and not race organisation (perhaps it's the race equivalent of running any and all red lights regardless of safety/respecting other road users? But that might be a controversial opinion... 😄) 

That being said, could more emphasis be placed on repeatedly communicating to riders (eg. ahead of the race and on race day) that they are never to use the oncoming lane? Or perhaps even going to the extreme of threatening DQs where this isn't adhered to? (very difficult to marshal/enforce but if the threat itself discourages some from doing it that would already be an improvement).

You would think this is common sense from a self-preservation perspective yet some people are clearly willing to take much larger risks with safety... 

Yesterday I saw an example of multiple riders in the left-hand lane shaking their heads and saying/asking "do you want to be hit by a car?" when a large group caught up to us and rode into the oncoming lane for an extended period with cars passing them in the yellow lane, before they merged onto our side of the road and caused 3 bikes to go down. 

Edited February 8 by Alliesmeister
Spelling

[WattsTheFuss]

50 minutes ago, RossTopher said:

Ha, yes in the early stages I like to take the outside line on corners, so much sugar flowing through veins, you dont know how people are going to cut corners. I'll also always rather eat the wind than not see whats going on up front.

Everyone always pulls the handbrake up the airport hill, so I moved up at fisantekraal and attacked at the base. One ebike and my friend followed. We bridged a few groups and then took shelter towards the silos before a freight train of youngsters came up from P and we latched on. Those kids must have weighed as much as my leg, but they tore it up all the way to the finish, very impressive.

 

Congrats on the sub-3, great photos, and glad the sinuses behaved, and didnt affect your ride

Yeah, Group P caught the N group less than 10km from the start, jump on the express train of P, was a few guys with the same kit couldn't see the name, as I was too far back, pulling group P and we just picked up and passed so much groups, until I was dropped, they pushed some crazy power over the rollers. All in all was a good day.

[NicholasH]

33 minutes ago, Dawn Louise Herbert said:

The variety of the trilogy event made it one of the most fun events I have done in a while. After much deliberation as to what bike to ride I settled on my gravel bike.  All the stiles were perfectly rideable on the gravel bike and the bit of what I imagine cyclocross would be like through the wet sections was fun.  Will definitely enter next year.

 

That was always my intention when I created the Trilogy. Ultimately a gravel bike won and when I was trailing you guys in my car, gravel bikes were by a large majority the front runners. I think unless you are a seasoned gravel rider, a MTB would be better choice for the average rider. But, that's my view...

Hope to see you back next year then😃

[NicholasH]

15 hours ago, Paul Ruinaard said:

Hmm,I  am from up country, so my first 99er event. I dont do much road racing any more but used to do a lot in Gangstas Paradise. I asked how many riders at red registration and when he said 4700 and they expect 5000 i was a bit taken aback, especially as i asked about road closure and he said no. 

That’s a lot of cyclists down a busy road on a Saturday morning.

Can i ask why this event is run on a Saturday ? With 5000  riders entered you proceeded to irritate an enormous number of motorists with the big bunches all across the road. Some seriously scary overtaking from cars and trucks trying to get past scared the cr@p out of me once more. Large trucks and queues of cars in to oncoming traffic on blind rises. That is a recipe for disaster. 

I have seen what happend when one of those cars hads a head on next to you in a cycling bunch and its not pretty.

Maybe its me but why not run it on a Sunday as there wil be less traffic and secondly take it as far out in to the main roads with large shoulders as soon as possible.

We have enough cyclists dying from motorists hitting us from behind already - surely someone should think this through a little bit > 

Nice race - also flat and fast so you will have large bunches forming and with that amount of people they will join up and then you have them all over the road.

What am I missing or does the cycling community not think this is an issue?

Re Saturday vs Sunday. Yes, we are a Christian School and thus 99% attend church on a Sunday. I, too am a professing Christian. However, this doesn't mean I can't or won't ride on a Sunday.  The issue here, and this is what so many people who don't know the 99er "insider information" miss, is that EVERY person you saw out there that was not from the traffic department is a parent of child at the school. VOLUNTEERS who give up their Saturday to do this. Us on the committee put in literally 1000s of hours collectively to stage this event all the while still having day jobs and a family life. Been this way for 30 years.

So, yes, we observe Sunday and don't expect parents to give up their desire/right to go to church so a cycle race can happen. The traffic situation was getting out of hand as you rightly pointed out, hence the move to the rugby club. 

Thanks for supporting our event, we hope to see you next time 😃

Edited February 9 by NicholasH

[Newest]

3 hours ago, RossTopher said:

Ha, yes in the early stages I like to take the outside line on corners, so much sugar flowing through veins, you dont know how people are going to cut corners. I'll also always rather eat the wind than not see whats going on up front.

Everyone always pulls the handbrake up the airport hill, so I moved up at fisantekraal and attacked at the base. One ebike and my friend followed. We bridged a few groups and then took shelter towards the silos before a freight train of youngsters came up from P and we latched on. Those kids must have weighed as much as my leg, but they tore it up all the way to the finish, very impressive.

 

Congrats on the sub-3, great photos, and glad the sinuses behaved, and didnt affect your ride

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1BoA2jgfmm/     The guys that pulled in group P

[Newest]

2 minutes ago, Newest said:

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1BoA2jgfmm/     The guys that pulled in group P

Crankbros

[RossTopher]

.

Edited February 8 by RossTopher

[Paul Ruinaard]

Hey all, thanks for the explanation wrt the Sunday. I do respect the right of religious freedom. We all have the freedom of belief and this aint the USA. No offense intended. 

I think the race was well run from what i saw and i only have ever done it once but it seemed  very popular and I am observing that as a result of its popularity you may need to think about how you take it forward, which I say as a result of past experience.

I really dont do many road races without road closures any more because of what i saw and what happened up country. There was a time when there were races every weekend and especially in the lead up to CTCT they got very big. I also used to do as many as possible so have ridden every one on Saturdays and Sundays in Gauteng North (who also raced on Saturdays for religious reasons) and Sundays, with entries from 500 people in the late 90's to 8000 at its peak. This was in Gauteng. Some of them are still running but with markedly reduced numbers, mostly because no one wanted to attend any more.

Ride for Sight, Hyper to Hyper aka the fast one. Edenvale cycle challenge, Race for Victory and many through the cradle. Sun city was very popular and is the one that I saw the worst bunches across both lanes with oncoming traffic. Not cars but large trucks out near the mines and going head on into bunches because the race was too popular and the roads could no longer accommodate the amount of cyclists and as a result they were massed across both sides. The less serious incident involved multiple crashes in the racing bunches from the squeeze when the people all tried to get behind the white line.  Some of those were pretty bad.

The more serious were fatal and made me think twice about whether it was worth it 

In Jhb the trucks and taxis have (or had but i dont think its changed) a far less accommodating attitude towards cyclists especially out the backroads in Vereeniging and remote roads.

Just a suggestion - ultimately you want your ride to be safe. if people do stupid things in a fun ride its really up to them but I have seen dead people lying in the road owing to trucks passing cycling bunches (race in the cradle a couple of years ago) too close and riders getting pulled under the wheels. I can't recall the specifics but it was a non road closure race and happened on the entry to the cradle on the Krugersdorp side when the road narrowed.

If anything happens it's really the organisers that will come in for flak and truth be told hindsight is always 50/50.

My 2 cents worth - riding your ride I got a strong sense of deja vu from the old days at the peak of road racing (insanity) in Gauteng when the bunches were huge and all manner of events took place. Personally my safety and having worked out i am done with PB's dictates i am very selective about rides and who i ride with but so be it. I have been there, (and maybe took part in some of the craziness when the red mist descended) and would say i am a very luck survivor of many very close shaves in bunches when they were massive and really out of control.

Use it, dont use it - hopefully you never have any issues and never have to recall the above. 

 

 

[NicholasH]

16 minutes ago, Paul Ruinaard said:

Hey all, thanks for the explanation wrt the Sunday. I do respect the right of religious freedom. We all have the freedom of belief and this aint the USA. No offense intended. 

I think the race was well run from what i saw and i only have ever done it once but it seemed  very popular and I am observing that as a result of its popularity you may need to think about how you take it forward, which I say as a result of past experience.

I really dont do many road races without road closures any more because of what i saw and what happened up country. There was a time when there were races every weekend and especially in the lead up to CTCT they got very big. I also used to do as many as possible so have ridden every one on Saturdays and Sundays in Gauteng North (who also raced on Saturdays for religious reasons) and Sundays, with entries from 500 people in the late 90's to 8000 at its peak. This was in Gauteng. Some of them are still running but with markedly reduced numbers, mostly because no one wanted to attend any more.

Ride for Sight, Hyper to Hyper aka the fast one. Edenvale cycle challenge, Race for Victory and many through the cradle. Sun city was very popular and is the one that I saw the worst bunches across both lanes with oncoming traffic. Not cars but large trucks out near the mines and going head on into bunches because the race was too popular and the roads could no longer accommodate the amount of cyclists and as a result they were massed across both sides. The less serious incident involved multiple crashes in the racing bunches from the squeeze when the people all tried to get behind the white line.  Some of those were pretty bad.

The more serious were fatal and made me think twice about whether it was worth it 

In Jhb the trucks and taxis have (or had but i dont think its changed) a far less accommodating attitude towards cyclists especially out the backroads in Vereeniging and remote roads.

Just a suggestion - ultimately you want your ride to be safe. if people do stupid things in a fun ride its really up to them but I have seen dead people lying in the road owing to trucks passing cycling bunches (race in the cradle a couple of years ago) too close and riders getting pulled under the wheels. I can't recall the specifics but it was a non road closure race and happened on the entry to the cradle on the Krugersdorp side when the road narrowed.

If anything happens it's really the organisers that will come in for flak and truth be told hindsight is always 50/50.

My 2 cents worth - riding your ride I got a strong sense of deja vu from the old days at the peak of road racing (insanity) in Gauteng when the bunches were huge and all manner of events took place. Personally my safety and having worked out i am done with PB's dictates i am very selective about rides and who i ride with but so be it. I have been there, (and maybe took part in some of the craziness when the red mist descended) and would say i am a very luck survivor of many very close shaves in bunches when they were massive and really out of control.

Use it, dont use it - hopefully you never have any issues and never have to recall the above. 

 

 

So the issue here is not about religious freedom at all. It is about volunteers willing to give their FREE time and they are not willing to do it on a Sunday (I would neither) and thus without volunteers there is no event. We have Thinkbike marshals to control bunches and traffic to a point BUT you always get those cyclist who WILL disobey them. Also, we (as far as I am aware) are the ONLY race in the WC (outside of Cycle Tour) that gets full road closure for the last 15km! (Albeit from 7am till 10am). That took a lot of hard work from our committee to get to that point. Safety  is paramount to us and the road closure of the last 2 years is our latest attempt to improve on it further. Also , we will never grow the event past 5000 cyclists as that takes our event permit to a level beyond what we are willing to handle. (we have to fill in 18 applications to get this event approved!). So, yes, thanks for your input, we value feedback from all participants. Unfortunately, there are some things which are just out of our control....

hope to see you back next year! 

[Skubarra]

23 minutes ago, Paul Ruinaard said:

Hey all, thanks for the explanation wrt the Sunday. I do respect the right of religious freedom. We all have the freedom of belief and this aint the USA. No offense intended. 

I think the race was well run from what i saw and i only have ever done it once but it seemed  very popular and I am observing that as a result of its popularity you may need to think about how you take it forward, which I say as a result of past experience.

I really dont do many road races without road closures any more because of what i saw and what happened up country. There was a time when there were races every weekend and especially in the lead up to CTCT they got very big. I also used to do as many as possible so have ridden every one on Saturdays and Sundays in Gauteng North (who also raced on Saturdays for religious reasons) and Sundays, with entries from 500 people in the late 90's to 8000 at its peak. This was in Gauteng. Some of them are still running but with markedly reduced numbers, mostly because no one wanted to attend any more.

Ride for Sight, Hyper to Hyper aka the fast one. Edenvale cycle challenge, Race for Victory and many through the cradle. Sun city was very popular and is the one that I saw the worst bunches across both lanes with oncoming traffic. Not cars but large trucks out near the mines and going head on into bunches because the race was too popular and the roads could no longer accommodate the amount of cyclists and as a result they were massed across both sides. The less serious incident involved multiple crashes in the racing bunches from the squeeze when the people all tried to get behind the white line.  Some of those were pretty bad.

The more serious were fatal and made me think twice about whether it was worth it 

In Jhb the trucks and taxis have (or had but i dont think its changed) a far less accommodating attitude towards cyclists especially out the backroads in Vereeniging and remote roads.

Just a suggestion - ultimately you want your ride to be safe. if people do stupid things in a fun ride its really up to them but I have seen dead people lying in the road owing to trucks passing cycling bunches (race in the cradle a couple of years ago) too close and riders getting pulled under the wheels. I can't recall the specifics but it was a non road closure race and happened on the entry to the cradle on the Krugersdorp side when the road narrowed.

If anything happens it's really the organisers that will come in for flak and truth be told hindsight is always 50/50.

My 2 cents worth - riding your ride I got a strong sense of deja vu from the old days at the peak of road racing (insanity) in Gauteng when the bunches were huge and all manner of events took place. Personally my safety and having worked out i am done with PB's dictates i am very selective about rides and who i ride with but so be it. I have been there, (and maybe took part in some of the craziness when the red mist descended) and would say i am a very luck survivor of many very close shaves in bunches when they were massive and really out of control.

Use it, dont use it - hopefully you never have any issues and never have to recall the above. 

 

 

I hear you, roads around Durbanville have become way more busier over the past few years. Not sure moving it to a Sunday will make a significant difference though. (R302 between Stellenbosch and Malmesbury always busy with long distance traffic)

We do need to give the organisers credit though for the road closures on Adderley, really not something trivial to organise and makes the race significantly safer.

 

[Pure Savage]

5 minutes ago, Skubarra said:

I hear you, roads around Durbanville have become way more busier over the past few years. Not sure moving it to a Sunday will make a significant difference though. (R302 between Stellenbosch and Malmesbury always busy with long distance traffic)

We do need to give the organisers credit though for the road closures on Adderley, really not something trivial to organise and makes the race significantly safer.

 

Can you imagine if they took the road route through 1.8km of gravel before Vissershoek... 

I think which ever day that traffic in the farmlands is going to be bad. I think orgnaizers did a lekker job!

[NicholasH]

9 minutes ago, Skubarra said:

I hear you, roads around Durbanville have become way more busier over the past few years. Not sure moving it to a Sunday will make a significant difference though. (R302 between Stellenbosch and Malmesbury always busy with long distance traffic)

We do need to give the organisers credit though for the road closures on Adderley, really not something trivial to organise and makes the race significantly safer.

 

The challenge is going to be even bigger in the next 2 years. Once that Winelands International Airport is completed, I can only imagine what traffic will look like on a Saturday (or ANY day for that matter) out on that stretch to the 4 way stop. Imagine trying to marshal that.... 😮‍💨

Anyway, luckily for me, my tenure at the 99er will have come to an end by then and it is then someone else's problem 🤣

 

[Pure Savage]

11 hours ago, Newest said:

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1BoA2jgfmm/     The guys that pulled in group P

Why is it the last road event for the year for them? Tour de PPA, WP road league, CTCTT?