How tough was the Argus Cycletour?

For those of you who missed my live Twitter feed as I struggled around this year's Argus Pick n Pay Cycletour click here for pictorial journal of my progress.

While it must be made clear that this year I was as unfit as I have ever been, this years tour was by all accounts toughest of the seven I have completed and would have been even if I had done a few km.s training. The gale force winds had a huge effect on all participants. Exactly how much of an effect is illustrated by the following statistics just in.

Target time Equivalent 2009 “Storm” time

2:45 actual 3:10

3:00 actual 3:35

3:15 actual 3:55

3:30 actual 4:20

3:45 4:45

4:00 actual 5:05

4:15 actual 5:25

4:30 actual 5:45

5:00 actual 6:25

5:30 actual 7:10

6:00 actual 8:00

In 2008, 1781 people did a “Sub-3”. In 2009 there were only 111. In 2008, 12844 people did a sub-4. In 2009 there were 4467. In 2008, 21765 people did a sub-5. In 2009 there were 12077.


Of the 73 start groups, only 2 made it through the first 100m without anyone crashing.