Today was the day for the 2012 Bupa Challenge, a chance to ride stage 4 of the Tour Down Under before the professional riders took to the course later in the day. It was an early start for me, getting up at 5am to get ready and on the bike by 5.30am to ride the 15km to the start line in Norwood. At 6.30am I headed off with another 7,500 riders for the 138km ride to Tanunda. I was a litte apprehensive having not done much training and not done more than 100kms on the road since the Ring of Kerry ride in Ireland back in July 2011.
Everything was very well organised and it was not long before we were into the Adelaide Hills, leaving the city behind. Adelaide is blessed with fantastic places for cyclists, flat road rides around the city and coast with the hills not far out of town if that is your thing. The scenery was excellent and some high cloud cover kept the temperature well down for most of the morning.
I stopped at a couple of the water stops to fill the bottle and get a bit of fruit cake on board. My longest stop was to help a chap who came off at speed about 40m in front of me after a touch of wheels with a rider in front. I got him and his bike off the road and then held a bandage over his elbow, which he had gashed to the bone. End of the ride for him unfortunately. He had a mate with him who stayed on to help once we heard the medicos were on the way.
The ride finished in Tanunda where, Clare, Em and Lachie were waiting. Ride stats for posterity:
Distance 139.27km (not including the 14.6km from the caravan park to Norwood!);
Avg speed 25.6kph;
Ascent 1634m;
Avg HR 134Bpm;
Overall a great ride and happy with how I went. The climb up Menglers Hill at the 110km mark was tough going. I was however pleased to see that Menglers Hill also sorted the pros out with Andre Griepel losing 7 mins to Martin Kohler from BMC and handing over the Ochre jersey.
After a salad roll at the Tanunda Oval, we headed out of town to visit some wineries. The first was Jacobs Creek and with the TDU only 15mins away from the vineyard we watched them come down the road. Em and Lachie were delighted with the amount of 'nee naws' (police cars and bikes with sirens) in front of the peleton. The bikes whizzed past in the blink of an eye as they were doing about 60kph at that point. The kiddies were most disappointed when all the action was over, not so much the bikes but the nee naws.
After Jacobs Creek, the kids fell asleep in the car and we visited xxxxx where Clare went in for some tastings. We then visited Rockfords where I headed in for a nice tasting session before heading back to Adelaide.
Paul McGurk (aka 'Uncle Paulie') had flown over from Sydney to catch some of the cycling. He and Stu met us at the caravan park after dinner where he won the kids favour with ice creams. Bedtime for both kiddies and adults approached so we said our farewells and headed off to bed. Another day for the TDU planned tomorrow and we will head to Wilunga to hopefully see many more nee naws and bicycles.
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