About 45 people were hospitalised during the Argus Cycle Tour in Cape Town, two of them with suspected heart attacks, doctors at the race said on Sunday.
”We had two serious head injuries, a third with a fractured hip and pelvis and two patients, both in their sixties, with unconfirmed heart attacks. They’re in hospital having tests done,” said Dr Basil Bonner, head of the emergency unit at the Milnerton Medi-Clinic.
A total of 75 incidents were reported.
Speaking from the medical tent at the finish line, the clinic’s Dr Sue le Roux said there had been ”a lot” of cases of chest pain, which could have been heart-related or due to other causes like bronchitis.
”We had a lot of very tired people. The rub tent has been particularly busy.
”I would have expected more, given the heat,” she said.
In the medical tent at the finish at Greenpoint a handful of people were reclining on beds or sitting on chairs waiting for paramedics to attend to them.
Rudi Oosterhuis (17) from Gauteng, who had completed his first Argus, said he collided with a marshal while coming around a bend at about 60km/h.
”I smacked into him with my head. I blacked out a little bit. He also blacked out. I got back on my bike and finished. I’ve just got a bit of a headache now.”
Capetonian Abubakr Abrahams entered the race for the first time after a bet with an uncle that he couldn’t complete it in under four hours. He lost the bet.
Someone on a mountain bike cut in front him while he was cycling down from Cape Point. He over-steered, fell off and slid along the road on his stomach. With his helmet still strapped to his head, two bloodied knees and torn cycling shorts, he sat smiling, waiting for a medic to see to him.
”The fall didn’t hurt, but the two guys who went over me, that hurt like hell,” he said.
”When you conquer Suikerbossie, you can’t help but smile. It’s everything people said it would be.” – Sapa