Feel the rush - Tour Down Under 2016

It's been that time of year again when Adelaide goes crazy for all things bike. Pros, amateurs, social riders and everything in between comes to town in one big party. And this year we had the week off to enjoy it! 

The first official day of the tour went out to the Barossa, but somebody forgot to mention it to the weather. Instead of the postcard perfect blue skies and vineyards the Barossa is famed for, we got wind, dust, heat and rain. I felt sorry for the peloton as they struggled in these conditions, getting faces full of dust as they headed to Lyndoch. 


I was perched on Yettie Road with the camera and I'm not sure I've ever seen pros ride that slow, the wind, dust and Whispering Wall all taking their toll. But there were three guys in the break, doing it tough, struggling to stay away and making the race interesting. The last one held on until about 20 km to go and then it was a bunch sprint to the line. Caleb Ewan of Orica Greenedge managed to squeeze through and nab the win. Definitely a hard day out for the guys.

The girls also did it tough that day (and the previous three) with the heat and the humidity making for a draining criterium race that was the final of the Santos Women's Tour. They raced hard and fast while I dripped sweat and took pictures. Their faces say it all really, these were some really tough ladies and this year they were racing for international points, so there was some serious international competition. Kimberly Wells (High5 Dream Team) won the criterium, but Katrina Garfoot (Orica Greenedge), the Australian time trial champion won the series.

Day two saw us head up to Stirling to catch up with friends, eat cheese and watch the race. We snagged a prime position 500 m from the finishing line thanks to a mate who happens to live at this convenient location. The riders came by six times, so there was plenty of time to get a few happy snaps. The highlight of this stage was Adam Hansen deciding to do a one man time trialling effort for most of the race. Maybe the rest of the peloton stank, because he did not want anything to do with them and sat off the front of the race for five out of the six laps. It was awesome to capture this cycling legend doing what he does best!

Corkscrew was the highlight of the third day of racing, with the riders tackling this tough climb and often equally challenging descent. I've only ridden the descent a couple of times and I don't remember it being super technical, but it always seems to cause the pros grief, either with mechanicals or crashes, so something must be going on!

Anyway, Mr Carl and I wanted to spin the legs over in preparation for the Challenge Tour the next day, so we thought we'd ride up to the Corkscrew turn off with the point and clicks. We actually ended up at the base of the climb after trying to find good spots to take photos. The front of the peloton were going hard when they reached us, but there were a lot of riders that had done their job for the day, or been involved in crashes, and were happy just to take it easy up the climb. They didn't seem to be too keen on carrying their water bottles either and Mr Carl scored two souvenirs.

Finally it was Friday and our turn to ride. And hurt. And ride some more. The Challenge Tour was here. Sometimes I think the biggest challenge of the challenge tour is riding with so many other people of varying skill levels. We also had the additional challenge of a storm going through the night before and leaving a lot of rubbish on the road. But for once nobody want to be a hero, at least where I was riding, and as we climbed up Norton Summit people seemed to take it easy and look out for one another.

There were two surprises waiting at the top of Norton Summit. One was Cadel Evans, the other was our mate waving his crank about. Apparently he broke a bolt. I have suspicions that he'd spotted Cadel, put the power down and snapped it, but they have yet to be confirmed. He later managed to fix the bike a local bike store, though did have to spend the last 20km tightening the replacement bolt as it didn't fit all that well.

From Norton Summit, the ride was undulating, though I mostly remember a lot of up. I also remember being my own personal shower as the humidity was horrendous. Someone had forgotten to tell the weather about our pleasant, mediterranean climate and substituted it with something from the tropics! Eventually the humidity eased off and then it started to get hot.

Except it didn't. We had about half an hour where you could start to feel the radiant heat from the road and then it backed off. When we came to the second to last rest stop we found out why. There was a storm headed straight for us! 60 km/hr winds, lightning, all the fun things you really want when you're just about to pedal up the King of the Mountain! We were booted out of that rest stop and told to hurry, which is easier said than done when you're facing a hill that gets up to 10% gradient.

So off we went. At least it wasn't too hot and the humidity had died down. But the hill awaited us. And what a hill it was. Deceptive at first, at the 5 km to go sign the road was flat even a little down hill. Same for the 4 km to go and the 3 km to go only kicked a little bit. 

But at 2 km to go, the hill kicked hard and the grinding started. Slowly, about 7 km/hr, I pushed my way to the 1 km to go sign. And then the hill really decided to turn it up. That last kilometer took all my stubbornness, but I wasn't going to get off. And I didn't! The view from the top was almost worth it and even better, we had yet to be rained on or struck by lightning! So on to Victor Harbor.

We rolled into Victor Harbor with no real issues and well before the peloton, although there were some unpleasant rises in the last 10 km. To avoid the rain we thought was coming we jumped on a bus and headed back to Adelaide. What we didn't know was that the storm that was meant to hit us had actually taken out Adelaide! At least we didn't get wet!

Saturday was the Queen Stage at Willunga Hill and like previous years we joined some mates for a barbie in a prime position. We got there a little late due to a certain amount of exhaustion, but still managed to drag the cameras out and take a few snaps. A breakaway tried hard to stay away, but the peleton were in full swing and hardly let them have any time before the headed up Willunga Hill. Richie Porte (BMC) danced everyone off his wheel and took the stage win, but Simon Gerrans (Orica Greenedge) still had a nine second lead in the general classification.


 

Nine seconds doesn't sound like much, but when the final stage is a criterium, there's not much opportunity to get that time back. The final stage saw us reunited with many friends on the corner of King William and War Memorial taking pictures like there was no tomorrow! Well, there was certainly no race tomorrow! 

The riders went round and round as we swapped lenses, tried different positions and generally had fun with the cameras. No idea what was going on the race, but I figured the general classification wasn't going to change much so I might as well take photos.

And with that final click of the camera, the Tour Down Under was done for another year and I had a lot of photos to process. Some of my favourite photos were not of the pros, but of the casual cyclists riding each of the stages and the spectators cheering them on. So I put together this video to celebrate what I love about the Tour Down Under, the cycling community that makes it so special!