Change ups add to Tour Durban appeal

AS the aQuellé Tour Durban presented by Sunday Tribune heads into its 22nd year the organisers have gone with the decision to expand the event and give the whole family the opportunity to take part in the wide variety of different events from the main 105km Road Classic to a 55km cyclo-cross event as well as a brand new toddlers 1km fun ride at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on Sunday 26 April.

Along with the prestige that the event has gathered over its 21 year history the 2015 edition of the 105km classic will once again serve as an Official Premier Seeding Event for the 2016 Cape Town Cycle Tour, giving local riders a gilt-edged chance to secure early qualification for next year’s edition of the Cape Town race.

Having recently won the Cape Town Cycle Tour as well as a number of Tour Durban titles in the past Nolan Hoffman is expected to line up on the start line of the prestigious Durban-based race as he and his fellow Team Abantu riders jostle to get to the front of the race and fight it out during an exciting final sprint for the line.

After having to move the race to the public holiday Monday in 2014 the iconic Durban cycle race will revert back to its more recognisable Sunday slot in order to give people that plan on travelling to Durban for the race the opportunity to have a day to travel home on the Monday after the race.

The race has a solid ethos of giving back to the community in and around Durban and since Club Cappuccino took over the race they have promoted the entire event as a non-profit event which makes it unique in that all contributions and entries go towards helping the homeless people in the Ethekwini Municipality.

With the race taking place exclusively in the Ethekwini Municipality the race heads north out of the city towards Ballito and to the delight of a number of riders the M4 has recently been resurfaced which will provide riders with a favourable surface out and back.

Having a fresh surface to ride on is made even more appealing when you add in a complete road closure for the event. This is something that all riders appreciate and with the safety of a closed road it adds a significant amount of appeal to the average rider who will be entering the event.

The Tour Durban is unique in a number of ways but having all of the events taking place on the same day adds to its individuality. As opposed to other events that run their different races on different days the 105km classic is run concurrently with the 55km cyclo-cross race and the 40km half marathon.

Organisers have appealed to families to get the young ones involved in the 1km fun ride around the Moses Mabhida track and getting children on all forms of bikes is the goal from the black plastic scooter to the bicycle with training wheels and having the whole family out on the track encouraging the youngsters on.

Another exciting edition to the 2015 Tour Durban is the Expo that has been set up. In the past the expo has been fairly low key however this year the expo will include around 16 different stalls at Suncoast Casino over the registration period.

There has been a positive uptake of early entries for the event and the organisers are hoping that there will be another increase in the numbers taking part across all the different events.