What a beautiful day it was today in Angaston, the location of the Stage 1 finish to the TDU. Sunny, blue sky, no wind and mid twenties in the leafy Barossa Valley wine district made this the perfect day out to watch some great cycling.
Five riders broke away for a few hours, getting out to over a 2 minute lead. But the world class teams in the peloton wound them back in time for the slight uphill bunch sprint. An outstanding result with Matthew Goss, from Australia taking out 1st place, Andre Greipel (last year’s winner) 2nd place and sprint legend Robbie McEwan taking out 3rd.
What was also great about today was the kids entertainment. Emily was entertained for an hour watching Wobbles the clown perform a great magic show in the park, they had a bouncing castle and a fantastic playground, you can’t ask for better than that!
After the race today we went to the Tour Village. Now this is what I love about the sport of cycling. You can watch these world class athletes perform so close up and they’ll also give you the time of day to have your photo taken with them and sign some autographs. Emily and I were lucky enough to have our photos taken with today’s most aggressive rider, Simon Clarke, World Champion Cameron Meyer, American sprint champion Tyler Farrar and also met Australian Chris Sutton and Great Britain’s Ben Swift. They’re just ordinary people like you and me – they just do extraordinary things. You get a real buzz talking to them.
Mind you, I think Emily was more interested in collecting drink bottles! All in all a great day, the weather is hotting up tomorrow and so will the cycling!