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.

Matt Damon at the Argus (Video)

Matt Damon does cycle trek in South Africa
Uploaded by ITN

Thanks for your support

On the 29th of February I reported on the Race4change initiative introduced by the organisers of the PicknPay/Argus Cycletour and invited readers of Eish!! to sponsor my ride. All the proceeds were to go to The Sunflower Fund, and organisation whose aim is to secure financial support in order to increase the number of bone marrow stem cell donors in South Africa.

I am happy to announce that the simple request raised R850-00 for this charity. While I acknowledge that this pales into insignificance when compared to what they require for the awesome work they currently and strive to do, that's R850-00 more than they had last week!

I would really like to extend my appreciation to all of you who gave over your hard earned cash.

Eish!! takes up the challenge for charity - You can join!

The Argus Cycle Tour has a initiative to coincide with this year's massive cycling event. Titled Race4Change it give the participants a chance to raise money for a selected group of charities.
This makes it easy for groups or individuals to use this epic to raise money for charities, with the knowledge that a legitimate organisation is handling of the collection and distribution of the monies.

So let's give it a test!!

I have set up a group for Eish!! readers to donate money to The Sunflower Fund.

Simply click here and donate ... and Eishman will make the full 109km's to ensure your money is well spent.

CycleTour entries to close soon

Those of you wishing to take part in next years PicknPay/Argus cycletour, better move fast. The date has been set for 9 March 2008 and entries are limited to the first 35000.
While this may sound like a lot, entries opened midday on the 1st September and as of today (11 September) they had filled close to 90% of the available spots, you can do the math.
There has been a little controversy on the cumulative cost of the tour this time round. But anyone who has taken part in this event will know that there is very little that compares to it ... and the obligatory massage afterwards.

If you are even thinking about maybe doing it, perhaps. Do yourself a favour , click here and enter. You will not regret it ... your bum might, and probably you legs, but it will all be worth it.

Related post : The Cycletour

Would you respond to this front page Argus ad?

I know there are some marketing and business fundies that pop in here @ Eish from time to time. Please guys help me out here! How does an advert like the one below get onto the front page a major newspaper, The Argus? The front page !!! Or maybe I should ask how it makes it into the paper at all.

There is no company name, no contact telephone numbers, no physical address and not even a price or product. Just a promise to better a price someone else has given AND a freaking Hotmail (.co.uk) email address! I kid you not! So much for Mr Bullard's "I have no objection to reading my Sunday Times on the Internet because I know the content has been through the same process as the print edition." What about the advertisements?
This is like something you would find on a rotating banner on ...... a ...... blog!!!!

This was printed in the same week the sister newspaper the Cape Times printed a story on how a Nigerian syndicate infiltrated the SAA call centre and defrauded thousands of credit card holders to net R14m. How did they that do it? Wait for it... by buying plane tickets using unsuspecting cardholders credit card details and reselling them at seriously discounted prices! The Nigerian's are apparently operating out of the UK. Go figure!

Surely the Argus cannot be so desperate for money that they can allow something like this? Or am I just being naive?