The Cycle Tour is not about the distance. It's about the atmosphere and the jol, says Kevin McCallum.
Cape Town - The first joke about the revised Cape Town Cycle Tour took seconds to hit the interwebs.
With a distance of only 47km, the magical figure of a sub-three hour “Argus” was on for all.
Time is still a massive attraction for many at the event, and is one of the weaknesses and the strengths of the event. No matter how far back a rider starts, they are obsessed with their time.
The correct answer to, “what was your best Cycle Tour time?” should be, “pretty much every time I ride it”.
Time should be a memory not a boast or a measure of how better than your mates you are.
The secret to a good time in Cape Town on the second weekend in March is in the title of the event: Cape Town CYCLE TOUR. It’s a tour, not a race. It’s not about the riders at the front, but the riders at the back, a mass participation event that started as a protest ride and turned, as David Bellairs of the Cycle Tour Trust once said, a “brilliant failure”.
It did not produce the cycle lanes it was supposed to all those years ago, but it did produce an iconic charity event that helps ease and change the lives of the poor and pumps money into the development of cycling.
There have been complaints about the shortened race. Some have asked for refunds, others have been in a huff because they know there is at least 100km of tar around Cape Town and they want to do the full distance.
The Cycle Tour is not about the distance – it has changed route and length in the past. The Cycle Tour is about the atmosphere and the jol, the utter joy of being able to ride a bike around closed streets with thousands of others.
The fires that have devastated Cape Town have cut off some of the prettier bits of the route, but perhaps that will help us concentrate on each other instead of chasing a time.
There are those who want all of the money raised to go to the firefighters, but the Cycle Tour is a non-profit race with all the proceeds going to the charities of the Pedal Power Association and the Rotary clubs. R40-million has been distributed over the last five years.
A group of us are making plans to ride together. Slowly. Wearing baggies, ugly T-shirts on mountain bikes and stopping for beers at Forries (if someone could tell the owner to open early for us, please) to toast the firefighters.
Sunday could be the greatest Cycle Tour of them all.
We have the chance to put the fun back into the run ride world championships, to take the ride back to its roots. Over 30 000 doing a 47km ride of love. What a joy.
* Kevin McCallum is the chief sports writer of The Star. Follow him on Twitter @KevinMcCallum.