![Sample our Humanities journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5939/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Humanities.jpg"})
Abstract
Segregated sport was a source of bitter conflict in apartheid South Africa. This paper focuses on cycle sport in apartheid-era Natal, concentrating on the circumstances which led to the rise and ultimately to the demise of one specific multiracial Durban cycling club: the ‘Triangle Cycling Club.’ Based on a mixed research methodology, it explores the impact on the micro-level of the state’s changing sports policies on local cycle sport over the last quarter of the twentieth century. It examines the effects which these had as they coincided with the sudden unanticipated influx into cycle sport of veteran competitors from endurance sports. It explores the philosophy on which Triangle CC was founded, identifies the sporting achievements of the club’s leading members and details the great ‘Adventure Tour’ to Cape Town in 1991. Finally, it reflects on the demise of the club and of traditional cycle sport in the 1990s as enthusiasm for new forms of cycling such as ‘mountain biking’ and mass-participation ‘sportives’ reached new heights.
Author Biography
GEOFF WATERS (1943 - 2018) was a senior lecturer in Sociology at UND, later UKZN, with a special interest in urban life and culture. On his retirement in 2003 he spent much of his time studying the homelessness in Durban's inner city. He was also a keen cyclist and cycling historian, especially relating to the history of South African cycling during the colonial and apartheid eras.
Notes
1 W. Jowett, Centenary: 100 Years of Organised South African Cycle Racing (Pietermaritzburg: South African Cycling Federation, 1980).
2 Ibid., 18. The City club still exists today.
3 His informed consent was obtained in advance, he was keen for the project to be undertaken and was happy for his name to be used.
4 The NCU was established in 1955. It followed on the split in the South African Amateur Athletic and Cycling Association (SAAA&CA) which led to the establishment of the South African Cycling Federation (SACF).
5 The following were the distinctive colours of the cycling jerseys worn by the various ACUNA clubs: Albion CC (Pmb.), Black & Yellow; Alpha CC (Dbn.), Red, Yellow & Black; Bayview Wheelers (Dbn.) Green & Orange; Liberty Wheelers (Dbn.) Orange, Blue & White; Steigers Wheelers (Escourt) White; Vigilante CC (Dbn.), Red, Blue & White: see 1975 ACUNA Durban track meeting programme.
6 In the Senior division, provincial teams were entered by Natal, Eastern Province, Griqualand West, and Western Province. In the Junior division, provincial teams were entered by Natal, Eastern Province, Griqualand West, Western Province, and Border. In the Juvenile division, provincial teams were entered by Natal, Eastern Province, and Griqualand West. In addition, in each category there were riders entered by their respective clubs: see 1974 SACA National Road Championships programme.
7 The Natal winner of the Junior title was Ernest Hartell; the Natal Juveniles were Rodney Isaacs (first), Sean Thring (second) and K. Matthews (third); Benny Severs of Natal finished fourth in the Senior division won by Peter Nicholson (Yorkshire CC) with Billy Newman (Western Province) second.
8 The Kings Park stadium, located near to Durban’s beachfront, was built in 1957 when the Lords ground track was demolished. Having a fast cement surface, the new track was chosen as the venue for the 1958 SACF national track championships over the Easter weekend.
9 In this regard, see D. Booth, ‘The South African Council on Sport and the Political Antinomies of the Sports Boycott’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 23, 1 (March 1997): 51–66, and M. Keech, ‘South Africa’s Sport Policies: Contest, Conflict and Resistance in South Africa’s Sport Policies’ in J.P. Sugden and A. Tomlinson, eds, A Critical Sociology of Sport (Routledge: London, 2002), 161–80.
10 According to the programme for the ACUNA track meeting at Durban’s Kings Park stadium in 1975, the number of participants were: Seniors-16 riders; Juniors-16 riders; Juveniles-18. Total: 50 riders.
11 Cyril Geoghegan (pronounced ‘Gaygan’), after whom the stadium is named, was a leading Natal cyclist in the pre-World War II period when he held many provincial and national cycling titles. He subsequently served as the South African Cycling Federation (SACF) president for 11 consecutive years between 1961 and 1971. He is reputed to have obtained the plans for the new track from a cycling contact of his in Australia.
12 The standard dimensions for Olympic cycling velodromes were later revised by the Unione Cyclisme Internationale. These are now built indoors with each oval lap being 250 metres in length.
13 Many of the runners had participated in the annual Durban-Pietermaritzburg ‘Comrades Marathon’ while the canoeists had taken part in the ‘Dusi Marathon’ between Pietermaritzburg and Durban.
14 ‘Fun rides’ are also widely referred to as ‘sportives’ or ‘gran fondos’. They are mass-participation events usually held annually over various distances and differ from conventional races in seeking to include riders of widely varying abilities and different types of machines.
15 Wilma van Niekerk won the women’s event in the Pietermaritzburg–Durban event in 1986, 1987, 1988, and 1990. She finished second in 1991.
16 Triangle Cycling Club, Annual Report 1989.
17 Cape Town Cycle Tour, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Town_Cycle_Tour (accessed 30 October 2018).
18 Tsogo Sun Amashova, ‘History’, http://www.shova.co.za/history/# Past Results (accessed 30 October, 2018).