Tour Of South Africa

Cycling South Africa has done some weird and wonderful things over the past few years, akin to running around like a chicken without a head. Well it seems now as if they are finally getting their act together albeit still somewhat confusing.

For years the cycling public here have been calling for a Tour Of South Africa and finally on the 28th November 2010 it was announced we would get a tour sanctioned by the UCI. The only problem is that the Tour Of South Africa falls so close to the Giro Del Capo that South Africa's oldest race will now not take place in 2011 after 19 years. Reason given was that the Giro cannot find a sponsor anymore as sponsors feel they will not get premium coverage because the races would be held so close together.

Greg Till Chairperson of Cycling South Africa seemed to find this surprising and indicated that he thought not only one but three premium races could be held in South Africa all in the space of one month, this being the Tour Of South Africa, The Giro Del Capo and The Cape Epic. He then went on to say and I quote "The more races we host in South Africa, the better it is for cycling. I just think we have to be realistic. The economy isn't what it should be at the moment." I am still trying to fathom how he can say we could host three races in the period of a month and then make a comment like this. Cycling South Africa is all very confusing and I think will remain so for years to come.

The Tour Of South Africa will host 19 teams in February 2011 and South Africa's Top teams, MTN Cycling and Team Medscheme (Bonitas) will square up against an international contingent of Team Europecar, Raphor Condor - Sharp, Pegasus Sport and Verandas Willems Accent to name but a few. The lineup looks good for South Africa's first tour and I hope that in years to come we will see more of the top teams getting out here to savor the good weather and some hard racing. The prize money will be R500,000 about $68000 which will make it the richest road race in South Africa and I am sure a good attraction for more top teams to take some notice of this event in the future.

The Tour will consist of 7 stages starting in the Gauteng Province and Ending in the Western Cape.The shortest stage (Stage 7) is 107km's and the Longest Stage (Stage 5) is 210Km's and all the remaining stages are around the 150km mark. This is a welcome site to improve South African pro cyclists as traditionally our 1 day classics are only in the region of 100km's.

I am looking forward to The Tour Of South Africa and coverage schedules will be as follows.

Domestic:
4 hours live on 3 days: 12 hours
26 minutes highlight package of the 3 days of live coverage: 1.5 hours
52 minutes of highlight packages per day for 4 days: 4 hours
Total Coverage: 17.5 hours

International:
A 1 hour highlight package will be shown in the following countries:
USA, UK, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Japan, Germany, Australia and the UAE.
Total Coverage: minimum of 12 hours
Grand Total: 29.5 hours

Traditionally South Africa has a habit of being able to pull off hosting big events and I have no doubts that we will make a success of the inaugural Tour Of South Africa.