It's just after six in the morning - a few minutes before sunrise. Two huge floodlights on a pedestrian bridge illuminate the eight lanes of Hertzog Boulevard in the centre of Cape Town. Thousands of colourful cyclists wait between the high-rise buildings, restrained by law enforcement officers in neon-coloured waistcoats. They send the bikers behind barriers and divide them into groups of 400 to 500 riders with long ropes.
Pre-start atmosphere like every year at the Cape Argus Pick n Pay Cycle Tour. But something is different this year: the starters are more nervous than usual, the atmosphere is almost threatening. Gusts of wind of up to 100 kilometres per hour whistle through the urban canyons. Palm trees bend, advertising banners flutter loudly in the storm and tear themselves out of their fastenings piece by piece. Toilet blocks topple and crash to the ground.
Nevertheless, the starting signal is given at 6.15 am sharp. The starting groups are sent out onto the 109-kilometre course at three-minute intervals. The riders from 28 international professional teams take to the track in the first block. Among them is the eight-man "German National Team" with riders such as Robert Bartko, Olaf Pollack and Patrick Gretsch.
It takes more than four hours until the last participant is on the course. The conditions are extreme: out of 73 starting blocks, just two manage to get through the first hundred metres without (mass) crashing. Behind a subway, the storm blows so strongly that many riders are simply blown over. In the gusts, the cyclists can often only stay on their feet with the help of spectators. They clutch their racing bike, which is waving like a flag in the wind. "These were the worst weather conditions in the history of the Argus Tour," summarised race director David Bellairs the day after. And that's saying something: the first event was held 32 years ago.
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