First Official Day of TDU

Today was the first official day of the Tour Down Under, featuring a 149 km stage from Prospect, just outside of Central Adelaide, and running north to Clare. The weather forecast was for clear skies and a high temperature of 40 C, or 104 F, although we learned later that the high had actually been nearly 44 C, or about 110 F.

After breakfast, we started out in the van for Gawler, about 40 km north of Adelaide, and from there Bill, Tony and I rode out with George and Kevin for a 60k ride (about 37 miles) through the countryside. It was a pretty hilly ride, arid and extremely windy, taking us past some vineyards and horse farms, and over a couple of short but very challenging climbs. These included one about 2/3 of the way through that featured a 10-12% grade for about a mile. The weather was the real challenge, though. I finished my one water bottle, plus another that I bought at a store along the way, plus all of Kevin's as we got near the end, and then nearly two liters in the van. It was really tough for all of us, but all survived. That kind of heat is tough anytime – but we're not exactly acclimated to it in January.

Once we finished up, we were already late for an appointment with a helicopter for a peleton flyover, so we piled into the van and tore down the road toward Kapunda. We were making good time until we reached a roadblock, where it turned out that the riders were expected to pass shortly. George went up to talk to the police officer and then waved us up toward the front just as the motorcycles, official cars and then the peloton came by and turned left onto our road. They waved us across onto the back of the procession and from there we followed right behind the riders into Kapunda, with spectators waving at us the whole way.

In Kapunda we somehow managed to find the helicopter still waiting for us, even though we were 30 minutes late, and it took us out in two separate groups for a short flight to catch up with the race, and then over the caravan and the peleton. The ride was great – over the arid, brown landscape, finally finding the race and hovering over the peleton as it streamed through the countryside. Unlike the Tour de France, there was only one official helicopter and ours, so we were able to get pretty close for a great view.

The photos don't really do it justice. It really was so exciting to see it from that vantage point. After we landed, we found a pub there in the town and had some beer (it being 3:00 p.m., after all). I don't think the locals in the pub had seen out-of-towners in a VERY long time. Finally we headed back to Adelaide for another long, delightful dinner. Yet another great day for the books.