Tour of South Africa Shocking

[Wyatt Earp]

Not quite. The 94.7 is the property of Harford Sports Promotions. 94.7 are a sponsor.

But everything is organised by the club.

Any way all that aside.

What should have happened here (just my take)

Cell - C come on board as sponsor in an INTERNATIONAL cycling event.

I blame them for not doing enough marketing around the event in the past month or so, making the public AWARE of the event would have increased the AWAREness surrounding the event.

Then secondly the bright spark who decided that this should be implemented as soon as possible, I would guess that an event of this magnitude would take at least two years of planning.

Thirdly CSA, they should have had endless meetings with Metro, they should have planned a better route, briefed the traffic officials better, plan a detour at least a block or two away from the route so that the despicable South African motorists don't get hit with an element of surprise.

I will say that people are people no matter what province.

Example, after my 94.7 outing the family and myself went to Crowthorne to support the riders.

Whilst standing there two motorcyclists (judging by their plates and listening to them screaming at the official that "these things don't happen in ***** *****")with flat mountain syndrome were adamant that they were going to move the barriers an proceed on down the road.

The official stood his ground, called back up and the windgat buggers left in a huff and a puff.

My take, there were proper barriers in place, and the official was properly briefed.

 

Finally, CSA, well CSA.....CSA......CSA, what does that stand for, clowns serving apes ?

 

This is ,what is to be expected when a dude, who took two weeks to memorize a Charles Dickens quote, eats too many cream pies and sits with a fat smirk on national television speaking in a manner that had me thinking he wrote every single exam in his life at Solly's shebeen, is one of the heads of the organisation.

CSA is a brand, as a cyclist it should be one of my favorite brands, at this stage of the fight, I simply can't invest any more time, money or energy in to that brand, and if this was to carry on, well then ultimately we will find that the numbers will shrink and people will move on to other sports and hobbies where things are better organised.

Edited February 21, 2011 by Dangle

[Nettie R]

cant believe noboady has mentioned the quality of the tv coverage? the shots from the road were so bad most of the time you couldnt even make out the riders numbers?? even the helicopter shots were out of focus

I told my husband the same thing when we watched Saturday's stage. The camera got swung around so much, I suffered from vertigo within 5 minutes. The feed switch between the helicopter and roads was a black screen for a few seconds every now and again. And the quality of the shots looked like the race is held in mid winter. We are spoilt with the Giro and Tour de France coverage.

[Nettie R]

There is nothing that CSA or anybody would be able to do with knobs in their vehicles just ignore the closures. South Africans, especially in JHB, aren't patient on the roads and in general have a dislike towards cyclists! I wonder if they would have waited for clearing of the road if there was an accident?

 

If you look at how well the rolling road closures worked during day 1 there was no reason the doubt it working for day 2. Problem is the motorists.

It's been said earlier, how can you even comprehend rolling road closure on a circuit that the riders will do a couple of times? It's got nothing to do with the motorists. Close the damn street off! If Joburgers made peace with it on 94.7 race day for 10hours, they can endure 2-3hrs closure.

 

Not much thought was given to the simple fact

[pastapouch]

Apart from all the markteing (or lack of it), you can't take events like these into Fourways, Sandton, Rivonia and those areaS. the only things those people live for are their fancy SUVs and cars. Stay out of those places! Second , SOWETO. There is no interest there in cycling(and neither in other sport) , and they usually don't care about traffic laws, stopping for others(including cyclists) is not in their mindset. Also, stay out of there!

[Sarge]

Hi,

I say to hell with CSA, to hell with "the people" to hell with idiots and most off all to hell with excuses.

A sad day

Sarge

[Delgado]

The question is, would the transport of The president, JM, Winnie, ets be handeled the same or would they have open clear roads the rest of the way?

No! ...but then again those are the perks of a prospering dictatorship!

[TIMEprb]

Just read Malcolm Lange’s tweet, the flights to PE seemed to be a huge cock up. Once again CSA was no where to be found to assist the riders. CSA is an embarrassment to the cycling community of this country.

[FrancoisC]

What a bunch of ******* clowns. This country will never be taken seriously as a cycling destination. All we'll ever have is the annual world funride champs.

This country wont be taken seriously for ANY sport that does not cater for the "masses"

Soccer World Cup ran like a dream.

Why.

Because there would have been RIOTS had everything not gone off without a hitch.

Go try and block the road on a Chiefs / Pirates derby day and see what happens.

Jerkoff Zuma will get personally involved then.

Sorry, but this never happened in Rapport Tour days, but then the people running cycling and the country were ADVANTAGED ie. Had multiple braincells.

SA is screwed and will get worse.

Get out while you can.

[EigerSA]

I thought it was a good idea to go by Soweto, and running through Joberg highlights the city, nothing wrong with that. the CSA's screwup was to have rushed this all together, an event of this magnitude and importance should have been created over a period of years, not (as I understand it) months. And CSA in my opinion is a governing body, they should have farmed out the logistical and planning aspects to those who have experience doing this sort of thing instead of doing it themselves.

 

The repercussions of this ripple not only overseas, but locally as well. Announce your intentions to resign at the end of the tour CSA, and do it today, that is the only way forward.

[headhunter]

This just gets better and better.

 

I'm no friend of the CSA (or anyone who tries to defend them here) but how long has it been since the Tour of SA was announced (inception) to actually it starting on the roads? A couple of months ? Surely not enough time for any organisation to even remotely get all the logistics right ? A case of less haste and more speed?

[FrancoisC]

But everything is organised by the club.

Any way all that aside.

What should have happened here (just my take)

Cell - C come on board as sponsor in an INTERNATIONAL cycling event.

I blame them for not doing enough marketing around the event in the past month or so, making the public AWARE of the event would have increased the AWAREness surrounding the event.

Then secondly the bright spark who decided that this should be implemented as soon as possible, I would guess that an event of this magnitude would take at least two years of planning.

Thirdly CSA, they should have had endless meetings with Metro, they should have planned a better route, briefed the traffic officials better, plan a detour at least a block or two away from the route so that the despicable South African motorists don't get hit with an element of surprise.

I will say that people are people no matter what province.

Example, after my 94.7 outing the family and myself went to Crowthorne to support the riders.

Whilst standing there two motorcyclists (judging by their plates and listening to them screaming at the official that "these things don't happen in ***** *****")with flat mountain syndrome were adamant that they were going to move the barriers an proceed on down the road.

The official stood his ground, called back up and the windgat buggers left in a huff and a puff.

My take, there were proper barriers in place, and the official was properly briefed.

 

Finally, CSA, well CSA.....CSA......CSA, what does that stand for, clowns serving apes ?

 

This is ,what is to be expected when a dude, who took two weeks to memorize a Charles Dickens quote, eats too many cream pies and sits with a fat smirk on national television speaking in a manner that had me thinking he wrote every single exam in his life at Solly's shebeen, is one of the heads of the organisation.

CSA is a brand, as a cyclist it should be one of my favorite brands, at this stage of the fight, I simply can't invest any more time, money or energy in to that brand, and if this was to carry on, well then ultimately we will find that the numbers will shrink and people will move on to other sports and hobbies where things are better organised.

[scotty]

Apart from all the markteing (or lack of it), you can't take events like these into Fourways, Sandton, Rivonia and those areaS. the only things those people live for are their fancy SUVs and cars. Stay out of those places! Second , SOWETO. There is no interest there in cycling(and neither in other sport) , and they usually don't care about traffic laws, stopping for others(including cyclists) is not in their mindset. Also, stay out of there!

 

Just a thought on Soweto, perhaps the reason for including Soweto was that CSA need to report to the parliamentary portfolio sports committee about what action and plans they have to bring the sport to the people.

[Kranswurm]

This country wont be taken seriously for ANY sport that does not cater for the "masses"

Soccer World Cup ran like a dream.

Why.

Because there would have been RIOTS had everything not gone off without a hitch.

Go try and block the road on a Chiefs / Pirates derby day and see what happens.

Jerkoff Zuma will get personally involved then.

Sorry, but this never happened in Rapport Tour days, but then the people running cycling and the country were ADVANTAGED ie. Had multiple braincells.

SA is screwed and will get worse.

Get out while you can.

 

 

Weirdo

 

The Rapport Tour was run thru the goddam Karoo

[Nettie R]

Does anyone know if lights were put down in the tunnel at Hartebeespoort Dam? It was sad to see one of the three break-aways crash there on Saturday. It seems he broke a collar bone.

And as for the poorly marked sprint just after the tunnel- No banner, just a piece of tape over the road and a dude with a clip board! The riders didn't realise they had to sprint.

Even the winner of the stage said the time split board showed to them was inconsistent. Whoever was in charge of it, the riders don't want to read all the other crap written on there: just the TIME split, for goodness sake. The board looked like a take-away menu.

[Wyatt Earp]

Weirdo

 

The Rapport Tour was run thru the goddam Karoo

Finished in Krugersdorp the one year, things were super well barricaded off.

[Gerhardc]

I have spoken my mind in earlier pages....I just HOPE that the rest of the tour will go smooth and end on a positive, BUT thereafter somebody will have to step forward and take the pain and RESIGN for this fiasco!!