It's The Tour Down Under

One of the great things about arriving in mid-January was that we got here in time for the Tour Down Under. This is still the beginning of the European season, so the pros love coming down for this race. True, the jet lag from Europe is a bummer, but the weather is great for training (in stark contrast to northern Europe in January), the hotel is great (the Hilton), and there are no transfers.

And we've spent a fair bit of time watching the TDU. The first Sunday we were here we went out to Rymill Park for the Down Under Classic, which has been renamed for its sponsor. It was a great criterium for viewing, with Lance coming out to play in the break and Team Sky appearing at the front with two laps to go to take their first win ever. On Wednesday Dave demoed a road bike from a local shop and went for a ride with some folks from Melbourne in the Adelaide Hills. Rode over Mt. Lofty to watch the finish of Stage 3 in the German hamlet of Hahndorf. On Saturday we rode with our landlords, Liz and Ryan, down to Willunga to watch the finish of the challenging Stage 5. Cadel Evans, who won the World Championship road race last year (becoming the first Australian ever to do so), went on the attack in his rainbow stripes and the crowd went crazy. He didn't manage to outfox the peloton, but he certainly won the hearts of South Australia. On Sunday a twisty crit in North Adelaide (Stage 6) finished off the race.

The pro factor is definitely big here. We've seen Lance, Cadel, Hincapie, Jens Voigt--a pretty sizeable part of the European peloton is here. Last Wednesday I went for a ride in the Adelaide Hills and saw the stage finish. On my way home, Saxo Bank steamed right by me on a recovery ride after the stage. Stuart O'Grady is truly as freckled as you might imagine. The riders are respected and idolized by a lot of folks here. I've seen people wearing every pro team uniform from Motorola and Mercatone Uno jerseys from the early 90s to last year's Katusha and Caisse d'Epargne strip. Imagine if every person you saw wearing a Patriots jersey was wearing a pro bike jersey instead. It's not quite that rampant, but it might be close.


What might be even bigger is the degree to which the cycling craze hits South Australia during the week of the TDU. It's been great--tons of cyclists of every sort. Last Saturday, we watched Lance's Twitter ride roll out in Glenelg. There were people on hybrid bikes pulling baby trailers and guys riding $10,000 bikes with their carbon race wheels on. Watching people riding around the city this week, it seems that most of them have a gleam in their eye. Commuters will do a little sprint through an intersection and then look to see if anyone caught them doing it. Lots and lots of weekend warriors have been taking time off to ride during the week. Adelaide is not unfriendly to cyclists, but it's not Europe by any means (I'd say it's about on par with the US-just assume drivers don't see you), so it's great to see so many people getting into it and raising the awareness level.


A few other observations:
- The TDU might be the only sporting event with its own theme song. Periodically during the stages, the poppy sounds of "Wheels in Motion" (or whatever it is called) could be heard from the loudspeakers around the finish area.
- Pro cyclists tend to be quite small. Except for some of the super-tall Belgian guys and time trialist types. The one thing that is not small is their thighs.
- There is some dude in a kangaroo suit and boxing gloves that is following the race around. Kind of cooler than longhorn helmet guy at the Tour de France.
- Despite the fact that everything cycling-related costs about 50% more here, there are a ton of high-end bikes. The number of >$5000 bikes (and that's in USD--we're in eight to ten thousand dollar territory) rolling around the stages at the TDU is staggering--and I could outride half of the people riding those bikes. Our friend Ryan explained it to us as "cycling is the new golf." There are definitely some very fit cyclists as well, but they were definitely the minority. At the finish in Hahndorf, there was enough carbon to build a fleet of ultralight aircraft.
- Like in the US, there is a bit of inter-state rivalry here. Melbourne seems to want to steal the TDU because they feel they are bigger, better, and somehow deserve to have it. South Australia's response is something along the lines of "so you want to steal it and muck it up like everything else you take--bugger off." Anyway, South Australia has been assured the TDU for at least the next three years, so stay posted.
- The riding here is pretty sweet. I imagine it is sort of comparable to San Diego--great year-round weather and diversity of terrain.
- Now, if we only had a couple of bikes. Coming soon...

Some more photos from the TDU are up here.