Dear aQuellé Tour Durban Entrant

Now that the dust has settled after this weekend’s aQuellé Tour Durban events, this is just a short note to say a huge thank you to all involved in making the event a success. To put an event of this nature together takes a whole plethora of people and organisations, ranging from sponsors and supporters, service providers, traffic and Metro police, ambulance staff, marshals and volunteers, members of the media – to probably the most important of all, the people that enter the event and who take part.

The organisers can all work for months to put a great event together, but without entrants, all the efforts are for nothing, so a huge thanks to all for participating. By competing and being involved, you also ensured that the good work being done by the Domino Foundation can continue for a while longer.

For some, it was yet another event they were competing in, while for others, it was their first time and perhaps the start of a whole new chapter.

We know that the new changes to the event format for this year were not universally popular, and we knew they were never going to be. There were always going to be questions asked, and fingers pointed by some people, about the fact that the prize money allocations were done away with – and there were always going to be opinions about how wrong we were to do this.

Everyone of course has the right to their opinion, and everyone was able to decide whether to enter the event or not if this was the most important element of the event for them – and of course some exercised that right.

The dearth of a couple of the larger local club’s jerseys on the road was noticeable, but at the same time, the abundance of jerseys and growth in numbers of participants from other clubs was also very noticeable. Hopefully, the more vocal of the detractors will be inspired to create some new events of their own, with lots of prizes and to get them on the annual calendar – and wouldn’t that also be a great thing.

It is good to note though that the general feedback received thus far is overwhelmingly supportive of the new direction and ideas introduced into the event. The shorter, family-friendly distances on the road and at the MTB event were well received, and will no doubt see growth going forward. And the new team competition, the King of the Mountain and Sprint competitions provided interest points for the people at the pointy end of the groups who wanted to ride hard and fast.

The focus was to ensure that we were able to stage a fun, family friendly and safe event as well as possible, so that everyone could have a good time and achieve what they wanted to achieve from their involvement, and for the most part, I believe that we achieved these aims. There were lots and lots of happy, smiling people on the trails on Saturday and on the roads on Sunday, and at the end of the day this is the marker of success.

That is not to say that I believe that everything went 100% to plan and all was perfect. This can never be the case, and regardless of how well an event goes, it’s never going to be, and nor should it ever be considered to be perfect, as we should always be aiming and striving to make things better in future editions. We try to learn from past mistakes, and will learn from mistakes made this year again, and that is how it should be.

The 2023 aQuellé Tour Durban is currently being wrapped up, and the washout meetings will be held soon to assist with the planning for the future. I again thank all those that got involved, and I wish you well in your events journey further. Remember that there are other great events that take place in various parts of this province and the country at large, and you are encouraged to take part if and whenever it is possible.

Thanks and kind regards

Alec Lenferna
Event Director