Tour Down Under Day 2 Wednesday

Today's stage started at Hahndorf which was about 6kms from where I was staying. So I left at 10am for a 11am start so I could take in the atmosphere.

It was fantastic and the dissapoinment of yesterday and missing the finish were soon forgotten. There were so many faces that I recognised from the Tour De France including Geert Coeman (Silence Lotto Manager) who I actually bumped into in the crowd.

Of course there was only one person that I really wanted to see, as did everybody else.

Lance in the media scrum

Nobody seemed to notice Mick Rogers roll by



After reading Lance's book in 2000, also known as "the book" he has been a sportsman that I have followed and admired what he has achieved. Part of the reason I was in Adeliade was that this was a chance to see him ride and ply his trade, he is definetly a once in a generation athlete.


After the buzz of Handorf it was back to Balhannah to see the first 2nd intermediate sprint at 57km. To get some riding in I headed out to Charleston which was 17km from the start. There were riders in bunches all along the road. I met a guy from Melbourne and we cycled up to Charleston, watched the sprint in Balhannah and then headed back to Stirling, for the finish.


The Breakaway


The Bunch


Got a souveneir at the sprint, Is it M for McEwen



The riders were doing three 20km laps of the finish circuit. We got to see the peleton whizz by several times, and heard that Jack Bobridge and Lance Armstrong had made a breakaway, they got caught soon after and the bunch sprinted home and the stage was won by Allan Davis.



The tour riders were all eating rehydrating and then riding back into the city, which was mainly downhill. If I had have been organised I would have joined in with a group and rode with them back to the city.

I didn't just hung out at the finish and met this guy.



And Phil was quite happy to chat to whoever came over and get a photo with whoever asked. I always thought he would be a good bloke and I was right.

Now it was all downhill back to Balhannah and a swim in the pool, as it had been a hot 37deg during the day.

Today was alot less in kms, about 80, and I got to see the riders a few more times, so it was another great day at the tour.