Next year’s Takealot Tour of Good Hope has broadened its appeal with the addition of a race for solo cyclists.<\/p>\n
The five-day road tour takes place in the Cape Winelands from March 4 to 8 and will now offer a pro-elite tour, an amateur tour with a team focus and the new solo race.<\/p>\n
All three events will include a general classification for individual riders.<\/p>\n
Fritz Pienaar, of race organisers ASG Events, said the solo option was added in response to a call from riders who did not feel the need to ride as part of a team.<\/p>\n
“There was a lot of interest from riders who have participated in the past as individuals to keep a solo section,” said Pienaar. “They were not so keen to ride in a team event and did not want to be forced to join one.<\/p>\n
“So there is a market there for guys who want to ride solo and that led to our decision to rethink the entry options.”<\/p>\n
He felt it would add value to the event and tied in with an approach of being inclusive.<\/p>\n
“There will be a new dynamic with this move and I think it speaks to us trying to get everybody involved in what is a fantastic stage race.<\/p>\n
“We didn’t want anyone to be disadvantaged and, by offering a solo race, it means anyone can still be part of the stage race vibe.”<\/p>\n
Pienaar said the pro-elite race, which boasts UCI status for the first time, would be run under the governing body’s regulations while the rules for the amateur team event would remain unchanged.<\/p>\n
“The only new development in terms of the entries is that you can now enter as an individual.”<\/p>\n
He added that the king of the mountains and sprint competitions would apply only to the pro-elite and amateur team events.<\/p>\n
“This means much of the focus will remain on these races, but we are happy to have satisfied the demand for those who want to ride as individuals.”<\/p>\n
The amateur race for teams will comprise open men, women, junior, mixed and veteran sections while the solo event will cater for men, women and veterans (over-30).<\/p>\n
Pienaar said amateur teams could be made up of four to eight riders with the fourth rider’s time counting towards the team standings.<\/p>\n
“Mixed teams can consist of two men and two women with the second woman’s time counting for the team,” he added.<\/p>\n
The solo entry option is open on the race website with a full package of R5 800 and a no-frills option of R4 200.<\/p>\n
The tour will start with a team time-trial in the pro-elite and amateur races and an individual time-trial in the solo event.<\/p>\n
For more information, go to www.tourofgoodhope.co.za.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Next year’s Takealot Tour of Good Hope has broadened its appeal with the addition of a race for solo cyclists. The five-day road tour takes place in the Cape Winelands from March 4 to 8 and will now offer a pro-elite tour, an amateur tour with a team focus and the new solo race. All […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":58746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3260],"tags":[1743,2025,3807,1919],"class_list":["post-24733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-asg-events","tag-entries","tag-takealot","tag-tour-of-good-hope"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24733\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}