Tour of South Africa Shocking

[rpedro]

I am putting stage 1 & 2 behind me and moving on. Goodluck to CSA and I hope the rest of the Tour will make us proud again. Cape Town is going to rock ;-)

[Joe Low]

I am putting stage 1 & 2 behind me and moving on. Goodluck to CSA and I hope the rest of the Tour will make us proud again. Cape Town is going to rock ;-)

 

Yup, yesterday's news is tomorrow's fishwrap (or something). Let's hope for good things along the coastal stages & that no-one puts live ammunition in the starting gun

 

 

I've no doubt after this that CSA will re-think for the future & try to improve.

[Eldron]

Cant agree there bro: The cradle area is awesome, a world heritage site. Joburg has a beauty of its own, its just a stuff up that it was under resourced and not planned properly. The escarpment and low veld and lots of KZN (not forgetting the Vrystaat) are also beautiful areas of our country so please lets get a grip here. An the Burg' yes lets talk about some real mountains, most Kaapies have no idea.

 

My other suggestion is they should do it during the week and hook up with schools for skoolkidz to line the roads: that will be a win-win situation. We saw that a lot with the Tour of Oman.

 

I reckon a Joburg to Cape Town type route will be the best - incorporating Natal if we can extend the mileage to ~1,800km.

 

That way we can include Joburg but only at 11am when it's quiet(ish) and rapidly head out of the city (maybe 2 hours of road closure needed). Showcase the Drakensburg, some of Natal and finish in the Cape where the general public is a bit more cycling aware/friendly. A couple of sprinters stages in the middle - it's almost like the tour - flat stages to start then into the mountains then more flat then finish in the mountains...

 

Tour of Oman was really well done but to be fair the roads were dead quiet and the public interest was virtually zero. ~50 people at each finish and they were 80% imports. Remove the imports and local dignitaries and there were probably 4 locals there.

[DaLoCo]

Yup, yesterday's news is tomorrow's fishwrap (or something). Let's hope for good things along the coastal stages & that no-one puts live ammunition in the starting gun

 

 

I've no doubt after this that CSA will re-think for the future & try to improve.

 

I won't chance it with the amount of crap in the newspapers nowadays..

[Slowbee]

Yup, yesterday's news is tomorrow's fishwrap (or something). Let's hope for good things along the coastal stages & that no-one puts live ammunition in the starting gun

 

 

I've no doubt after this that CSA will re-think for the future & try to improve.

 

 

aaaagggg noo, now you making me want fish and chips from kalky's (at kalk bay believe it or not)!

[Solis]

Guys, so let us hope the tour will run smoothly from now until the end!!

All the best of luck to both the participants and the organisers!!

[Unicycle]

Don't feel sorry for Barry Mocke! This is a joke. Barry gets allot of money to do a job, and should be dismissed if he is not up to the task.

 

CSA got greedy and decided to take over ownership (it was previously outsourced) of the mayor cycling events in an effort to make more money through sponsorships, while they should have been focussing on the managing the basics in the sport (improve licensing / development / safer roads / communication to riders). I know that Barry stepped on many toes since he came into the sport and have already lost 3 law suits which costed CSA (the cycling community) millions!

 

The provinces should get together and have a vote of no confidence in the current administration and vote in new members. I know many capable CSA members who will gladly step up into Barry's position.

[Big G]

This is just not good enough by the organisers, CSA and its entire committee. In the years of the Rapport Tour there was not as many cars on the road and our population has grown. But this is no excuse for the bad showing of what promised to be SA 's cycling show case. Surely the Orgainsers and CSA would have sat around the table in planning this tour. In doing so suely it was then up to the President of CSA to ensure that the National Roads Commissioner got involved along side the organisers to meet with the Minister of Roads and Transport and also all the relevant Metro council heads and traffic heads that were going to be involved to ensure that all the T's were crossed and all the i's dotted so that this kind of F up did not occure.And then he should have made sure that a full report on the position of the councils was handed to him so that if there were any hick ups they could try and resolve them! As i mentioned Rapport Tour although it was a number of years ago was longer and passed through some of our major Cities on our major roads (albeit less traffic) without a hitch only because the right procedures were followed. Its time as i have said before that CSA become accountable for these reoccuring unacceptable disasters that seem to be happening more and more. Either they step up to the plate and do their job or resign.

There are ex cyclists out there who, if approached and especially after this F up may well be willing to take on the responsibility for the good of the sport and not the pomp and glory that certain members seem to have attached to their positions. Maybe its time!!!!!!!!!

[Big G]

Feel Sorry for Barry Mocke!! Come on if the mountain is too big to climb you dont go around it. If you cant take it head on then give it to some one who will climb it!!~

Edited February 22, 2011 by Big G

[Grebel]

I reckon a Joburg to Cape Town type route will be the best - incorporating Natal if we can extend the mileage to ~1,800km.

 

That way we can include Joburg but only at 11am when it's quiet(ish) and rapidly head out of the city (maybe 2 hours of road closure needed). Showcase the Drakensburg, some of Natal and finish in the Cape where the general public is a bit more cycling aware/friendly. A couple of sprinters stages in the middle - it's almost like the tour - flat stages to start then into the mountains then more flat then finish in the mountains...

 

Tour of Oman was really well done but to be fair the roads were dead quiet and the public interest was virtually zero. ~50 people at each finish and they were 80% imports. Remove the imports and local dignitaries and there were probably 4 locals there.

 

That is a brilliant idea!! If the Tour of SA is a spectacle to showcase the country and bring cycling to the people, then why not include the entire country? Start in the City of Gold, head to the coast and follow some of the Garden Route, inland through the mountains and finish in Cape Town, the self proclaimed tourist capital of SA!! Brilliant. There are many top class international standard hotels along the way to accomodate everybody. Ultimately use people who specialise in logistiocal planning to help out. CSA can take the credit, but outsource the specialised work to people that know what they are doing and have experience (if they haven't already done that... ).

 

This has the potential to rival some of the great tours. CSA might have been a bit ambitious staging this at such shoet notice but lets learn from this and hopefullt move on.

 

It seems to be a kneejerk reaction to have their heads, Yes we are upset, but lets see how it turns out and move on from there. IMHO they need to rethink the strategy and go back to the drawing board.

[Rob22]

Don't feel sorry for Barry Mocke! This is a joke. Barry gets allot of money to do a job, and should be dismissed if he is not up to the task.

 

CSA got greedy and decided to take over ownership (it was previously outsourced) of the mayor cycling events in an effort to make more money through sponsorships, while they should have been focussing on the managing the basics in the sport (improve licensing / development / safer roads / communication to riders). I know that Barry stepped on many toes since he came into the sport and have already lost 3 law suits which costed CSA (the cycling community) millions!

 

The provinces should get together and have a vote of no confidence in the current administration and vote in new members. I know many capable CSA members who will gladly step up into Barry's position.

 

 

 

I have to agree, there are so many well run races in SA and many people who could run this event. CSA should stick to managing and developing the sport. Outsource these events to professional organisations that have the capacity to run a successful event.

[Nettie R]

i just read the thread that H posted a few pages back : http://www.beeld.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Onbeskofte-Sandton-motoriste-steek-stok-in-fietsren-se-wiel-20110220

 

made the mistake of readong the reader remarks too.

 

i hardly could believe the hatred; seems like south-africa is not ready for a tour like this

Yip, I made a point not to read the drivel they wrote in response to the article. It shocked me what the Beeld readers wrote a while back when a cyclist was killed on our roads.

Yet we are such a sport-loving country. It seems that nobody wants to allow any other person his time to shine.

Last night on SABC they reported that Mocke said 'it (stage 2 fiasco) will never happen again'. Let's hope for the best the rest of the tour. Enough said.

Edited February 22, 2011 by Fester

[Underachiever]

I saw the "Dickens" interview for the 1st time last nite - trying to clean my PVR HDD.

 

It's so funny - the qustion was asked repeatedly if the Tour of SA will not see the fiasco of the SA Champs and Till said "We have triple checked everything"

 

Ha, ha, I really want to play back this interview back to him and see his reaction.

 

Either he's clueless or his team is feeding him BS, or both?

[waanie]

been going through most of the pages my heart is broken to hear the mess we as cyclist got into on the international grounds.If its going to happen again thats a big if bring it to the mother city we know how to organize look at the argustour,giro and many others we capetonians are the ones

[scotty]

been going through most of the pages my heart is broken to hear the mess we as cyclist got into on the international grounds.If its going to happen again thats a big if bring it to the mother city we know how to organize look at the argustour,giro and many others we capetonians are the ones

We do a pretty decent job with the 94.7.

[Danger Dassie]

Yip from here we can look forward to great racing, and probably no more logistical issues.

 

One point - CSA had a similar problem with PE's city centre at SA Road Champs. Several events also got cancelled. That's a tremendous disservice to those riders who trained, attended etc. I think you have learn lessons and apply them, because PE was a test case for the urban stage through JHB. Not sure if you can blame drivers, not matter how rude they are...you have to create a situation where everything is under control, and you have contingencies in place based on anticipating every eventuality. The simple solution for urban racing: start earlier, race in a confined area [laps, eg last stage of Tour de France in Paris] or close roads. Rolling road closures don't work in dense urban areas because there are hundreds of feeder roads, and what about driveways...

Anyway, tomorrow should be good.

 

We're saying the same thing. I differ on the opinion of drivers though, they do deserve a large portion of blame on their behavior, which was beyond rude.

Spitting at people? Driving over a sidewalk? Driving directly at a marshall? That transcends rude in any context of an event.

 

Today will be interesting, with a 33kmh wind! Mother nature can be cruel!