Many people have asked us about why these two important events are held over the same weekend. Unfortunately this is a result of events outside of our collective control. Let us try explain.
Event organisers start planning for their events long in advance and picking a date tends to be one of the first decisions to be made. As it happened both organisers fixed their dates, on two consecutive weekends, more than 6 months ago. However, subsequently the African Continental Cycling Championships were announced on the same dates as the SA Road Championships which created the initial conflict.
Cycling South Africa has to be supportive of the continental event and needs to host its national event prior to that, so the SA Road Championship had to be moved. It was therefore decided to move it one week earlier, now unfortunately coinciding with the date of the 99er.
With most of the arrangements already made for that weekend it was not possible to move the 99er’s dates at this late stage. Further, it would be unreasonable of us to request that they change, as they have secured the date in advance, with us and with CSA.
We, the Western Province Cycling Association, would therefore like to continue to show our support (and gratitude) to the 99er event committee and we encourage those riders not participating in the SA Road Champs to support this wonderful event.
WP Cycling would like to wish Morné, Debbie and their team success with their 19th event!
Christhonie Geldenhuys
Public Relations Officer
WP Cycling