OUT TO LUNCH
Last Sunday morning in Cape Town was one of those perfect mornings that make you wonder whether the Almighty hasn’t handed out rather too much natural beauty to us at the expense of other parts of the world. It was the perfect morning for the Cape Town Cycle Tour and I was there at the start line bright and early.
Not literally of course, although I did recently buy a second hand mountain bike which I plan to ride once I’ve summoned up enough energy to pump the tyres. This year I chose the softer option of making a cup of strong coffee and settling down to watch the excellent live coverage on YouTube.
What is now known as the Cape Town Cycle Tour started back in 1978 and was known as the “Argus” in the days when that newspaper still enjoyed some respectability and could afford to co-sponsor such an event. The full name of the race until the rebranding five years ago was the rather cumbersome The Cape Argus Pick n Pay Momentum Cycle Tour and one suspects that the non Argus co-sponsors couldn’t have been best pleased with it always being known as ‘The Argus’.
Held on the second Sunday of March it is one of the most magnificent ways of marketing Cape Town as a tourist destination. Apart from attracting cyclists from all over South Africa the event also appeals to cyclists from neighbouring countries and I have a few keen amateur cycling friends who have visited from Europe and made the Cape Town Cycle Tour a feature of their holiday here.
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