A little bit of 'F Troop'

I have got to admit today was pretty uneventful after the last couple of days -each of which had their own little drama. Alan's bike is now fixed so he, Brett and I drove up to the finish at Stirling, then rode to the start at Hahndorf (complete with ompah-pah band and hurdy-gurdy), and then on to the town of Woodside to watch the pack come through before heading off to the KOM point at 30k. I have to admit - riding in the Adleaide hills is great - not much traffic, nice roads and lots of hills (go figure). But one can get confused with all the roads (see paragraph 2). After a short wait at Woodside, which we spent having our picture taken (see photo), visiting the pub dunny and eating the poppy seed pastry bought at the bakery, the first motos came through, followed by a 3 man breakaway (Euskaltel, Cofidis, and, as usual, UniSA). The peloton soft-pedaled through about 2 min later - no hurry there.

We then jumped on the bikes and rode off see if we could get to the KOM point before they got there from the other direction. To make a long story short, we just misssed making it, but in hindsight could have as we stopped after the lead police escort passed. But it was another 10 min until the riders came by. So we were short by about 2km - never mind. Probably did not matter much, as everyone came by in the same order as we had seen them about 40 min before - actually the Uni SA rider had just flatted so he was a bit off the back of his breakaway companions.

Then, back on the bikes to get back to Stirling to watch the 3 laps around the Stirling/Aldgate circuit. 'Found' a different way back - bigger (longer) hills and more sweepy turns and fantastic vistas - a lot like Norther California in summer- they have gum trees too!

Back to Stirling in time to see the group, and the two in the breakaway, come through on the first of the three 20km laps and the feed zone. Much chaos, but everyone got through ok. 2nd lap much like the first but with the breakaway group being joined by Julian Dean (Garmin), then the final lap all together at the base of the uphill to the sprint finish. Result; an Australian 1-2 with Alan Davis ( Quick Step) taking the sprint and Graeme Brown (Rabobank) right behnd. So at the end of Stage 2, Alan Davis is now in the Ochre Jersey - he is the only rider that has competed in all 11 TDU - and I am not sure if he is even 30!

Oh, and Lance - well he finished in the pack, but not after testing his legs a couple times on the 20k circuit (Astana with Lance driving finally shut the breakaway down). But, the post race media swarm was just as big as if he had won. Hmm...

Tomorrow - Stage 3 - Unley to Victor Harbor (without the 'u').