City Cycles –

Established in 1891 in Cape Town as City Cycling & Athletic Club, we always used the Green Point Velodrome/Stadium to train on.

I have not been a member of that club for a long time but I still have my club jersey as you can see in the photo, it has come a long way with me, all the way to Australia.

When I think of City Cycles Tony Roberts comes to mind, he would walk with his hands behind his back wearing his famous silver grey pants from across the concrete down towards the grass and back up again against the gradient of the race track watching us and drilling us through our routines.

Although I was never a track cyclist, neither had the desire to do it, this is where we would come to cross train on Tuesday evenings.

I was glad for it as it harnessed agility, speed, good reflexes and great bicycle handling skills.

And although it was only training we were extremely competitive. I remember Mark Blewitt, Ian Gallard, Victor Johnstone, Boyde Roberts, Tyson Unga, Richard Prowse and David Cloete to name a few who cycled for this club.

One cold autumn morning we were up early and ready to race a Hill Climb Premium up Kloof Neck from the Camps Bay side all the way to the end of Signal Hill. There was no real respite and you had to go as hard as you could all of the way as most of the club riders were very good climbers.

We started in order of our SACF (South African Cycling Federation) points and so the riders with the lesser positions on the points system started first, after only a few riders had set off, there was an altercation between the bigger guns and the organization, in the end half of us or shall I say the top riders left City to ride for other club houses.

I left and joined Peninsula Cycles but I will not forget my first ever Cycling Club; City Cycles.

Tony Roberts:

Some time had passed since our split at City and I was to race The Bay City Tour which started a little ways from the foot of the first climb of the day, early in the morning, the by now world famous Suikerbossie but from the long side.

To start this race there meant you would have to climb to the top at about 30km/ph if not faster and the short flat run towards the climb we did in excess of 60km/ph. Your heart was in your throat and many riders got shelled here.

Luckily for me at that stage I was not yet good enough to start with top guns, with the Titans or so the WPPPA (western province pedal power association) thought. This fact would lead to confrontation later on but that is a story for another day.

After Suikerbossie the next climb was Chapman’s Peak, then Ou Kaapse-Weg, Constantia Neck and Suikerbossie again. It was tuff by any riders’ standards.

I would begin in seeding section E…these guys seemed as if they were possessed, all they could see in front of them was not groups B,C or D but only group A and that is what they race for, I was in this group.

By this time I was fed up of starting in E, I was training just as hard as the very best, and in there company most of the time, I admit I was not yet 100% as good as they were but I deserved to be given the chance to race with them.

Within a short while after starting I and a few others had already dropped the rest of the entire group E.

By the time I was on Ou Kaapse-Weg I was already reeling in riders from group A, you can just imagine I was over the moon and there was no little doggie to laugh, but if there was a dish then I was it and I was riding away with the spoon.

Back at the finish as I was silently enjoying my ice cold Coca Cola and enjoying the exploits of the day, as the Coke always tasted better after a hard and long race but no other time in my opinion, Tony Roberts and his eldest son came waling up to me. His son had also raced that day, and apparently I had caught and passed so many A riders the likes of whom I don’t even remember as I was only looking forward to the finishing line.

“Where the f@#$*k did you learn to climb like that?” those were his exact words that day, I smiled and he continued to praise me and then greeted and walked away.