The motivation behind riding events is multidimensional we. The \u2018why\u2019s\u2019 many and varied. Some ride solely for fitness, wholly unconcerned with times and placings, others train very specifically for goal events and personal best times. Some put themselves through big challenge to raise money for charity. Still others rely on it for their meal tickets. Somewhere in each reasoning you\u2019re more than-likely-to hear the words, \u2018community,\u2019 \u2018social aspect,\u2019 \u2018camaraderie.\u2019 Humans race because they like being around one another.<\/p>\n
So when we can\u2019t it is saddening.<\/p>\n
Cancelled<\/h2>\n
\u201cI can liken it to going through the stages of grief,\u201d says Candice Lill of dealing with the cancellation of the 2020 Absa Cape Epic back in March. \u201cWhen you lose something that has become such a big part of your life, it is like the weeks afterwards are spent mourning.\u201d Lill \u2013 teamed up with fellow South African Mariske Strauss as Faces CST \u2013 was set for her biggest Cape Epic campaign yet. The pair were in the hunt to become the first all-African team to stand on the top step of the women\u2019s podium at the world\u2019s most prestigious mountain-bike stage race, in the process gaining enough UCI points for two Olympic slots.<\/p>\n
Covid-19, however, put paid to all of that and the Absa Cape Epic never saw a start gun. Shot down by the viral global pandemic in a whirlwind of global cancellations that started with the Tour of Hainan in January, and then swept through February and March with the Tirreno-Adriatico, Milan-San Remo and the Tour of Sicily, GP Larciano, Trofeo Alfredo Binda and Settimana Coppi e Bartal, following suite among many others.<\/p>\n As consummate, world-travelling professional with a fine hand on the bigger (global) picture, Lill was under no illusions ahead of hearing the news on the Friday evening ahead of the scheduled Sunday Cape Epic prologue at UCT.<\/p>\n \u201cI raced the Cape Town Cycle Tour the week before,\u201d she says. \u201cThere were so many questions around Cycle Tour – they were on the brink of having to cancel as well,\u201d she says, adding that from then on she knew there was a very big chance of the Epic not happening.<\/p>\n \u201cIt didn\u2019t all come all in one big blow,\u201d Lill explains the waves of mourning she went through in the weeks after. \u201cThat first night and the next few days I was a little bit in denial, then I eventually got to, like, \u2018okay fine\u2019 we\u2019ll just carry on and deal with it.\u201d<\/p>\n For an amateur and Epic first-timer like Rene Winter, it was a different kind of knock. \u201cIt was one of the biggest disappointments of my sporting career and goals. CV19 wasn\u2019t yet what we knew it to be that week so it was heartbreaking for sure,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Having been a part of the event for some years on the corporate side, as South African agent for Spot X, he grasped the bigger picture however.<\/p>\n \u201cIt must have been a really hard call for the event organisers to have made, while under siege from emotional audiences worldwide\u201d he says. \u201cThere was so much at stake: Riders, international teams, brand integrity, sponsors, spectators, viewership, the time input on organization and planning, towns that rely on the tourism, the list goes on.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt was definitely the right decision based on what we now know about the reactions around the world \u2013 as hard as it is to take a knock financially and personally on what was put in, I feel it was ultimately the right call for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n As with Lill and Winter, Team Bulls (featuring five-time winner Karl Platt, in his retirement year) were heavily disappointed, but had anticipated the possible postponement or cancellation.<\/p>\n \u201cEurope was two to three weeks ahead of us,\u201d explains Bulls soigneur, Vincent Durand. \u201cBeing a European team our mindset was already there\u2026 So, while we were monitoring what was happening on the ground here in South Africa with the Cycle Tour (which took place) we were also very aware of what was happening around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn that week leading up to the Epic we were on standby for racing \u2013 everybody was ready to race. And, everybody was ready to race right from the gun, with a possible postponement or cancellation somewhere in the middle of the race a real possibility, traditional strategy and stage race tactics went out the window.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Durand, as soon as the news of the cancellation reached the team, their focus shifted to getting everyone home safely. \u201cThose few days before lockdown ensued for international travel were very hectic. My team manager was busy for three days just sorting travel arrangements and baggage logistics,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was a mini post Epic, epic.\u201d<\/p>\n Ever the pragmatic (with the team\u2019s season now on ice as UCI events continue to haemorrhage down the calendar) Durand takes a measured view of the future of events. \u201cThe way that event organisers will have to restructure events will no doubt be based on new international sets of standards of hygiene,\u201d he says, by way of a starting point.<\/p>\n \u201cFor the near future it will be about how quickly can race organisers adapt good standard practice – races like the Epic already have the best standard practice, so for them it will be easier.\u201d<\/p>\n This is also something David Bellairs, Marketing, Media and Sponsorship Director of the Cape Town Cycle Tour Trust and the rest of the Cape Town Cycle Tour Trust team are currently grappling with. The team organises not only the iconic Cape Town Cycle Tour \u2013 the largest timed cycle race in the world with some of the finest global best-practice standards when it comes to mass-participation events \u2013 as well as the Double Century.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were extremely fortunate to have been able to run the event,\u201d Bellairs says of the 2020 Cycle Tour, which took place on 8 March. \u201cWe just squeezed in.\u201d For many cyclists that might be the last event they rode. The one they look forward to most for next year.<\/p>\n \u201cGoing forward, there is no doubt that the entire eventing space will look different,\u201d he adds. \u201cHow we\u2019re interacting with people who participate is going to be very different,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cGiven the current situation, how do we roll out future events that are acceptable to both the public and the authorities? Unpicking that is everything we are focused on at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDo I have answers yet? No I don\u2019t. What I do know is that it is going to be different, very different,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n In broad terms, what Bellairs and his team envision for the Cape Town Cycle Tour is something of a festival of cycling, a \u2018happening\u2019 that appeals to all types of riders and celebrates the reasons why cyclists ride events.<\/p>\n \u201cThis we\u2019ve already had in the back of our minds for the past eighteen months (pre-Covid) in terms of the Cycle Tour for sure. The DC is a very different beast because that is a 200km ride and team event,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cThere will always be the racing element, the challenge is how we cover for the racing element and the \u2018go-faster\u2019 mob, while giving the best experience for all the other riders.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d like to see the back of the event more as not groups of people charging around the Cape Peninsula but rather people taking the opportunity to ride on a route that is a 109kms of absolutely beautiful scenery. And, doing it for the pure pleasure of riding and being out there in the company of others, but not in a close-knit bunch, while raising money for charity at the same time.\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are trying to assess the food industry at the moment has changed forever and it\u2019s based on the same principles,\u201d says chef and restauranteur David Higgs, echoing Bellairs\u2019 sentiments. \u201cIt\u2019s about people coming together and enjoying themselves, whether that is watching sport, eating and drinking, or whatever,\u201d Higgs, a passionate cyclist, was ready to tackle his third Absa Cape Epic and is very particular about the \u2018why\u2019 when he picks his races.<\/p>\n \u201cI look for a challenge and then a good lifestyle offering on the side. A good vibe you know, I\u2019m a social rider not a racer,\u201d Higgs says. \u201cI love what the Tankwa Trek is all about (a really tough and challenging three days). As well as events such as Berg and Bush, where last year I rode with Erik Kleinhans\u2026 So I had to work really hard to keep up, but then afterward we sat on the banks of the Tugela and drank beer. That event\u2019s got a bit of both for me, I like that.\u201d<\/p>\n For Higgs, unlike the pros and the event administrators, it is the balance of the various positive benefits \u2013 physical, mental, emotional and social \u2013 that makes events, and cycling in general, so appealing. Higgs also represents a big percentage of cyclists who have embraced the digital element during the early lockdown times and taken to his indoor trainer (and particularly Watopia) with gusto. So much so that he believes he\u2019ll do much of his future training stationary.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really going to appreciate eventing again, without a doubt. However I can really see the benefits of training on an indoors – I\u2019m a completely different cyclist now\u2026 It\u2019s a little bit more precise and you can control more what you do (in training terms).\u201d<\/p>\n Higgs went so far as to do a 360km ultra-endurance virtual ride in late April, in an effort to raise funds for his team at Marble and Saint restaurants. The cycle was to create awareness for his staff fund which sees all proceeds from the sale of his book, Mile 8: A book about cooking, go towards supporting those staff teams.<\/p>\n \u201cIt really still doesn\u2019t compare to riding on the road or trail, but if you are training for something specific it is a great tool to have and it\u2019s a lekker way to hook up with guys and chat. I think this is what zoom and zwift has done.\u201d Higgs is not alone in believing that, due to the current financial implications many will have less goal races to train for than in the past.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is safe to say that the cycling landscape will be very different to the one we were used to. It will be fascinating to witness the creativity and ingenuity of the cycling community when they tackle the post COVID-19 world,\u201d says Michele Starke of the boutique mountain-bike stage race, The U.<\/p>\n![\"ccs-62657-0-66837900-1595411444.jpeg\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-62657-0-66837900-1595411444-1.jpeg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Candice Lill said that it took her a few days to come to terms with the Cape Epic cancellation. Photo credit: Sam Clark.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a>Karl Platt had planned to retire after racing in 2020. With the calendar all but cancelled, will we see the Cape Epic legend consider holding on for one more year? Photo by Nick Muzik.<\/span><\/p>\nThe shape of things to come<\/h2>\n
<\/a>The Cape Town Cycle Tour is the largest time race in the world. The organisers have already began planning changes for the execution for future editions.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nFood for thought<\/h2>\n
<\/a>David Higgs.<\/span><\/p>\nRide on<\/h2>\n