MAKHADO (LOUIS TRICHARDT) – The organizers of the Kremetart One-day Stage Race, the P&L Hardware Cycling Club, have been approached by Dave Bellairs, the chairman of the Pick ‘n Pay Cape Argus Cycle Tour, with a view of having the Kremetart as one of their qualifying and seeding events.

In future, there will be about eight events spread throughout South Africa and cyclists will have to participate in at least one of these in order to gain a place in the Pick ‘n Pay Cape Argus Cycle Tour. It became necessary to introduce a qualifying system for the Pick ‘n Pay Cape Argus Cycle Tour last year, as 35 000 cyclists applied to enter the tour in the first 63 hours after entries opened. It was unfair to those who were unable to enter simply because they did not have access to the internet during this period.

Bellairs flew up from the Cape to meet with representatives of the P&L Hardware Cycling Club last week. He told the club that he had heard many reports that the Kremetart was among the best organized races in South Africa. Another criterion they looked at was that some of the money generated by the race is invested in the community again. In this regard, the Kremetart scored high marks, as Round Table Zoutpansberg 66, the Blouberg Dutch Reformed Church at Vivo and the Waterpoort Women’s Agricultural Union received about R40 000 for providing meals and services to the cyclists in this year’s Kremetart.

Among the advantages of having the Kremetart associated with the Pick ‘n Pay Cape Argus Cycle Tour is that it will benefit from the tremendous advertising budget of the Pick ‘n Pay Cape Argus Cycle Tour and will lower timing costs to the club. Although there are a few issues still to be resolved, the local club will know within about a month whether or not it has been selected as a Pick ‘n Pay Cape Argus Cycle Tour qualifying event.