David at the Tour de France, and other Travel Adventures: From Sydney to Adelaide; First Day of the TDU

We left Sydney this morning in the pouring rain – the first bad weather we've seen, just after we were starting to think that the weather in Australia was always beautiful. The flight to Adelaide took less than two hours and was quite easy. Airport security was much simpler and more rational than in the U.S. – no shoe and jacket removal, no checking of ID and boarding passes (anyone can go to the gates as long as they go through security). Even the experience in the plane was better. It was more relaxed, without the militant anti-electronics approach we are used to; the seat belt light went off almost immediately after takeoff and was not put back on until just a couple of minutes before landing. We landed over an unexpectedly large, spread-out city, with the ocean on one side and a ridge of fairly high mountains on the other side.

Our two guides met us at the airport: George, who has been with us on all three trips to the Tour de France, and Kevin, a local who knows this area well. We all jammed into a van – scraping bottom with all of us, our luggage and bikes hanging off the back – and drove into the city. Our hotel is in the central part of the city, with the Central Railway Station and Parliament House just a couple of blocks away. The University of South Australia and several museums are also nearby.

After grabbing a late lunch, we got our bikes set up and took a quick spin around the central city, just to get oriented and get used to riding in traffic that travels on the left rather than the right. In addition, these bikes are cabled differently, with rear brakes operated with the left hand rather than the right, and front brakes on the right. It was a lot to think about, especially since we were in pretty heavy traffic almost immediately, navigating amid buses, a streetcar line and a lot of right turns at traffic lights. The hardest thing was getting used to glancing over your RIGHT shoulder for traffic, as well as turning right at multi-lane intersections. You'd move over to the right first, then hear the sound of cars overtaking you as you turned across the right lanes – but, of course, they were coming from behind on the left. Instinctively, though, it felt as if you were turning right in front of them. Confusing, but I think we've got it sorted out.

It's a lovely city, with beautiful parks, a narrow river and wide, clean streets, some with mountains rising in the distance.

After that was all taken care of, we set off for the Sunday Evening Criterium, which isn't officially a part of the Tour Down Under, but all of the teams and riders participated. On the way, we stopped in at another hotel to pick up some tour materials, and while we were standing in the lobby, Jens Voigt and some of the Leopard/Trek riders rode up and came in. They left their bikes by the front door and disappeared upstairs, but not before signing one of our bags.

Starting Lineup

We arrived at our viewing stand at the Start/Finish line just as the riders were starting to line up for the start, which took place just after 7 a.m.

The criterium is a race in which the riders make several laps around a set course – in this case a total of 30 laps. It seemed fairly casual at first, but as they got closer to the last laps, the whole field came together a bit more and the pace and degree of intensity was higher each time they sped past us. There were also special prizes called "primes" that were given out to the first rider across the line at several of the intermediate laps.

Here are a few photos and another video of the criterium, showing just how close we were to the action. As usual, Custom Getaways got us some prime viewing – with plenty of food and drink, and with uncrowded bathroom facilities close at hand. The temperature was probably in the mid-80s, with low humidity. It was really a beautiful day to be outside.