How The Cape Captured Cycling
The Western Cape has led the way in opening up cycling tourism in SA. How did they do it?
AS CYCLISTS, IT ISN’T OFTEN WE FIND THE GOVERNMENT ON OUR SIDE. BUT IN DEVELOPING THE CAPE CYCLE ROUTES, THEY’VE BEEN MORE BY OUR SIDE, AS THIS FIVE-ROUTE TOURING DREAM CONTINUES TO MATURE AND DRAW TOURERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD. HOW AND WHY DID ALL THIS HAPPEN?
AS OUR FOURTH ROUND OF COFFEES ARRIVES,
it’s clear that Alan Winde and I are not going to actually ride on our ‘on-bike’ meeting.
Four kays each from our respective homes will have to be enough for the day (plus the four kays back), as our ‘10-minute’ chat about the origins and future of the Cape Cycle Routes project is running him dangerously late for his next appointment. We thought two hours would be enough; we should have known better.
When he’s not running the Western Cape, as its Premier, Winde is one of us. A cyclist: from the Fizik duds to the Met helmet, and everything in between. Long before he was a politician, and shortly before cycling became cool the first time, he founded Knysna Cycle Works; and he has 12 Cape Town Cycle Tours under his belt, to go with seven Double Century finishes.
He also understands that cycling is actually an excuse to drink coffee (this is not our first more-caffeine-than-kilometres rodeo) and meet interesting people. And that, roughly, is how the whole Cape Cycle Routes thing fertilised: Winde’s regular Sunday gang, just shooting the breeze about how ridiculously under-developed the Western Cape is as a cycling destination, with its myriad changes in scenery, welcoming communities, and established and world-class tourist infrastructure.
“It started in a coffee chat on one of our regular Sunday
rides. I’d heard a stat in the office; Public Works said there are more than 36 000km of unpaved roads in the Western Cape,” explains the Premier, who was MEC for Economic Development and Tourism at the time.
Gravel bikes weren’t quite here yet – this was early 2015 – so the initial (albeit slightly misguided) thought was to create a mountain-bike route from Plettenberg Bay, in the far east of the province, to Cape Town, using existing trails, linked by gravel roads and purpose-built trails.
“One of my mandates was to grow tourism in the Western Cape. We already had a healthy events economy in cycling, but the touring and tourism side was way behind. Lots of overseas pros would use Stellenbosch as a training base, for example, but not venture much further.
“We had Strava heatmaps on the wall of my office – all these glowing nodes. All we had to do was connect them, and surely, the people would come.”
So planning began in earnest; and Rob Dormehl, founder-owner-guru of the Garden Route Trail Park, was commissioned to build a test route above his trails that would serve as the blueprint for the rest of the route. Purpose-built, yet not quite singletrack; wide enough that loaded touring bikes could pass; with gentle gradients, and no technical difficulties.
Tammy de Decker, the Minister’s Chief of Staff, drove the project hard; and her husband Zane was soon dragged into the mêlée. “It started with Tam asking me for some advice, what I thought about the project,” says Zane. “She had an oversight role of the team implementing it.
“I went to the official launch of the route near Knysna, which was 5km of technical singletrack, purpose-built on private land. I could see that the project was on the wrong path (excuse the pun), for several reasons; and I made some suggestions to her and the team, which were well received.
“It just rolled on from there; and the next thing I knew, I was mapping the routes and giving input into all other aspects of the project.”
What a blessing Zane’s wrong-place-wrong-time turned out to be. As an experienced cycle tourist – having biked in 14 countries, including a successful Tour Divide in Canada and the US – Zane came into the project with a different view: the routes should be for touring, not mountain biking. Actually, it was the same view the team had had at the outset, but enthusiasm had got the better of them.
“We’d strayed into an elite outlook,” remembers Winde. “It wasn’t a conscious decision – we just naturally channelled our riding needs into it, and those of our mates, and ended up trying to create the perfect 700km singletrack experience, rather than an enthusiast’s route that could be tackled by anyone.”
DIVIDED OPINON
The new direction was modelled on Zane’s Tour Divide experience. The TD is a great route that is 100% publicly accessible without permits, 24/7/365, with zero cost or barriers to entry; just rock up and ride, with the knowledge that it’s a worthy route. And rather than prescribing exact trails, start points and destinations, have a basic guide to services (food, shelter, water) along the way.
This has worked superbly on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, the 5 000km route that links Banff, Canada, to Antelope Wells on the US-Mexican border, following the spine of the Rocky Mountains. It takes the hassle out of planning it yourself, but still leaves plenty of scope for adventure along the way.
The US-based Adventure Cycling Association’s mission says it best: “The Adventure Cycling Association has never envisioned The Great Divide to be a hard-core mountain-bike trail full of singletracks. The route has been designed to provide a riding experience primarily on very low-trafficked roads, through mostly undeveloped areas of the Rocky Mountains.”
The biggest difference would be scale; there are gaps on the Great Divide route of 250km with no services. The Cape
version set out to make the longest gap here only 40 to 50km – for the safety of riders in the African summer sun, but also to make it attractive to a broader range of cycling abilities, possibly even to non-cyclists.
Back to the drawing board, then; and further outside help was seconded in the form of Steve and Di Thomas, who besides running Day Trippers – one of the original cycle-holiday outfits in South Africa – are also both ▶reedom Challenge veterans.
There are few who know the Western Cape’s mish-mash of gravel roads better, and the finalisation of the first of five budgeted routes came quickly; the Cross Cape would be a 742km journey from Plett to Stellenbosch, a route that was not only excellent cycling, but also included many smaller towns along the route that need the exposure for economic benefit.
A launch ride was held in May 2017. MEC Winde rode the full distance, as did Tammy and Zane, on a tandem [Yes, they are
still married – Ed.], and a small collection of guest riders. The launch ride took eight days, which is probably the shortest time you could take to do the whole thing and still enjoy it. But it did create a legacy for the route that has proved hard to undo: it’s still viewed as a 742km ride.
Rather than what it actually is: a modular compilation of 35-odd units that riders can slot together to create their own personalised route, customised to their own time constraints, fitness and wanderlust.
With the Cross Cape up and running, attention then turned to the follow-on routes. The Cederberg Circuit was next, a 247km loop that offers rugged mountain riding; followed by Cycle Tour 364 and the Overberg Meander.
The planning principles were the same for all the routes – manageable modules, 100% public roads, open 24/7/365 (except for Cycle Tour 364, which is closed on the day of the Cape Town Cycle Tour), exposing adventurers to South Africa, and exposing local businesses to tourists.
IS IT WORKING?
So, how do we measure the success of the project – has WESGRO, the marketing arm of Western Cape Tourism, spent its money well, and wisely?
For Winde, the measure of its success was a steaming pile of poo. True story: on the launch ride, a small group left the official route to explore some of Rob Dormehl’s trail from the early stages of the project. Around a corner they came, and there lay a small mound of elephant scat. Okay, not quite steaming; but fresh enough.
“That, for me, was the highlight of the entire project. We’d built something that allows people from all over the world to come and explore our province, in an eco-friendly and healthy
That, for me, was the highlight of the entire project. We’d built something that allows people from all over the world to come and explore our province, in an eco-friendly and healthy way...
way, and stumble across fresh elephant dung. Who knows what other adventures could be out there?
“It’s all about creating possibilities. And I think we’ve done that, by building a platform for people to get out and enjoy so much more than the inside of a rental car.”
As an all-in adventure, we can measure its success (perhaps not terribly scientifically) by the number of people I personally know who were on the trail in December 2019, as I did my own solo tour along it – 23 riders, ranging from Epic top-tenners to small family groups. Not all of them did the full trail, though most did; and not all of them did it in eight days.
Tag onto that number at least two dozen more that friends have mentioned they knew were doing it over the festive season, and it’s clear the Cross Cape route continues to be a success. By all accounts, the route has seen a measurable increase in bicycle traffic, both local and foreign – though granted, that measure is from asking accommodation venues and restaurants along the route for their feel, rather than hard numbers.
The Cederberg Circuit is particularly popular – there’s hardly a weekend that there aren’t groups of riders on at least portions of it, with many Western Cape road clubs planning and executing weekends away with their mountain bikes.
Monika Naude manages tourism marketing on the Namaqua West Coast, and even though none of the Cape Cycle Routes pass through her turf, she has felt the impact they’ve had on cycle tourism in her region.
“Tammy spent numerous weekends scouting the Weskus, trying to find a route that made sense from a cycling perspective as well as from Tourism’s side.” Unfortunately, the West Coast has a plethora of tar roads, and a scratchy selection of very sandy gravel roads.
“A marketing challenge from our side was to find ways to link into the exciting marketing and growth that the Cape Cycle Routes have brought into the province. What we’ve done to link to the concept is develop a few routes, maps and events around the cycling theme.
“Cederberg has a great MTB map, and Namaqua West Coast has launched the Viswater MTB route along our coast. Exciting new events that tie in are the Rooibos2Muisbos MTB ride, and the Namaqua X, an MTB, paddling and beach-running event.”
So there’s no question: if the cyclists weren’t coming, they wouldn’t be building.
WHAT’S NEXT
The Western Cape has been captured: the final route is in the process of being launched.
It’s a collaboration between the Vivid Bike Co and WESGRO that will take riders from Knysna through Uniondale, Kamanassie, De Rust, Prince Albert and over the Swartberg Pass, for a journey from the lush coast to the fringes of the inhospitable Great Karoo (but without actually spending too much time in it, for fear of desiccation).
Now it’s up to us to get out there and enjoy it.
Now is also the time for other provinces to use the template. They have the roads, the infrastructure, the beauty and the hospitality; all they need is the will – and a driver.
“It’s actually a lot easier than it might seem,” says Zane de Decker. “It’s less about ‘creating’ a route and more about mapping it out and promoting it. Put simply: draw the right lines on a map; add a little bit of relevant info (distances, towns, and
route profiles); give it a name; and start to promote it.
“We have so many back-country roads that are ideal for this kind of cycle touring, all over South Africa – there’s no need to build routes. →ust showcase and highlight what’s there already, and package it in a manner that entices people to get out there and ride it.
“Quite frankly, this could very easily be done privately – as it already has been by Steve Thomas, for example, with the Dragon’s Spine route [Musina to Cape Town via the Drakensberg,
with a healthy allergy to tar – Ed.]. But I guess the point is that if it has the government’s stamp of approval, it then becomes ‘official’, and more marketable.”
What’s next, then, is for an Alan, a Tammy or a Zane outside the borders of the Western Cape to raise their hand and make it happen. The template is there; and the people already involved are more than happy to spend ‘ten minutes’ – over four or more coffees – to help and advise.