Day 1: Adelaide to Victor Harbor
What a day! We rolled out of Adelaide around 8 this morning led by Anna Meares Word Champion track cyclist, Gold medalist at London 2012 and Olympic swimmer Matt Welsh … awesome athletes and great people. 65 riders in a single peloton, brand new Lexus support vehicles, a Police escort and a green light corridor gave everyone a buzz and gave the whole thing the feel of a pro cycling event. The only things missing were the overhead choppers and a Phil Liggett commentary!
Today was a short day by TDC standards, which was a nice way to start the Tour. It always takes a day or two for the group to settle into a smooth rhythm, and not having ridden for a few days it was great to be able to turn the legs over and ride out those first day nerves. No school visits today as it’s still Easter holidays so we rolled through to Willunga pretty much without a break. Willunga is the home of Willunga Hill, which was our only to real climb of the day. Someone had the bright idea of having an individual time trial up the Hill, so after a brief stop we set off uphill at 15 second intervals riding against the clock. Being the competitive bunch that we are everyone gave the climb a bit of a go – the times haven’t been published yet, but it felt surprisingly good … which I guess is a reflection of all the meters climbed during training!
After the climb we rode through some beautiful undulating terrain, at one point picking up a healthy tail wind that had us eating up the distance at 45+ km’s an hour – nice! We rolled into beautiful Victor Harbor on schedule in the early afternoon and then had a couple of hours of fun the kids from with Camp Quality on a stunning South Australian afternoon. Sue and Barry, a couple of old friends from the UK, showed up to cap a day.
Tomorrow is the first if the Guest Rider stages so we’ve been joined by an additional 14 riders who’ll ride with us for the next two days. It’s a longer day tomorrow; we have to cover the 180kms to Meningie so it’s an early start which means I need to get some sleep now!
Anna Meares – World Champion & Olympic Gold Medalist
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