Crit the Tour de Boland

[Groot Lem]

WE will have a debriefing, need some negative and positive critisism of this event.

I know about: Marketing, stage 2 directional boards, marshalls not well trained, traffic entering paarl from Wellington.

But it was nice to see people race on the right hand side gutter without getting warned!

I also think I wont invite vets to next years event, they take the leagues to seriously, and its a lot of expenses to have an extra race.

Otherwise I really enjoyed organising , and we had a good vibe between riders, officials and organisers. its supposed to be FUN!

[Token]

I must say i enjoyed it.  

 

Maybe next year you could have a stage with a bit more climbing in it. 

 

[Joobs]

Well organized event, and I have to say the temporary road closure was excellent. At times we were all riding on the wrong side of the road in the gutter and the cops made the cars go right off the road.

 

Also the results came out quickly and we did not have to wait days to see who was lying where.

 

Other than that, well done Groot Lem, would definately recommend it to anyone next year!

[Windbreaker]

 

I also think I wont invite vets to next years event' date=' they take the leagues to seriously, and its a lot of expenses to have an extra race.

[/quote']

Sorry that I missed it - work commitments. I don't understand what you mean by the above. Was it poorly attended by the Vets because they didn't want to damage their chances in the Sun league race?

 

[ruscar]

As a vet it was nice to race with the elite's.  I would not mind if that stays the same for next year.  I think a 3-5km time trail will be more exciting for the prologue (than the hill climb) as the time gaps will be a little smaller and more riders will think themselves in with a chance for the rest of the race.  If you want to have a hill climb do it later in the race.  The kermesse is a good way to finish.  If there are enough vets for next year, I would have a separate kermesse for the vets.  The tour was excellent!  There was a relaxed atmosphere.  It proves, you is possible to organise a safe race without treating riders like children and enforcing every single little law regardless of logic.<?:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

[ZippIt]

I also think I wont invite vets to next years event' date=' they take the leagues to seriously, and its a lot of expenses to have an extra race.

[/quote']
Sorry that I missed it - work commitments. I don't understand what you mean by the above. Was it poorly attended by the Vets because they didn't want to damage their chances in the Sun league race?

 

yes, I think thats what he means, same as some of the elites...cough (daiken) cough

 

Um..the PA announcer was a bit abusive at times

ZippIt2007-02-19 10:28:42

[Grietjie]

I dont think cough (daikin) cough problem was the league. It was more a case of all of them working and not begin able to take leave... 

[ZippIt]

Lourens has said many times that he is not interested riding tours - and the team does what he does. (He also took work off to go and ride overseas last year.) Moolman rode the PPA vets 3day tour in about sept that had a friday afternoon stage

[Grietjie]

good point and so I apologise, but then they should try something else cause they still get their behinds kicked in the league against teams and a 40 year old who did ride the tour...

[Norris]

Well organised groot lem. Well done!!!

[Norris]

Grietjie, you should have seen erik and chris jnr fly pass us up helshoogte

[Groot Lem]

We wanted to imitate some of the hilly stages in the Giro, but as soon as you have mountains the traffic costs escalate. The Paarl traffic people didnt charge us anything. If we have a bigger budget next year, hopefully, we will have the mountains. We had 56 entries at R250 each gives you R14000, the prize money was exactly that, R14000.

I hope we get some of the Gauteng teams next year.

[Grietjie]

Believe you me I heard bout their flying up Helz...those two are in a class of their own...

[Groot Lem]

eRik is training moerse hard, not getting the results he deserves, I hope he has a good Giro. Doing a lot more quality this year than before, and the team is better. Unfortunateley, Arno V rides for Nam again. Erik and Chris allmost got Arno's Helshoogte time, from the 100 board just before the railings. 10m05sec, Arno's club record 9m45.

 

[WorcesterWheelers]

By all accounts a really well organised event.

Have had very little negative feedback.

Perhaps more Vets would have ridden if you only needed to take off Friday afternoon.

I think that you should include the Vets, but like this year, make them race with the elite's, just perhaps a little separate prize money, BUT only if there are enough vets entered to justify the extra prize money.

So if you want to beat the rest of the Vets, you must be able to hang on with the top Elites, or get into a break with them. And i can already hear some grumbles about Vets helping to chase down breaks, well that would be great for the overall racing. more riders, more teams, more competition, hopefully helping to improve the standard of racing in the Western Cape.

 

The only complaint I heard (and it was mostly tongue in cheek, was that they should have advertised the Saturday afternoon kermesse for non tour riders a bit better, the turnout in that event was unfortunately very poor).

 

The biggest highlight for me, is that hopefully we have finally put to rest the stigma around prize money and the "TOUR DE BOLAND". According to Chris Willemse, prize money was proptly handed over after every stage.

 

And here's my suggestion for a nice Giro preparation stage.

 

How about a stage from Wellington, over Bainskloof, then past the Calabash bush pub, right onto the Wolseley / Worcester road (sorry can't recall the R??ame), then right into Slanghoek, towards Rawsonville and then over du Toitskloof, finishing somewhere in Paarl, even if its at the bottom of Du Toitskloof to avoid any disruption to traffic. (the rest of the route has little traffic, apart from the piece on the R??, but that's only a few km's, and then the section on the N1 till you take the old pass)

 

Just a thaught, use it.. don't use it...

[The Crazy German]

Lourens has said many times that he is not interested riding tours - and the team does what he does. (He also took work off to go and ride overseas last year.) 

 

Lourens Took off from work to come an visit me and see some cobbles the race just happend to be on the same weekend.

 

Jizzz I laughed with lourens freezing off his bike on the cobbles, he's a funny man