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South Africa needs its own TDF


Cyclejourno

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Probably makes sense to follow the format of the Tour Down Under [in terms of length].

 

Another thing to consider is that any tour in SA will pre-empt the spring classics, which means you want to place a bigger focus on flat stage racing that provides ideal conditioning for these races.

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Deffinately got to use the Craddle Route!!!!

 

The residents will love it!

 

No you can't go there its far too close to Krugersdorp. Don't you know its the "gat kant" of SA for the poor and alcoholics!!

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Well, now that Delmas is on the map courtesy of Panjo, it may not be a bad idea.

 

Here is my thought on this: Le Tour has the yellow jersey, the Giro De Italia has the pink jersey so does that man we can use a tiger striped jersey if ours ends in Delmas? Plenty of styles to choose from in Brakpan so cost is not an option.

 

Deffinately got to use the Craddle Route!!!!

 

The residents will love it!

 

Bitchy person (raucous applause)!

 

No you can't go there its far too close to Krugersdorp. Don't you know its the "gat kant" of SA for the poor and alcoholics!!

 

There you go Oom H - we found one! Knob.

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About the route...You can have it all in SA!!! Id say the lesotho (Although actually SA itself but close enough) mountains can rival the alps!! You can start in the awesome Limpopo bushveld (maybe Kruger park) and end under Table mountain and still have some Km left to burn.. WOuld be amazing

And I am actually a mountain biker.

 

a 3000km+ route would be great but I somehow think it would be seen as prep for the classics in Europe, so would need to be half as long and flat. But you never know.

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without its sponsor and 200 mtb'ers who pay R12 000 each to compete, the Epic would not take place, nor would they be able to fund invited pro mtb'ers. a "tdf" type event without a major sponsor or without csa involvement is almost impossible.

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Guest Big H

Waht will happen where the tour passes squatter camps and they decide to burn tyres in the road (like they did in the Cradle) to protest that the do not have proper houses?????????

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I think the Western Cape has possibilities - they can ride up and down and up and down and up and down the "mowntin" like shoowa! It will be awesome!

 

 

Yip, you know it...the Western Cape is the best for, ermm, almost everything.

 

Oh, and less issues.

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I think best would be to start and finish in the Western Cape.

 

702 interviewed some chap from the "Cape Party" a few months ago, and he was quite adamant that the western cape wanted to secede from the rest of South Africa?

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Yip, you know it...the Western Cape is the best for, ermm, almost everything.

 

Oh, and less issues.

 

Great idea except that the TMSAG declared Table "mountain" a no-go zone, pretty sure I saw that posting on The Hub a few days ago.

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Mountain bike stage races are sold on guys "roughing it" in tented villages. For a road event pro riders expect hotel accomodation for multi-day events. This, the riders meals, transport to and from starts and finishes etc is usually paid for by the team. You then have to either limit the event size to 200 or less riders or you have to confine the event to the Big city centres or both. Picking one central point is the way to go as riders and team personnel don't have to up and off every second day.

Sounds like the Giro del Capo? Well yes, because this is the best way to do this. Why not focus on building the Giro into an international event?

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Well there is a few ways to go about it.

Get towns and provinces to bid for the oppertunity to host stages. That will put the onus on the local autorities to make sure the roads are pothole free and safe. So if the local council endorses a stage they are responsible for the roads traffic control, safety and emergency services. Involved all clubs. So a club or combination of clubs will arrange a certain stage like they do now with the normal races. Thereby you use excisting expertise. This can also help with sponsorship as each club can help to get a different sponsor on board.

You maybe start around this time of year and take the route via the Northern Cape for a few stages where it can be long, flat and hard on the soul. So start in Cape Town Go up the west coast and then via say Springbok, Upington, Kimberly, Bloem up via Gauteng Via the Graskop area pat Pongola and finish say in Durban.

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O and what you can do is to incorporate mass one day events on the weekends. Once the main race started you can have the mass event starting on the same route.

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There has been talk for ages about the possibility of tarring Sani Pass, although I am not pro the idea it would rival any climb in the TDF in terms of total ascent. Start the stage in PMB or the midlands and then finish with a mountain top finish at the top of Sani, a good 200km stage. The alpe d'huez of the Tour of SA.

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I dont know, I dont want to pour water on the parade, but isnt this all just "pie in the sky".?

 

Or at the very least, putting the cart before the horse.?

 

We are all thinking of teams, provinces, routes tourism etc,etc, but nobody has even a clue on basic cost, how can you go to a potential sponsor without a cut and dried financial business plan.?

 

In theory it all sounds wonderfull, hang it may even work, but surely it would be prudent to get the absolute basics like finances agreed to "in principle" first? - then think about routes and rest towns.

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Grumpyoldguy. Don't you need a plan first before you want to calculate the cost. So first decide how and where you want to do it. Then calculate the expected cost based on that.

You can't work out a financial plan if you don't know what you want to do.

As example: I want to extent on my house. I first need to decide what I want to do before I can get a builder for a quote, not true?

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