We woke early this morning to pick up our rental car. We headed out to wine country where the riders would be traveling today. We went through McLaren Vale (one of the wine regions) and into McLaren Flat where the king of the hill stage was today. Parking our car on the side of the road, just about 100m down from the top we had a perfect viewing spot. All we had to do was wait. So, we waited, read the paper, took some pictures and waited some more. As it got closer to the time more and more cyclists and cars full of fans arrived. Finally the publicity train came through (all the cars with bigger than life-size riders and Oppy the Kangaroo on top). They jumped out of the cars and handed out water bottles, signs, cow bells, and hats to all the spectators. The riders wouldn’t be long now. Once they did arrive, they came flying past us racing up to the top of the hill. Even on the steep uphill they were going so fast it was hard to see who was who. After they went past, it was back in the car to see if we could make it to the finish.
We raced over to Stirling (after a brief stop for ice cream...hey it was hot!) where the day's finish was in hopes of seeing all 3 laps around the town. They had already started closing the roads, so we pulled off and watched the first loop from just outside the town. After they came by the re-opened that segment and we were able to get down to Stirling, park and walk up to the course with plenty of time to see the second lap. Then we headed to the finish line and wiggled our way into a viewing spot about 50m from the finish. It was a slight uphill, but again, not steep enough to slow the riders down so that you didn't get dizzy watching them go by. After the last of the pack came in we were hot and worn out from all our running around, so we rewarded ourselves for all of our hard work with a cold beer, a James Squire Golden, after the race was done.
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