WATCH: Toti cyclist recounts gusting winds as Cycle Tour cancelled

AMANZIMTOTI resident, Dylan Chapman was among the cycling contingent whose hopes of competing in the weekend’s 40th instalment of the Cape Town Cycle Tour 2017 were blown away by winds of over 100km/h.

The Giant SA ambassador and Giant Toti-sponsored Chapman said he’d managed to catch an early flight on the Friday morning to Cape Town, with the most pressing concern being to check on his bike’s safe arrival with the courier company in Greenpoint.

“Race registration was packed with eager cyclists fetching their race packs and trying to squeeze into a better batch. I however, had one thing on my mind and that was to find the Giant SA stand and meet up with the guys for a chat,” said the cyclist.

That night Chapman made his way to the V&A Waterfront with fellow cyclists for what he described as ‘one of the best seafood suppers I’ve ever had’. “The whole of V&A had such an awesome vibe this weekend with all the riders and their families down in Cape Town.” Saturday morning dawned with amazing weather for a warm-up ride down to Suikerbossie. “We decided to drive the whole route on Saturday morning, just to check for any dangers on the route,” added Dylan.

“Normally I hate the stupid alarm that goes off at 4am but this time it was the howling wind that myself and 34,999 riders hated that morning. Finally we entered our batch pens in the front and we actually ended up sitting on the floor, holding our bikes so they didn’t fly away like a kite.”

WATCH video of the recent Cape Town Cycle Tour:

According to Dylan, 6.15am arrived and the elites set off. “Five minutes later we set off and 20 metres down the road, riders were hanging onto their bikes like their life depended on it. I’ve never had to push my road bike at the start of a race. “Two kilometres into the race, the bunch already started splitting and we were all stuck at the back – nothing like doing a huge 400-watt effort at the start of a race to get back into the bunch but my word did my bike perform beautifully in that wind. Handling of it was effortless in the wind while the Di2 gave me any gear I asked for,” said Dylan.

“A short 20km down the road, the race was cancelled. A good call by the race organisers as a few lives would have been lost descending Chapman’s Peak as well as protesters who had littered the road with cement blocks. That didn’t stop the Toti crew from getting in a quality 120km ride with some of Cape Towns finest climbs.

“Thinking about this while on the plane back to Durban just keeps bringing back memories of watching the guys’ bikes flying like a kite in that wind. Overall, while I was very disappointed about not being able to race the Cape Town Cycle Tour, these things are out of our control. On to the next race, the Létape South Africa on 2 April.”