Tour Downunder - Final Stage (last diary entry for the TDU)

It was down to the wire on the TDU, Cameron Meyer (non sprinter - Garmin rider) was leading by 8 seconds over gun sprinter Matt Goss. With two intermediate sprints and the finish all providing valuable time bonuses, it was going to be a nail biting end to a great Tour. The final average speed for this stage was 47.7kph....for 90km...with twists and turns...I cant even imagine that!

Well after intermediate sprint number 1. Another new name came into the picture with Michael Matthews winning the sprint and Goss coming in second meaning the numbers were now, Meyer with a 6 second lead over Goss and a 9 second lead over Matthews with a 2nd intermediate sprint and a stage finish still to come.

The 2nd intermediate sprint had two Rabobank riders and Astana rider Allan Davis all collecting points leaving the result still hanging on the final. The final sprint saw Ben Swift take the win frm teammate Greg Henderson and Goss grabbing 4 seconds in third, but still fninshing 2 seconds behind Cam Meyer......I was nervous......it was great and exciting and cant wait until next year already.

Some pics from the final stage



Matt Goss from HTC has to wait until the sprints to earn the time bonuses to win the Tour



An early break included Stuart O'Grady from Leopard Trek and Luke Durbridge from UNI SA

Cameron Meyer from Garmin in the Ochre jersey which he managed to keep.

The Omega Pharm Lotto riders flying along

Stuary O'Grady and Luke Durbridge

A Rabobank rider admires the sea ofd color behind him

The race was touted as a battle between Omega Pharm rider and defending champion Andre Griepl and HTCs gun sprinter Mark Cavendish......but this battle never got off the ground 

The pace for the stage was an average of 47.7kph......bloody fast

Matt Goss



A sea of color



Lance was thanked for helping to improve the Tour Downunders publicity and make it become the event it now is



FAST LEGS



The final sprint......Goss was the next rider out of the picture, but it was Ben Swift who won the day in front of Greg Henderson (who had spent the whole race ..or most of what I saw right at the back of the pack.......)



Tour Downunder - TDU - Stage 3

STAGE THREE - Unley to Stirling - Total 129km

My pictorial diary of today, but briefly we drove to Stirling where the riders would pass through the town twice before the final sprint. I got myself sitting by the fence in the feed zone on the first pass and watched the riders pass in what I would call an orderly and quite slow manner through the feed zone collecting feed bags full of goodies on the way. The riders were probably thankful for the break as they had been racing for 85km and it was a long drag to the feed zone up an incline, and there was a break of 4 riders.

Then I moved back to our group at the 150m to the finish spot which is a great place to watch the attcks being launched and you get a spot closer to the fence too.

The final lap of 22km was full of attcks and the funniest thing was that as we saw Graeme Brown from Rabobank pass us he was elbowing another rider out of his way and we were just talking about it when they must have only got about 2 km up the road and there was a crash and he was in it. On the news he said that it was just one of those things......it makes you wonder what might have really happened.

Anyway some brief pics......The winner of the stage was U23 World Champion Michael Matthews who was clearly too good at this finish for either Griepl or Goss who had to settle for 2nd and 3rd.....awesome win for the upcoming aussie (and world champion).......very exciting stuff

also see my other TDU pics at:-
Stage 1 and 2
Lance Twitter ride


The podium girls are all very pretty and their outfits look great.




Feed zones are dangerous, this guy has dropped a bidon which could cause havoc in the group.....by this stage of the race there are a lot of riders wearig bandages already



More feed station chaos....it was ineresting being at a feed station......lots of riders everywhere and total chaos....

This was the break which was reeled in with around 18km to go (Luke Durbridge - most aggressive rider for today is in the UniSA colors and he attacked at any opportunty and won the KOM !!!)

HTC leading the pace - what a strong team along with Team Sky and in the background is Lance Armstrong from Radioshack

Matt Hayman from Team Sky looks like he is working hard with 22 km to go

The looks on the riders faces say it is a hot day and they still have 22km to go (and have just come up a nasty rise (which I rode up yesterday, not too steep, but they were going FAST!)

Young Aussie fan waits patiently for the peleton!

Goss wearing the Young Rider jersey leads out the sprint. Goss had punctured in the last 10km and had to chase to get back on and is now in the front thanks to his HTC team and he is going for it. Matthews is on the right of the pic and he gets the win......he just takes off about now and seriously guns it and makes it look easy

These riders were well down on time after this stage. Recognise anyone!

We had great car parks, about 150m from the finish line.......WOO HOO

Tour Downunder - TDU - Stages 1 and 2

My picture diary of Stages One and Two

STAGE ONE - Mawson Lakes to Angaston

Just a few pics of the stage. IT is a big day as it is about a two hour drive to Angaston and we watched the riders come through a couple of times, watched the sprint and then drove back which took a long time too as you drive through the Barossa Valley past all of the wineries including Jacobs Creek...past the Garmin team who were riding back to Adelaide from the end of the stage. GREAT DAY!

The Parade which follows the Tour and gives out lots of freebies like hats and bidons and stickers and some other useless stuff that is still exciting to get as the car cavalcade goes past.

Shane getting a good vantage point at 150 metres to go at Stage One in Angaston. Waiting as we watch around 15 Motorbikes go past - Lots of POlice as they clear the roads as the Tour goes through

The final sprint and at 180m to go Matthew Goss (Australia- Tean HTC) is leading and sprinting hard

Matthew Goss still just streeting away from the bunch on the way to winning Stage One of the TDU - GO AUSSIES

Shane and Leigh walking towards the presentations

A sea of hats - lots of freebies Santos and free Skoda hats amongst a lot of others watching the presentations

Matthew Goss wins, Sprint, Young rider and Overall leaders jerseys on the first stage

STAGE TWO - Tailem Bend to Mannum

We rode to the top of the KOM and it was a 109 km ride all up and there were a lot of people riding to the start.
So this is my obligatory pic at the KOM (we did ride to the top from the easy side, although we did a lot of hills prior to that).....Fun day on the bike. Leigh won the KOM in ou group and I was second....we did lose Gary who was our navigator for most of the trip to the KOM and so just blindly followed another group and finally got there, not sure how that happened......but WE MADE IT!!! Just quietly our group has too many leaders........but that just adds to the fun.........lol

Me at the KOM looking sunburnt.......I took some pics from there so got a great shot of the riders coming under the KOM banner

Vantage points included "in a tree"

It was a race for the line of the KOM......and looks like hard work from the two hill climbers......Winning by a small margin was Mitchell Docker

The peleton coming through lead by Team HTC......looks like hard and hot work...it was a hot day in Adelaide!

Tour Downunder - Twitter ride - Lance Armstrong

The first big event of the TDU was the Lance Armstrong "Twitter" ride which was dedicated to the flood effort in qld and all involved twittered to donate money to the Flood Relief fund in Qld. A good idea, if you haven't already, then donate some cash to the fund.

I got a Prime place to take some shots and say hi to Lance - I was very excited.....   :-)

Lance was signing autographs at the start of the "Twitter" ride



Lance practised his Aussie slang, with a Gday and a Cobber (who talks like that), and then shared stage with Mick Rogers, teammate Robbie McEwan and Stuart O'Grady

All the riders said a few words with a safety message being a common theme

Our local riders getting ready to go and see the start of the Twitter ride

Leopard Trek bikes - and Stuart O'Grady's legs

Riders of all shapes and sizes shared the Cancer message.

A lot of riders heading off to do the Twitter Ride

Lots of Bikes of all prive brackets and abilities

Radioshack wanna be's

 

A good fun day on the bike with Lance



Not sure how fast this guy went, or how easy he was to draft off.