Four Days into the 2008 Tour Down Under and so far Adelaide and the Pro Tour has really turned it on to make a great spectacle for the tens of thousands of fans who have travelled from far and wide to watch what is a history making event. The UCI Pro Tour has never left Europe until now, as Australia and the Tour Down Under was awarded the Pro Tour status in October last year.
The race takes in most of the stunning scenery in and around Adelaide over six days. It kicked off with the Tour Down Under Classic on Sunday which isn’t included in the tour now but with 75,000 people lining the streets of the beach suburb Glenelg it was a great way to kick of a week of exciting racing. This year lining up with my professional team La Francaise des Jeux it’s been a slightly different experience to last year where we took on some of the worlds best here with the New Zealand team. As the French are so used to racing in their own back yard heading down under is a whole new experience for most of them. Though with the new view of the UCI it looks like world of professional cycling is in for some more travelling as races in Russia, China, Malaysia and
America are also being targeted as countries to hold pro tour events.
One thing the Pro Tour has brought to the Tour Down Under is a much more controlled race, with many of the big teams setting the stages up for their sprinters. It is one thing your sure notice at this level is most of the peloton really know how to climb, and even with the undulating country side around Adelaide it hasn’t really been able to split the peloton up to much. To date my team is having great time and picking up a few prizes along the way. We have had guys in most of the long breakaways of the race, and Phil Gilbert extended his lead again today in the King of the Mountain classification. Tomorrow stage brings what is undoubtedly the toughest climb of the race, so we are in for another tough day and a maybe a shake up in the General Classification.
Ill be back with more again soon. Here are a few pics of the lads out training and relaxing before the race. With having a day off Monday Brett Lancaster, Igor Astaloa and I snuck of to the beach to escape monotony of our hotel rooms for while. Cheers tdu_training2.JPG tdu_henly_beach_me_an_jeremy.JPG me_igor_brett_glenelg_beach2_edited-3.jpg
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