This hasn’t been a good year for races and events – massive wind caused the Cape Town Cycle Tour to be called off, severe heat saw a stage of the Cape Epic shortened, and crazy rain, hail, and snow neutralised stages of the Sani2C and Berg & Bush.
But I suspect extreme weather hasn’t been the only thing keeping road and MTB event organisers awake at night. I think their concern is that the every cyclist may be losing interest in races.
I’m probably projecting, but hear me out: when I started riding with the Argus virgins, we participated in all the local road races. Just about every week I’d line up with hundreds of other Lycra bandits, and race my guts out. I enjoyed being ‘competitive’ against my age group, and I found it addictive: from the buzz in the start chute, to the endorphin rush of riding fast on open roads, to the sense of achievement after crossing the finish-line knowing I’d gone as hard as I could, to the ecstasy of the first sip of ice-cold Coke a few moments later.
This story is from the December 2017 edition of Bicycling South Africa.
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This story is from the December 2017 edition of Bicycling South Africa.
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