Tour Down Under '09: In the Beginning

Team Saxo-Bank
Originally uploaded by Silentiium

Okay, so this wasn’t actually a stage of the Tour Down Under, but it was probably the best as far as watching the cyclists go. They did 30 laps of a 1.7km course so they whizzed by 30-odd times and gave the 130,000-odd spectators something to continually cheer about.

When I arrived, Da Boyz were doing laps of the course to warm up because they needed warming up, seeing as it was only 35 degrees C at the time. But some teams were just boppin’ around in nearby cafes sipping Farmers Unions and checking out the local produce. Others were sitting on their man-bars in the middle of the road, chatting and pretending they couldn’t hear the roadside fans yelling at them.

I cheered and waved to a few Notable Riders, and most were nice enough to cheer or wave back. Saxo-Bank, for instance, were nice enough, despite the fact that the Schlecks had totally snobbed this Tour. Not that I’m bitter. So anyway, I got a decent-sized smile and wave from Frank Hoj. Oscar Pereiro was doing the rounds, just coming into the circuit, so my sisters and I yelled to him and received a look of sheer terror in return. That was somewhat sobering. We didn’t cheer quite so loudly after that.

The Team Presentations came sometime after, and Mike Rann (South Australia’s premier), prattled on for a fairly lengthy period about the ways in which South Australia Is Better Than Victoria. Because we got the Masterlance and Victoria didn’t, you see. There’s a bit of tension between our states, you could say. They stole our Grand Prix.

Anyways, Saxo-Bank received a huge cheer, the O’Grader receiving the loudest among them (surprise! He’s a South Aussie). It seems that Saxo-Bank are more popular than I knew in SA. So they got a healthy cheer, but still, it wasn’t as healthy as Team Masterlance’s. Sorry, Astana’s. As you could imagine, the crowd went off their nut over the Masterlance Arrival. Good ol’ Lance had a quick chat about the things he’d been chatting about in the paper all week, and then he was ushered off out of the reach of grasping fans.

The race itself started at 7pm, and if you saw it on TV, you’d see it was still pretty sunny and rather warm. As it was my first race attendance ever, I was pretty surprised about a few things. One, the cyclists whiz by seriously quickly. Two, if you’re close enough to the barrier, the wind from the peloton sweeps your hair back. Three, you can actually smell the cyclists’ aftershave/deodorant with that wind. Four, you can clearly hear the buzz and whirr of their chains and the clicking of their gears as they pass. Five, it was a beautiful thing.

Oh, and Robbie won, which sent the South Aussie crowd into hysterics yet again. Thank God the Masterlance stayed quiet, coz there would have been riots if he’d come anywhere near winning. Lucky he was placed roughly 70th. Correct me if I’m wrong.

So that was Day One. Day Two is next… and that was a good day ;).

[If anyone’s wondering why the photos are sparse, it’s coz my photo upload button has gone FTA. Anyone else’s done that? Or am I just missing something obvious in my own stupidity?]