NVDL: Okay now this is crazy...there were actually FEWER accidents this year. {Maybe because there were fewer cyclists period???]
Geyser said 71 people had to be picked up by ambulance during the race.
Of these, 32 were admitted to hospital. Thirteen of them had since been discharged, while 19 would stay in overnight.
"This is a lower number than 2008, he said.
Winds of up to 60km/h wreaked havoc at the Cape Argus Pick 'n Pay Cycle Tour on Sunday, collapsing tents and scaffolding.
A woman broke her arm when the breakfast tent at the start of the race collapsed with her inside, said joint operations manager for the event Brad Geyser.
She had since been taken to hospital to have the broken limb set.
"The wind did us a lot of damage. We didn't expect it to be this strong," said Geyser.
The start of the race itself was delayed 54 minutes because of the wind, with wind speeds of 40 km/h measured at Chapman's Peak and 60 km/h elsewhere on the route, he said.
The Greenpoint stadium construction site, where most of the hospitality tents were erected in sandy ground, became a "dust bowl" which the fire department had to water down, he said.
In one of the nastier incidents, a woman cyclist hit the tar face first in the Perdeberg area, breaking both collar bones and sustaining scratches on her face.
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