Yesterday I took to the road once again, riding a ride I’ve probably ridden more times than I have the Argus, the Mushroom ride, or as it’s more officially known the Medallion Tour de Stellenbosch . I’ve also just realised that blogging from my phone isn’t as eaay as I’d hoped, thus the hanging link.
In any case, I always enjoy the ride, and yesterday was great besides one or two concerns. Firstly being the start time. The 100km started at 6.30, which is great. Then the short route started at 8, also fine. But only starting the medium (62km) ride at 8:30 is ridiculous. I, being unseeded, ended up only starting at 9, as its getting warm, and, slightly dishearteningly, as a large proportion of the long riders are returning.
The other issue being that as we arrive to start, we’re told our ride is being cut short by 5kms due to roadworks. How difficult would it have been to just add a small loop around there to keep the distance up. The roads outside of Stellenbosch wind and crisscross so often, they could easily have got around the roadworks.
I won’t even go into what the rides cost these days compared to a couple years back. I’m just glad i pre-entered and didn’t have to pay the effective R195 late entry fee.
This was also the first race that I rode without my transponder :) so it wasn’t even timed after all that.
Hello Gareth
Thanks for the comments.
The start times were not in our control but determined by Pedal Power to alleviate congestion of all 3 groups on the Annandale road. This will be a point for review on our post-race analysis.
Apologies for the shorter race. We were not told of the roadworks on the Klapmuts section which started shortly before the race. We had to change the route at the last moment (did not even have time to update the maps!) and could not add additional distance at such a late stage. Hope you enjoyed the new route. We will also be reviewing the positive and negative aspects of the new routes again and will also keep a eye on the roadworks in the winelands. Many of the roads seem to need upgrading over the next couple of years so this might affect us again.
Regards
Derek
Stellenbosch Rotary Club
Hey Derek
Appreciate the reply, glad to know you guys are following up. I did enjoy the event, and appreciate the effort you guys put in. Once i actually started riding it was great, marshalls’s and police did well to control traffic and keep our stopped time to a minimum.
Regards
Gareth