Have we got our priorities right?

ON MONDAY I phoned both winners from last weekend's opening leg of the Quattro Roag Series, the Illovo Wartburg Classic, to interview them after their respective victories.

In the course of the interviews I discovered that both do not have major sponsors, and it got me thinking about some seriously skewed priorities when it comes to cycling in this country.

Stuart Marais beat David Low by just less than a minute, with Leeroy Emslie about six minutes further back after he punctured; and in the women's race Cherie Redecker (formerly Vale) cruised to a 14-minute win over Natalie Bergstrom, with Christie-Leigh Hearder slipping down to third after a wrong turn.

There is no doubt both Marais and Redecker are seriously talented athletes.

Stuart is pushing the big-name stars and last year ended the South African cross country series fourth, just behind the big three of Alan Hatherley, James Reid and Philip Buys, who were all aiming for Olympic selection.

And as for Cherie Vale, she is a South African champion and also a rider who is always near the front of the pack, if not out front.

She has some impressive wins to her name, including the Cape Pioneer Trek last year and a few victories in Cup Series races.

Both riders are concentrating on cross country this year and both have plans to race overseas on the World Cup circuit.

Cherie was riding for the OMX Pro team last year (with Mariske Strauss) and after getting married late last year is moving to Germany which will enable her to ride more European events (such as the World Cups and the very competitive German Bundeslige – similar to our SA Cup Series but with much more competitive fields).

Stuart was with Kargo Pro in 2015 and had a few minor sponsors in 2016 which enabled him to compete in a couple of World Cup events. He is a Scott Ambassador for 2017.

The tagline on Stuart's blog is "An amateur trying to make it in a professionals' world" and that pretty much sums up both of their struggles for 2017.

But, what bother me is the fact that we have two talented athletes who are both obviously working hard to make it in a tough pro environment, but with very little financial support. And they are not alone, and their experiences of struggling to find the money to compete and test themselves against the world's best is not unique.

On the other side of the coin we have a field of 1 200 Absa Cape Epic entrants who have mostly paid an entry fee of just less than R68 000 per team of two. And the reality is that the entry fee is not the only cost involved in riding the Epic. A lot of people will splash out on a top-end bike, as well as incurring a lot of other costs from travel, to training camps, bike repairs and servicing, which all add up and mean the average spend to do the Epic is probably close to R200 000 for a team of two.

I expect that the majority of the entrants are sponsored (well, I hope they are, or there are a lot of people that spend far too much on their cycling addiction).

I have no problem with either the Epic and its entry fee (if people are paying that entry fee then that business model cannot be that wrong), or the fact a lot of middle-aged, no hopers can attract sponsors for an eight-day sufferfest holiday (at daily rates that exceed the most expensive hotel in South Africa).

But what does concern me is that while a lot of fifty-something riders are being paid to end up in positions 300 and something in the Epic, there are riders like Stuart and Cherie who are struggling to get overseas for a couple of races – and the sponsors would get a lot more mileage from Cherie and Stuart than from the Epic wannabees.

Of course there are companies that do a lot for our top riders, the likes of team sponsors such as Dimension Data, Telkom, Kargo Pro and others, spring to mind, and of course all the race sponsors deserve credit for helping keep the sport affordable.

But would some of those Epic millions be better on a few of the struggling pros? For the racing snakes

After Marais won the opening leg of the Quattro Roag Series last weekend when he edged out Low in the Illovo Wartburg 65km event, he will be looking for a second win in the opening leg of the KZN Provincial Cross Country Series today.

Both Marais and the women's clear winner from last weekend, Redecker, are targeting cross country this year and they will probably be the two riders to beat in the lap-racing format at Hilton.

For both, it will also be a perfect warm up before they head to the Western Cape for the opening leg of the SA Cup Cross Country Series next weekend.