The Man himself and the 160k

Not many people can attain such a cult following. It happened with the Victoria government paying Tiger Woods to come to Melbourne to play a game of golf and the deal paid off handsomely.

Lance Armstrong twittered " who wants to come for a ride in Glenelg with him and Robbie McEwen and close to 7000 cyclist turned up".

The guy has won 7 Tour De France. In an interview, a reported asked "Lance, what are you on?" (trying to instigate that he was on drugs). His reply "I'm on my freaking bike 6-7 hours a day".
The Tour De France is the pinnacle of cycling. Basically, it involves cycling anywhere from 120-200+km per day, everyday, for close to 3 weeks.

SO I asked myself, what could it be like cycling a stage of the Tour Down Under in Adelaide. We started at 6.30am and the professional racers will ride the same course but starting at 10.30 (so we got a 4 hrs head start). 8000+ riders signed up, and we got the SA police closing most roads for us out of the city, you could not ask for more.
160km...with a hill thrown in. It reached 12-13% gradient at some parts.


Australia's version of the devil girl greeting you as you get past the final climb.

This guys obviously did it on a MTB.

8000 riders, so you need plenty of rails for bikes.
I finished in 5.5hrs. Frankly, I dun think I couls do it again the next day. The legs were actually pretty good but the neck was stiff as!
No picture of me after the race. Mate said, I looked like 'shit'. U get cramps in places you never thought possible.

Here's me in the final stage race in the City itself.
Saxo in the lead


Lance, the man himself in the pack.

HTC protecting Griepel
Australia's Cadel Evans
And Mike, the Guy flys in, in his private Jet Stream, he flew out the same night. Its pretty hard to get close to him.

PS: Cat, there was actually study whereby a client with kidney failure decided to eat heaps of bananas and died from the potassium overload! His heart could not take it.

I ate 6 bananas that day!!

The Killer: Ride to Stirling

When you got no car, the bike's the next best transport but defintely not on a 40c day.
For people who remember Glen Osmond and the freeway up to Mount Lofty and then Stirling, basically that was where the race was gonna be ending that day. So we RODE up it and boy, I almost died when I got there. Unlike rolling hills whereby there is up and downs, its just up, up and more up, no chance for you to catch your breath.

The Peloton rolling past.
Skoda, the official Tour cars. Rather than the cars, the point I was trying to make was that those people driving them must all by qualified to drive in car rallies. The corners they take; lets just say I would stay ON the footpath.

What is priceless: On the way back, I had the Astana, BMC, French Team riders flying past me back to the city. I was coasting down from Stirling at 60-70km/hr holding on to dear life (and the brakes) and these guys are just zooming past me!
Now I know why bike riders break collarbones so easily, even a guy on a motorbike has more padding than me!

Eye Candy

Team Sky's Chris Sutton winning the last day of the race in the heart of Adelaide.

The new Pinarello Dogma 60.1 running Shimano's Di2. And the Prototype C50.
Spesh's new Tarmac SL3.

Feels like home...

Its hard to describe but when you've been away from Adelaide for that long, it somehow still feels like you're coming back home. Maybe its cos my good friend and hsemate for 4 years is still there. Or maybe its cos you look down a street or turn your head and you can tell exactly (or most of the time) whats round the corner, where are the good cafes.
Mate, Mihkel and me after touching down in the early hours of the morning having breaky in the city.
Adiemus and wife, Debbie. Stayed a few days at their newly built house in Adelaide.

Occupation Hazard: I pry into people's pantry when they are not looking. I wake up pretty early even without the alarm clock and was roaming through the house. (Cup-a-soups; what I like to refer to as just a bigger packet of salt sachet)
Trust me, Cat. I go through yours as well ;)
Well, if I'm going through your pantry, it also means I consider you a pretty close friend.
Team cars packed in Victoria Square, near the central markets
Nothing has changed too much. KY CHow is still there, but changed location, still on Gouger. Went to some of the cafes on King William street. Had lunch at Hong Fatt.
Glenlg, unfortunately is now lined with high rise apartments.