Adelaide Tour Stage 1

Wow!! What a way to come back. Today saw the start of the Adelaide Tour, stage 1 was a technical teams time trial down Gorge road, starting in Cuddlee Creek and finishing at the after the roundabout at the bottom, all up a windy 21km race. Riding for my hometown sponsors of Team Lightsview we had local knowledge on our side. 

Warm ups started for each of the guys on the team at close on half past ten, with a quarter past eleven starting time we had just enough to get in a good warm up which was certainly needed. Warmed up, signed on and lined up ready to leave, as soon as we were on our way it was the first climb of the day. Not too steep but hard enough to lose time if not prepared. As we reached the top everyone was pulling good turns, I led through the winding section and with a team of locals who ride the road weekly there was no dropping wheels. Taking tight lines around every corner and keeping the hands away from the brakes we held our pace through each bend. Climb two of the day was where the legs were tested for the first time, keeping a solid pace everyone was able to stay together and roll onto the third climb. Tristan Jones, Michael Stallard and Russell Van Hout were the front three with some of the guys starting to drop the wheel as the heart rate began to rise. 

We moved through the rolling hills keeping the pace pretty high, knowing that soon there would be some respite everyone pushed well into the red to maintain contact. Next section of the course was the descent, it's fast, winding and a bit intimidating if you haven't seen much of the road before. Pushing speeds into the mid 80's, there's not a lot faster to rev. Across the bridge and the road starts to flatten out and so begin the hairpins, all of the guys held single file so well that no one lost any ground around the corners. The 'km to go' signs started to fly by pretty quickly. As I saw 1km to go, I put myself on the front and pushed until there was nothing left with the simple hope that we had saved some time. Turn right around the outside of the roundabout and sprint for the line. 

You could tell by everyone's faces that they had put everything into the ride. Sitting 2nd out of 3 teams the results could have gone any way, team after team came through some faster some slower. Slowly we were pushed down the order to 6th place in the end. A hugely impressive ride by a team where 7 of the 8 riders have a full time job, 50% of the team being eligible to ride masters and many with wives and families. A massive congratulations to all of the guys for an awesome ride today. We beat some good teams today and can only go up from here with more horsepower to joining the team. On behalf of the whole team I'd like to thank Michele Primaro, Steve Nash, Duncan Lock and Alan Miller for all of the time and support they have put into the team. Also thanks must go to Lightsview, Corsa Cycle Centre and Cervelo for helping the team and getting us to where we are today. 

Congratulations to SA locals Euride Racing for taking the win ahead of Budget Forklifts and Huon Salmon - Genesys for filling the podium respectively. The next two days are going to be good so stay tuned.