The sun was blazing in Nuriootpa for the start of stage 1 this morning. Alongside B and K, an Aussie couple I met at Saturday's team presentation, I set up my familiar Canadian flag over the barricade for the first time since September and waited for the sign on to begin.
While we had a great view of the riders, it wasn't the best spot for getting their attention. Worse, we got riders like Andre Greipel to nod that he would come over but then the commentators stole the riders away from us. Below: Lieuwe Westre giving an interview.
B and K helped me to put in some real work to gather 10 signatures. After giving a quick interview to a local TV station, I got to say hello to familiar faces like Robbie McEwan (who remembers driving with me at the Tour de France last year) and Luke Durbridge. Below: the peloton waiting at the start line.
There was a good turn out and the street was lined with eager spectators.
Start!
Left to right: Caleb Fairly, Richie Porte, Lachlan Morton, and Thomas Dekker.
Jack Bauer.
The caravan.
Today's 135km stage featured 2 identical laps followed by a right hand turn on the third and final lap to climb up Mengler's Hill.
UniSA and Drapac are the smaller teams at the TDU and we had predicted we'd see a representatives of those teams in a breakaway, so it was no surprise to see William Clarke of Drapac and Neil Van Der Ploeg of UniSA in a 2 man breakaway.
The peloton.
This was a straight and reasonably flat stretch so many riders took the opportunity to have a snack.
There were a couple of splits in the peloton. The final bunch is pictured below.
The road was open to all kinds of traffic between the first and second laps.
No change in the breakaway for lap 2!
The peloton was around two minutes behind.
Most of the riders had rejoined the peloton by now, though the peloton was much more stretched out this time round.
Jens Voigt, ever the social butterfly, happily yakking away with Lachlan Morton.
A big sky view of the vineyards below from the hill above.
B and K had done recon the previous day and picked a great spot before the summit but along the steepest portion. The time whizzed by as we rang our cowbells and yelled encouragement at the fans riding up the hill.
The hovering helicopter told us the peloton was approaching the foot of the climb.
Nathan Haas leading Sky's Nathan Earl and teammate Rohan Dennis.
Rohan Dennis.
Sprinters Steele Von Hoff and Andre Greipel were working hard but comfortably within the lead peloton.
Cyclists rode up the hill in lonely pairs and solo. Below: Bram Tankink.
William Clarke's reward for his time in the breakaway was to fall off the back of the peloton and ride alone.
Bernie Eisel shook his head and gave me an exaggerated tired look as I rang my cowbell and cheered him on.
After the last rider staggered by, we jumped in the car and listened to the final 200m of the race on the radio. What a close race! Traffic meant we wouldn't get to the awards podium in time, so we quickly hit up a vineyard before turning back towards Adelaide. It was an easy drive back to the city, made all the more entertaining by spotting team vans on the road. We saw Katusha and Drapac but the best was Lotto Belisol! We kept hitting the same red lights as them and I was tickled to see Adam Hansen, Andre Greipel, and the whole team vigorously waving back at me. (I ran into a few of the Lotto boys at the grocery store later in the evening and when I jokingly asked if they were following me, Andre replied, “Always!”)
I headed to the TDU village, along with half of Adelaide, and queued up to get an autograph from Sir Chris Hoy after watching half the riders drop off their bikes with their respective mechanics and walk back to their hotel. It's only been a few days but lots of riders already know me. Most of the guys on Giant Shimano now give me a nod and a smile whenever they see me.
Each team has a booth for their mechanics to work. Below: an OPQS mechanic works on Jan Bakelants' bike.
Results
1st Simon Gerrans (Australia, Orica GreenEdge)
2nd Andre Greipel (Germany, Lotto Belisol)
3rd Steele Von Hoff (Australia, Garmin)
Today's 13 autographs: 16 Bling Matthews, 27 Simon Geschke, 32 Adam Hansen, 35 Jurgen Roelandts, 52 Jay McCarthy, 61 Richie Porte, 73 Guillaume Bonnafond, 101 Maxim Belkov, 116 Anthony Roux, 145 Mark Renshaw, 146 Matteo Trentin, 157 Bram Tankink, and Sir Chris Hoy.