Thursday, January 21, 2010

The Adelaide Hills and 3 flats!

Lance seemed to look longingly into her eyes as she snapped his photo just before the big climb of the day - at least that's how Jen saw it. Actually, she didn't know who she was snapping at the time as they were going by quite quickly - but the photo does suggest he did give her a glance! Stage 2 of the TDU took us to Checker Hill Road and then to the tourist town of Hahndorf, steeped in German history and buildings. It was starting to heat up during the day with a high of 34 degrees celsius predicted. There was only a slight breeze though and once we had made it to Hahndorf to catch the finish the riders were flying. We were about 600 metres from the finish and they were barrelling down vying for position - just like on tele! You could feel the wind being pushed towards you and hear the surge of power as they went for the line - it was incredible! Phil thought he saw Lance in the front group - sitting up and taking it all in. We hung around in Hahndorf for a play, some ice cream and treats then Phil and I started the bike ride back to the Caravan Park while Jen, Tamra and the kids did some more play and shopping. As bikes weren't allowed on the M1 freeway, Phil and I made our way along the scenic route following our Google Map directions. We were making great progress to Woodside - averaging 31 km/h but then found out we needed to go back to the last town to take Green Hill Road back to Adelaide (just another 27kms by the sign). It wasn't long before we were in the hills and doing it hard. The switchbacks seemed never ending. After two punctures to Phil's rear tire near the summit of the climb we started the descent. The Adelaide side of the "hill" was majestic and thrilling to boot going 60+ kms an hour round corners and hairpins. At one point you could see the entirety of Adelaide stretched out before you - absolutely breath-taking and hard to describe without expletives. Concentrating on the road rather than Phil (without another spare tire) I flew down to the bottom of the hill...only to find out he flatted about half way down!! It was a great view though so I headed back up in rescue and managed to beat the sag-wagons (Jen and Tamra) to him with a spare (which turned out to have a slow leak as well!) We managed to race the girls and kids back to the Caravan park (but just barely) and get organized for a well deserved pasta dinner.. and an ice cold beer of course! Today we have to pack up and drop the caravan off at friends of the Coddington's before our trip to Europe - hopefully we'll get in some of the race and maybe the Zoo!

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