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Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Stage 2 Tour Down Under 2013. Thomas!

The inclusion of the infamous local climb of Corkscrew Road certainly added some spice and flavour to the Stage 2 of the Tour Down Under. I'm not sure how many punters would have selected Gerrant Thomas to win the stage at the start of the day, but the Brit dug deep to ride the climb of his life and to survive right through to Rostrevor.

We spent the morning down at Glenelg browsing the local shops and having some fresh local fish and chips on the foreshore to fill our tummies before heading off to Rostrever to see the finish.

Ultimately we would have loved to be up on Corkscrew Road but with four kids in tow the cons outweighed the pros, so it was to the finish we headed.

We arrived with about half an hour to go, set up at the 140m mark and wandered down to the big screen to watch the climb. The atmosphere was fantastic and once again Adelaide turned on spectacular weather. After the climb we had a few minutes to get back to the kids and stick our heads over the fence and peer down the long stretch of the finishing straight. It is one of my favourite sights seeing the riders enter the home stretch and today didn't disappoint with Gerrant pushing through sprinting to the line for his well earned win.

We heard the news of a crash in the main peloton and saw the remnants when a few scathed and dirty riders limped over the finish line.

The riders will need a good rest tonight as tomorrow's stage from Unley to Stirling is another tough one and with a temperature of 37 degrees Celsius predicted the heat will surely be on.

A morning at Glenelg

The locals at Glenelg
The end of the long finishing straight awaiting the riders



Watching Corkscrew climb on the big screen

Gerrant makes his move

And flies past us towards the line, head down, bum up!


The end is in sight for the others


World Champ Philippe Gilbert second left


Thank God it's over!

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