Irvin85 Posted March 17 Posted March 17 If one would say add a $1million to the price money for both the mens and ladies? do you think it would make a difference and draw more ladies? I would love it if we had a really competitive ladies field and draw more of the big XCO an XCM ladies to the Epic.
DieselnDust Posted March 17 Posted March 17 2 minutes ago, Irvin85 said: If one would say add a $1million to the price money for both the mens and ladies? do you think it would make a difference and draw more ladies? I would love it if we had a really competitive ladies field and draw more of the big XCO an XCM ladies to the Epic. I don't think the 1 st place prize money is going to move the needle. Maybe a better prize money allocation down to lower positions to help recover costs of travel etc. Maybe that will help. Elite teams get a discounted entry anyways so maybe that needs to be waived and appearance money paid? Zebra 1
Stretched@Birth Posted March 17 Posted March 17 On 3/14/2026 at 5:13 PM, Mamil said: I wanna ride it.... See your logo spread broad across the mamil moobs... There must be a brand with a strong sense of irony out there..... Sorry, a bit late on the response here, but I think I found your sponsor...: https://buub.co.za/ peetwindhoek, Mamil and DieselnDust 3
Irvin85 Posted March 17 Posted March 17 Give free entries to teams that have a certain number of UCI points and pay the top 10 UCI XCO and XCM riders appearance fees. DieselnDust 1
Mamil Posted March 17 Posted March 17 17 minutes ago, Stretched@Birth said: Sorry, a bit late on the response here, but I think I found your sponsor...: https://buub.co.za/ I can see it now -- MUUB!!!
Shebeen Posted March 17 Posted March 17 54 minutes ago, DieselnDust said: No they don't want the same distance. They realise that ladies road cycling is not where the mens sport is. Most of the women are holding down two jobs including cycling whereas the men are full time employees. The minimum wage for men is EURO50,000 per year in Pro Tour @John Wakefield correct me if this figure is incorrect. So they have a practical problem in the ladies either needing to take leave from day jobs or work part-time. Not ideal to grow a sport but this is where the mens sport was in the 1950's. So there won't be event parity. Marion Rousse has done a good job in getting the womens TDF to the level its at but the ladies sport as a whole needs to be uplifted before the event will get to the 14 days some of the ladies have thrown on the table. So what the ladies want has to be balanced by what can be afforded. It could piggy back off the mens event and the ladies can ride the same route but start closer to the finish for what is effectivley shorter stages similar to what Cape Epic has done but there are different sponsors involved. Again it's the economics that drives the planning. ladies pro road cycling is clearly not the same level, but it is also growing at a rate never seen before from a low base. many of the Wt teams have jumped on this bandwagon in fear of missing out. 54 minutes ago, DieselnDust said: The ladies XCO is roughly half the size of the mens and the % of actual teams is much smaller. Also there isn't equal pay is one gauged e.g. the 10th ranked rider and the 25th ranked. In both cases the male woul dbe earning more. Not sure of the quantum, but it's substantially more. That right there is a big reason why the Cape Epic does not attract many ladies XCO teams. RSS is a very expensive place to get to , especially when you have to factor in travel to South Korea in May. The best way to get more ladies XCO teams is to offer UCI XCO points to finishers. currently the points go to the XCM series and its not enough to incentivize teams to make the journey this is from tread in 2014. ACE have tried plenty of things to make the women's elite race more competitive, and the top XCO is the market they seemingly just can't entice. the other noteworthy item is that spez factory team has totally dominated the ladies result for a decade. they didn't send a team this year - that could open things up in future. nonky and DieselnDust 1 1
DieselnDust Posted March 17 Posted March 17 17 minutes ago, Shebeen said: ladies pro road cycling is clearly not the same level, but it is also growing at a rate never seen before from a low base. many of the Wt teams have jumped on this bandwagon in fear of missing out. this is from tread in 2014. ACE have tried plenty of things to make the women's elite race more competitive, and the top XCO is the market they seemingly just can't entice. the other noteworthy item is that spez factory team has totally dominated the ladies result for a decade. they didn't send a team this year - that could open things up in future. Yeah they’ve tried a lot of different things but the needle doesn’t move. Any year a team other than Socialised won it , it was another factory team (well funded) but with few repeats. key difference is that Specialized have a permanent base here with accommodation, performance centre etc etc. ghost was the other factory team that dominated. we haven’t had a South African winner since Hanlie Booysens and Michelle Lombardi and that was a loooooong time ago. I still think it’s the disparity in resources amongst the ladies teams that drives the lack of interest in the ACE. when you have to spread it thin then the fat away high cost events get a thumbs down
Headshot Posted March 17 Posted March 17 6 hours ago, DieselnDust said: And white bibs…WTF man!!! The 32" team have especially tight white shorts - WTF love2fly, W Smith, Javas X and 1 other 1 3
Headshot Posted March 17 Posted March 17 3 hours ago, Ispeed_V said: WTF. DSTV cross over to adds in the last KM so we don't get to see the finish. What is DSTV? FootballingCyclist, babse, Javas X and 4 others 7
Headshot Posted March 17 Posted March 17 1 hour ago, DieselnDust said: No they don't want the same distance. They realise that ladies road cycling is not where the mens sport is. Most of the women are holding down two jobs including cycling whereas the men are full time employees. The minimum wage for men is EURO50,000 per year in Pro Tour @John Wakefield correct me if this figure is incorrect. So they have a practical problem in the ladies either needing to take leave from day jobs or work part-time. Not ideal to grow a sport but this is where the mens sport was in the 1950's. So there won't be event parity. Marion Rousse has done a good job in getting the womens TDF to the level its at but the ladies sport as a whole needs to be uplifted before the event will get to the 14 days some of the ladies have thrown on the table. So what the ladies want has to be balanced by what can be afforded. It could piggy back off the mens event and the ladies can ride the same route but start closer to the finish for what is effectivley shorter stages similar to what Cape Epic has done but there are different sponsors involved. Again it's the economics that drives the planning. The ladies XCO is roughly half the size of the mens and the % of actual teams is much smaller. Also there isn't equal pay is one gauged e.g. the 10th ranked rider and the 25th ranked. In both cases the male woul dbe earning more. Not sure of the quantum, but it's substantially more. That right there is a big reason why the Cape Epic does not attract many ladies XCO teams. RSS is a very expensive place to get to , especially when you have to factor in travel to South Korea in May. The best way to get more ladies XCO teams is to offer UCI XCO points to finishers. currently the points go to the XCM series and its not enough to incentivize teams to make the journey Also, marathon events may be mainstream here but are not that in Europe and the USA. The other Epic style events around the world are also far smaller. Its an extreme niche sport unlike road riding and as you say even there the women's tour is still a work in progress. DieselnDust 1
Milkman Posted March 17 Posted March 17 Yo , today was rough on the tyres . It would be interesting to see what percentage of teams had punctures for today's stage . I think all the plugs and bombs in the area have been sold . DieselnDust and Javas X 2
ycowley Posted March 17 Posted March 17 56 minutes ago, Milkman said: Yo , today was rough on the tyres . It would be interesting to see what percentage of teams had punctures for today's stage . I think all the plugs and bombs in the area have been sold . Vera Looser and her teammate used up a vast majority of those plugs and bombs today, plus their male support team. DieselnDust 1
love2fly Posted March 17 Posted March 17 2 hours ago, Headshot said: The 32" team have especially tight white shorts - WTF I'm headed over to footage to verify FootballingCyclist and Headshot 2
ChrisF Posted March 17 Posted March 17 (edited) 8 hours ago, Jensie said: Where can we track the riders? I don't have utube at work? Cape Epic App Worked perfectly on the first two days ... Today .... not so much .... I could follow the lead men perfectly .... lead females took more than an hour to show on the tracker. My friends in the Masters group .... their tracker had my nerves shot !! At one stage I thought they broke down and was stuck for hours at the far end, just to pop up again at the second last water point ..... EDIT - Even the Elite riders support teams had major issues today with the tracker working intermittently ..... Edited March 17 by ChrisF DieselnDust 1
Danger Dassie Posted March 17 Posted March 17 1 hour ago, love2fly said: I'm headed over to footage to verify Just the one rider, Marc Pritzen. SA Champ, so fair for national kit.
117 Posted March 18 Posted March 18 So just getting back to the distances for the men vs the ladies debate, Do I understand correctly that its only the Elite ladies that get to ride the shorter event (with the myriad of reasoning behind it) but the normal ladies, masters, mixed etc dont get that luxury? DieselnDust, nonky and BuffsVintageBikes 3
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