In past years we have never watched any section of our Southern Hemisphere version of the Tour de France, called The Santos Tour Down Under, held here in South Australia. It is beamed to a worldwide TV
audience. Security and organisation is excellent, with 3 helicopters overhead during the start of the race.
UK's Olympic track champion Geraint Thomas of Sky Procycling has snatched the lead in the Santos Tour Down Under after an impressive win on the second stage of the six day UCI WorldTour event yesterday. This is now Day 3.
Thomas, a two time team pursuit Olympic Champion, is now wearing the Santos ochre leader's jersey. He is seen in orange - looking up, on the left of this shot below.
This year there are 18 Professional Teams drawn from around the world, competing in the 2013 UCI WorldTour Event. The teams include many of the best riders in the world in this gruelling six day event, held in our mid-summer heat. It is 38C today! The stages pass through many of our beautiful hills town in South Australia.
My photos, shot at Cross Rd, Kingswood, were taken around 7 minutes after the start of the race. The Pelaton is in fact still the whole field, as the official car in front is holding the riders back till they hit the freeway at the top of Cross Road. See the riders more sweaty in LARGE.
Other big stars in the field include Sprint King Andre Greipel of Germany and last year's winner Simon Gerrans of Australia.
The riders were past me in a flash, and so I grabbed a shot of the large field from behind.
Just a couple of the support crew cars, and there were many with spare bikes, ambulances, more police, team cars and so on. It was HUGE!
