Poor road manners

[Token]

Popeye,  i never said it was ok to break the rules of the road,  what im trying to get across is that it is very hard to have a proper competive race with the road we are givin

[pedal on the downhills]

you have totally missed the point. Deon and his ilk don;t want cyclists on the road as we're in the way of their smooth progress to do important things like drive to the cafe, so giving him "ammunition" is stupid.

Be productive and send it o PPA/CSA/race organisers/traffic, anyone who can have a constructive effect. Racing dumb is dumb, but inevitable, and if there is a crosswind and some kind of apparent rolling road closure by virtue of a lead car, then racers are going to exploit the terrain to drop others. Thats called racing.

 

That said, having been in that situation before many times, and seen the near-collisions, and the il-will it creates, it's up to whoever is directing the race to take charge, ruthlessly.

[ZippIt]

However, the race was marred by serious traffic transgressions by the Elite racing group.

 

 

?As a consequence, the Tour D? Winelands has, with immediate effect, withdrawn the results of the Elite men?s racing group from this past weekend?s event,? he said. ?This has been at the request of PPA and the Cycle Tour Trust, following serious infringements of the traffic regulations. The results will be withdrawn until such time as the investigations into the transgressions have been completed.?

 

 

?The Pedal Power Association and Cape Town Cycle Tour Trust cannot condone the flagrant disregard of the traffic regulations and safety that the elite cyclists displayed at Sunday?s Tour D? Winelands. Despite being warned that they were disobeying the traffic regulations by cycling on a number of occasions in the yellow line of the right hand lane and endangering themselves and other road users, they continued this practice on a few occasions up until the finish line.? 

 

 

Photographs of this type of riding is evidenced on several email and web forums, including https://www.bikehub.co.za/forum_posts.asp?TID=8617.

 

 

?As a consequence, all the results of the elite men?s group will be suspended until the matter has been investigated and the transgressors identified. To this end, we would appreciate anyone being able to identify the cyclists in the photographs and informing us by e-mail at info@pedalpower.org.za,? concluded Bellairs.

[linnega]

Wow - sometimes you have to have respect for DaveB.  It takes balls to take a stance like that, but it is positive in my opinion.

[Token]

just 1 question,  how many of you have never ever riddin through a red robot in your cycling history?

[linnega]

Token, you really need to stop doing that.  It is an irrelevant question.  Because people have broken traffic rules in the past or will in the future has no bearing on the fact that rules were broken during the race.  You cannot justify breaking the law by pointing out others are breaking the law especially when the only other justification you have is that it was racing and "racing is racing".  It seems riders were warned to obey the rules - they broke them therefore they are being punished.

 

It is much like the idiots that speed in their cars, get caught and then whine that the police should be out catching rapists and murderers.  One has nothing to do with the other.  Suck it up - you did wrong, pay the price.

[Token]

rules are rules,  big or small,  oh and i never justify them breaking the rules on sunday

[Guest colonel]

I wonder if DaveB made that statement in his PINK shirt or if he wore his off pink one which means he is angry??

[Sarel Slowpoke]

I don't deny that what happened was dangerous, believe me. I saw my life flashing before me a few times with cars heading straight for us but thankfully stopping  just in time. Talking about it now and how it actually felt when you're fighting to survive in the group is simply 2 worlds apart. You can't expect the group to act purely rationally (safety first etc...) in racing conditions. You're dealing with "a big organism" and not individual riders. I believe that is was unavoidable under the conditions. Ofcourse the reason for the guttering on the wrong side was the wind and I believe it is the responsibility of race administration to have active enforcement, ie bikes riding next to the group, to curb the problem. So, I believe race admin must be held responsible and if the elite group is disqualified, I believe we should boycot the race. And yes, the roadworks also made things interesting, but at least the life threatening danger was on the "right" side of the road, so no worries about that I suppose...

[Brakkies Sport Fotos]

Sarel, now even blame the road works.

 

 

 

Get it in the skull, IF A CYCLIST ENTER A RACE, HE ENTER ON OWN DECISION. HE AGREES TO THE RACE RULES.

 

 

 

Don't tell me a cyclist become DUMM when he put his foot in a pedal.

 

 

 

Dont blame the weather, don't blame a referee, don't blame the municipality.

 

 

 

YOU KNEW THE WIND WAS BLOWING BEFORE THE RACE START....

 

 

 

SO NEXT TIME, DON'T GO TO A RACE AGAIN WHEN THE WIND BLOWS...BECAUSE YOU NOW KNOW YOU CANNOT TIDE WITHIN THE RACE RULES.

 

 

 

THE RACE WILL BE BETTER WITHOUT YOU AND YOUR RACING ELITES THAT DON'T GIVE sh*t ABOUT RACE RULES AND THE DANGER YOU CREATE FOR THE MOTORIST AS WELL.

 

 

 

 

[Sarel Slowpoke]

Sarel' date=' now even blame the road works.

Get it in the skull, IF A CYCLIST ENTER A RACE, HE ENTER ON OWN DECISION. HE AGREES TO THE RACE RULES.

Don't tell me a cyclist become DUMM when he put his foot in a pedal.

Dont blame the weather, don't blame a referee, don't blame the municipality.

YOU KNEW THE WIND WAS BLOWING BEFORE THE RACE START....

SO NEXT TIME, DON'T GO TO A RACE AGAIN WHEN THE WIND BLOWS...BECAUSE YOU NOW KNOW YOU CANNOT TIDE WITHIN THE RACE RULES.

THE RACE WILL BE BETTER WITHOUT YOU AND YOUR RACING ELITES THAT DON'T GIVE sh*t ABOUT RACE RULES AND THE DANGER YOU CREATE FOR THE MOTORIST AS WELL.

[/quote']

 

I respect your oppinion. Only, I think you would have a little more understanding had you been riding in the group. If you were indeed in the Eite group, I apologise.

[Token]

 

I don't deny that what happened was dangerous' date=' believe me. I saw my life flashing before me a few times with cars heading straight for us but thankfully stopping  just in time. Talking about it now and how it actually felt when you're fighting to survive in the group is simply 2 worlds apart. You can't expect the group to act purely rationally (safety first etc...) in racing conditions. You're dealing with "a big organism" and not individual riders. I believe that is was unavoidable under the conditions. Ofcourse the reason for the guttering on the wrong side was the wind and I believe it is the responsibility of race administration to have active enforcement, ie bikes riding next to the group, to curb the problem. So, I believe race admin must be held responsible and if the elite group is disqualified, I believe we should boycot the race. And yes, the roadworks also made things interesting, but at least the life threatening danger was on the "right" side of the road, so no worries about that I suppose...[/quote']

 

   my point

 

[niterider]

 

Sarel' date=' now even blame the road works.

 

 

 

Get it in the skull, IF A CYCLIST ENTER A RACE, HE ENTER ON OWN DECISION. HE AGREES TO THE RACE RULES.

 

 

 

Don't tell me a cyclist become DUMM when he put his foot in a pedal.

 

 

 

Dont blame the weather, don't blame a referee, don't blame the municipality.

 

 

 

YOU KNEW THE WIND WAS BLOWING BEFORE THE RACE START....

 

 

 

SO NEXT TIME, DON'T GO TO A RACE AGAIN WHEN THE WIND BLOWS...BECAUSE YOU NOW KNOW YOU CANNOT TIDE WITHIN THE RACE RULES.

 

 

 

THE RACE WILL BE BETTER WITHOUT YOU AND YOUR RACING ELITES THAT DON'T GIVE sh*t ABOUT RACE RULES AND THE DANGER YOU CREATE FOR THE MOTORIST AS WELL.

 

 

 

[/quote']

 

Easy, tiger!!

 

Most everything that needs to be said has already been posted in this  thread.

 

For me its very simple - I won't ride races where I doubt the ability of the organisers to control the race. The Sanlam Burger was one of those, and many cyclists, myself included, chose simply not to do the race because of the inevitable poor organisation and dangerous situations on the road.

 

I didn't ride tdw this year because I didn't see the value in paying R150 to race what is essentially a regular funride. Give us full road closure like a *proper* seeding race should have, and I'll be there next year. And we won't be wasting our time discussing this stuff on forums.

 

[butafly]

we here it every week in the leagues, go over to the wrong side of the raod and u will be dq'ed.....its about time that the officials caried out their threats. if we just move away from the T d W and focus on the "normal" league rides , the comm has a start list (is that correct??? officials) why can't the comm hand in a race report and list the number of the riders who broke the white line rule (i know it can be done , because they write down the no of the rider who is dropped) the rider(s) who constantly break the rule(s) gets suspended from all events. this means that all riders should have a license and belong to a club so that discipline can follow the correct channels.

[The Crappy German]

stupid stupid

cyclist gets pushed off the road by a car and hell brakes loose of the traffic behaviour of the motorists.

cyclists in race riding on the wrong side of the road when the road makes a turn it's allright?

ridiculous!

were there officials? every single rider of those should have been disqualified. if complaining about this and doing the stupid talk of boycotting the race the guys should get kicked in the nuts!

just think what could have happened!

where is the relation?

imagine a bicycle race where one car goes on the wrong side of the road shortly. agh, don't wanna think about the reaction of the cyclists.  (not that i'm saying it wouldn't be dangerous..)

 

[Antman]

It's a pity those of us who started in the Elites bunch and stuck to the rules of the road all have to be painted with the same brush.

Although as a Vet I'll say I learned my lesson the hard way - next time if the organisers can't foresee a problem putting Elites, Subvets and Vets all TOGETHER in one group, I'll simply start a bunch or two behind.

 

Yes, the riders that crossed the centre line should be DQ'd, (and even more so the individuals who continued riding on the wrong side OUTSIDE of any bunches when the correct side of the road was absolutely clear), but starting 3 seriously competitive categories in one bunch was looking for trouble and centre line transgressions were virtualy guaranteed.

Organisers capiche?

 

Some foresight next time please - after all isn't this why we pay entry fees?