Organisers of The Herald VW Cycle Tour have made a minor adjustment to the 106km Classic route, following a request from the Cape Town Cycle Tour Trust, which runs the Cape Argus Pick n Pay Cycle Tour.
South Africa’s second oldest national classic, which takes place in Port Elizabeth on February 3, is an official premier seeding event of the Cycle Tour.
As such, race director Tony Cooney said they would bypass the short but challenging 1km Slanghoogte climb to bring the course in line with similar seeding events across the country.
Cooney said although the climb was regularly ridden by social cyclists in training, one corner had a gradient of 17.1 per cent, which was higher than the benchmark of 14 per cent set by the notorious Suikerbossie climb in the Western Cape event.
