Tour of South Africa Shocking

[Ab 1]

All you hear about is the Cricket world cup and not even a word about the tour of sa.No wonder there is so much caose.

Yesterday at the finish line there were about a hundred people,is that the best we could do ?

Come on !!

I am even flying down to be at the finish so that I can suport the sport !!

[Weight Weenie]

To me it feels like all they have really done is enlarge the gap between cyclists and motorists, instead of winning hearts and minds (to use a US analogy)

[capeofstorms]

Africa or no Africa. Lets not politicise this event. The organizers are to blame and Mr Charles Dickens needs his fat ass kicked to Mars

[EigerSA]

http://www.ewn.co.za...g.aspx?id=59881

 

Is this it for coverage? No pics either

 

Gives you an idea on just how much effort was put into marketing this event, nothing on news24 or sport24, nothing anywhere!

[big.mamma]

:clap:http://www.facebook.com/#!/home.php?sk=group_204847826196847&ap=1

 

Join up so we can see how many people agree.

[gummibear]

Gives you an idea on just how much effort was put into marketing this event, nothing on news24 or sport24, nothing anywhere!

 

It's going to get quite a bit of publicity now.

[Guest agteros]

It's going to get quite a bit of publicity now.

 

And in the short term the cheapest publicity they could get. Long term, it will cost cycling and SA a lot!

[Palaeodom]

There are 259 users online right now...why don't we put together some sort of petition to see the CSA take action on this, or at least provide some sort of rational justification for the chaos...if this were football or rugby heads would role.

[EigerSA]

South Africa stage cancelled, House remains leader

by Samuel Morrison at 6:58 AM EST

Categories: Pro Cycling, Race Reports and Results, Tour of South Africa

Traffic and lack of police support force stage two annulment

The Tour of South Africa organisers cancelled the second stage of its race today due to traffic on the road.

 

"No results today," said the organiser, via Twitter. "No dope controls."

 

The stage was due to travel 163 kilometres around Montecasino, near Johannesburg. Clint Hendriks (Tasol GT), Chris Jennings (Team Burgos 2016) and Johann van Zyl (Toyota CSA) were in an escape when the race first neutralised.

 

After several attempts to re-start and threats by the riders to strike, organisers annulled the stage. Lack of police support is said to have led to the problem of traffic entering the course.

 

Brit Kristian House of team Rapha Condor Sharp remains the race leader. He won the first stage in Montecasino yesterday.

 

"CSA [Cycling South Africa] made the call to cancel the stage due to safety concerns, its unfortunate & disappointing but we want a safe race above all else," wrote South African team Bonitas on Twitter.

 

"The Metro Police that were on the race with us earlier have disappeared."

 

The Tour of South Africa returns after a 10-year absence. This year it runs as a modest eight-day, seven-stage event. Organisers hope to create the structure for a larger event, with division one teams next year.

 

Favourable weather should attack top European teams to the southern hemisphere, as the case with the Tour Down Under and Tour de San Luis in January.

 

This year, the race ranks 2.2 on the International Cycling Union (UCI) calendar. It offers around $70,000 in prize money, mostly coming from sponsor Cell C.

 

The race continues tomorrow with stage three, 177 kilometres near Port Elizabeth, in the country's south.

 

 

 

Read more: http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/7505/South-Africa-stage-cancelled-House-remains-leader.aspx#ixzz1EVEW5mgT

Edited February 20, 2011 by EigerSA

[Andrew_ew]

Perhaps it is time some heads roll at CSA - starting at the top - any thoughts on admin putting together an e-petition on this?

[kosmonooit]

Lets get the story about the arrangements with the Metro Cops here who none of us have much love or respect for.

[W1Z@RD]

Gives you an idea on just how much effort was put into marketing this event, nothing on news24 or sport24, nothing anywhere!

 

I agree

 

I have been busy with work of late and didnt have time to follow the race yesterday or see the route info.

 

How I found out: Went for my Sunday ride this morning and did my usual route to JHB ZOO from fourways and NO SIGNS and my climbs from Nothumberland to Ontdekkers to see a SINGLE sign that said Tour of South Africa 1KM to go for what was the king of the mountain climb.

 

I did a total of 90 km of which 40 odd was on the route course and there were NO SIGNS like you find on the 94.7 in bright yellow advising of road closure... Heads should roll

[EigerSA]

so far it seems that this debacle might actually lie at the feet of Metro, provided that CSA can of course prove that they made the necessary arrangements with metro, but even if Metro are 100% to blame, CSA must still answer with resignations simply because they should've seen this could have happened and taken steps to have a backup plan as opposed to just calling the stage off. I still reckon CSA's marketing was dismal at the very least, for that alone heads should roll.

[trekpostal]

CSA 2 for 2 - at least they can maintain a 100% record to just f*** cycling up for South Africa and SA cyclist

[gummibear]

so far it seems that this debacle might actually lie at the feet of Metro, provided that CSA can of course prove that they made the necessary arrangements with metro, but even if Metro are 100% to blame, CSA must still answer with resignations simply because they should've seen this could have happened and taken steps to have a backup plan as opposed to just calling the stage off. I still reckon CSA's marketing was dismal at the very least, for that alone heads should roll.

 

Why the hell do they want to take all the events through built up suburbs and on busy routes.Use the routes that are regularly used as they work.

[Andrew_ew]

CSA's plans should have been such that there was no possibilty that metro would not be there - this event is too important to cycling in SA for a lack of metro support to even be a possibilty