- Last year produced one of the best CTCT race days in history, regarding weather.
- Table Mountain’s unique topography makes weather the one thing that can upend even the most prepared CTCT rider.
- The prediction for Sunday is typical autumn, a month early. With cool temperatures and rain.
Cape Town and its 'four-seasons-in-a-day'. Local riders will vehemently deny that the city’s weather conditions are temperamentally unpredictable. But visitors know otherwise.
Lifelong Cape Town riders believe their city has set weather patterns. For most upcountry riders, there seems to be only one: wind. And often, too much of it.
Prominent mountains and large bodies of water create weather. With a route that winds between the mountain and ocean, the CTCT has both – in abundance.
Be careful in the wet
Riders should always be prepared to accept varying weather along the route. Each part of the CTCT adheres to its microclimate.
Colder conditions are always better than a sweltering day on the bike. And the prediction for Sunday morning is cool, with an average of 17 degrees Celsius.
Rain will feature along the route from 07:00-09:00. Riders in the later start batches are more likely to have a drier race.
Experienced CTCT riders will know that nothing humbles those sub 3-hour ambitions quite like wind. The hope is always for a windless start, followed by a gentle push as riders reach Cape Point and turn - with a southerly breeze assisting the field from Cape Point to the Sea Point finish.
Wind conditions might help you home - near the end
Rainy Cape Town weather is usually accompanied by a north-westerly wind, which helps from the CTCT start to Cape Point. But that north-westerly wind works against riders as they roll towards Scarborough and back up the peninsula.
Nature promises to deliver a fair compromise for Sunday, with a light south-westerly. Riders should be shielded from this wind during the first half of their CTCT, and on the turn at Cape Point, it won’t work against them, breezing in from the side.
The south-westerly will be a tailwind from Kommetjie to Masiphumelele. And should give the field a gentle push from the top of Suikerbossie to the finish.
