South Africa: Cycle Tour Categorised As a 'Rolling Disaster' - - but One That Inspires Cape Town

By Craig Ray

The 48th staging of the Cape Town Cycle Tour - the 109km loop around the Mother City on 8 March - continues the tradition of innovation in 2026.

Cape Town Cycle Tour chief executive Dave Bellairs' phone pings regularly during the 30 minutes or so he carved out to speak to Daily Maverick about this year's race.

It's a week to the race and he is busy - sponsors, riders, city officials, disaster management agencies and his own staff all need him, seemingly all the time.

The City of Cape Town, which benefits hugely from the cycle tour as a revenue driver, actually treats the staging of the race as a "rolling disaster".

While the race takes place on the roads of the Peninsula, the "brain" of the operation is located at the Provincial Joint Operations Centre (JOC) at Tygerberg Hospital.

This facility serves as the disaster management centre for the Western Cape. All essential services, including the on-the-day race director, Mike Simpson, are based here to monitor every kilometre of the course.

Because the event covers a vast area with 30,000 participants, it serves as the "perfect test case" for the province to trial its emergency systems, call-dispatching protocols and inter-departmental communications.

It brings together a massive network of support, including emergency medical services from the City and provincial government, MediClinic and various private ambulance services.

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