SA Cycle Champions in Bloem

South Africa’s best cyclists converge on the Free State, but the result is a mixed bag

It is obvious that the local officials went to a lot of trouble to pull off a successful event. Today, during the event, I noticed officials at various intersections verbally informing motorists and cyclists how to avoid each other.

On my way home on the eve of the road championships, I noticed that some of the turns on the cycle course were far too dangerous to include in such an important race. A good example is the cruel left hander into Olympus.

I also expected carnage on Sunday as traffic would have converged on the tight turn at the Berg en Dal church (at the roundabout on the lower end of Albrecht street). The officials can be credited with closing off the initial slipway turn into Olympus, and for making arrangements with the church in Albrecht street to have no morning services.

Even so, I would have liked to have seen that particular circle and several other roads, like Lucas Steyn, closed off altogether. When I drove up I encountered a train of cyclists in the right hand lane and only saw a cyclist at the last moment riding just off the centre of the road. Later in the day I saw that some cyclists were going up the left lane, others the right lane, some up the centre, with the result that no one knew – neither cyclists nor drivers – where they ought to have been.

While Sunday presented sunny if somewhat blustery conditions, the weather was less benign for the rest of the championship. The same can be said for some of the officials. What is noteworthy is David George’s incredible victory – his fourth – in the elite men’s individual time trial. George finished in a time of 50 minutes, 26 seconds, just 8 seconds ahead of James Perry, with Nick White third in 51:39. Peculiarly, George was asked to start first when the convention in cycling is that the slowest rider leaves first. This is the standard applied in all races, including the prologue and time trials at the Tour de France.

It has to be said as well that for a rider who is hoping to win, he really needs to ride behind at least one other rider. The rider in front acts as a carrot, an incentive. To ride out first will almost certainly impact on a rider’s motivational levels on the road. And everybody knows the time trial in incredibly tough of the body.

The time trial can also be excruciatingly difficult in terms of mental endurance as well. So, to make matters worse, just before the halfway turnaround point, a flag waving official indicated to David George to turn around, and he did so, and began the chase back. Fortunately George realized almost immediately it must have been an error, he slowed down again and turned, and then turned around at the proper co-ordinate. It is difficult to convey the agony of such a mistake, when the rider is making a supreme effort to make every second count on the bike, and riding to the limits of his ability.

The reason for the blunder is not certain, but Dave Bellairs, second in charge of FSA apologized to David George for the mistake. It is a credit to George that he was still able to win, even if by a narrow margin of just 8 seconds. One wonders what would have happened if James Perry had beaten David George, or if George had turned where he was told to turn and possibly disqualified as a result.

In an earlier article (Free State Cycling A Shambles) I alluded to this tendency of local officials to daydream on the job. In a local championship event I was allowed to ride 10km beyond the 100km route’s turnaround beacon, and then turned around eventually having found no one beyond Dewetsdorp despite many orange beacons further along the route. That said, the volunteers were wide awake and competent that I saw today.

Meanwhile Ronel van Wyk achieved a milestone by reaching a tally of 300 cycling victories by winning the elite ladies time trial. Today I saw a banner tied to a tree in Heuwilsig with words to this effect: Come on Ronel, #301.

The Road championships presented the elites with a very arduous 197km of riding over a hilly course, consisting of innumerable 16.4km laps. The route was very spectator friendly, but I counted only a few handfuls of supporters here and there, and many of these people seemed from out of town anyway. Bloemfontein is one of those cities where you can hold an event like SA Championships in the middle of suburbia, and the local residents wouldn’t realize it.

In Port Elizabeth last year I also noticed very few spectators, but then it was held beyond the cities limits. At the very least I would like to anticipate more fun riders taking an interest in these events, but I think the local cycling bodies and the City of Bloemfontein needs to market the event a lot more in future. It is bizarre that the OFM Classic (in November) for example appeared to have a much steadier support base, and a sort of carnival atmosphere, than SA Cycling Championships. Anywhere else, London, Auckland, Sydney, Munich, Boulder, perhaps even Cape Town, the streets would have been filled with flocks of curious people. But I’m sure those cities would also promote the event, both to locals and those coming from out of town.

I think what’s needed is a more inclusive approach, not only towards cyclists, but also towards the public. Such a big event should also be used to convey the message that cyclists would really like the co-operation and friendship of motorists, rather than an aggressive facing off. Perhaps the public could be invited to test drive certain vehicles in the train behind the riders and team car, just to include the public more.

Conceivably it’s no accident that the public more or less ignores cycling events. Because they don’t understand the sport, and are not invited to understand it (through information-rich articles or inserts in the weekend newspapers, and festivities surrounding the event) the response is indifference. Our local newspaper (as far as I know) didn’t publish a timetable for the various races, so that’s something else to consider.

These are important suggestions, because we have to notice what impact our ideas, our actions have on other people with different ideas. I noticed a driver this morning bellowing at an official, and red faced, and obviously very irritated that he had to share the road the whole day with a lot of cyclists. But then if route markers are planted on your lawn without your permission, or you’re driving and suddenly find both sides of a double lane road blocked off, shuddering with red and white tape, without anticipating this, it is likely to irritate. Even so, I feel it is a shame.

To remedy this I feel we need some innovative ideas on how to solve this obvious disconnect. In my view communication, and in particular various forms of marketing, even branding the sport of cycling, will do a lot to improve the image and receptivity towards it. And I think it needs to be received better in order to grow. In France cycling is a national pastime, celebrated with wine, and picnics, and outings into the country. Here it is still perceived as a nuisance. But then South Africa, and here in the Free State in particular, we are still a long way away from France.
For all the time trial and road championship results, visit www.cyclesa.com