Vineman is held in the Sonoma County in the North of California. This is a big region for Wine with many vineyards and spectacular scenery. I had a very interesting week where I travelled on my own to the race so everyone I met was completely new to me. Except for Michelle the Kiwi and her mum Gail who I had met three weeks earlier at Texas.

I hitched a ride up with Kyle who was from the TCSD. We left on the Wednesday so we could give ourselves plenty of time to get there with no stress. It was good to share the ride with someone who knew their way around California as I didn’t have to put any thought into where we were going. A short stop over for the night in San Jose where I met Kyle’s Mom and brother. From San Jose it’s about a two hour drive further north to a place called Santa Rosa where I was staying with my home stay.

I have been so lucky with the home stays that I have had and Tracy did not disappoint! Tracy was extremely nice and very helpful. Also joining us in Tracy’s house was a friend of hers called Mona who works for Livestrong and between them they had many interesting stories which made my stay fun. Sorry guys, Tracy has told me that there won’t be any room at her house next year so best to look elsewhere!

As these races can get hot we tend to start them early. As we are the first wave we also need to be first there so I was up at 4 getting ready. I was pretty nervous and getting up was no problem for me.

The field of athletes this year was not as strong as other years due to a clash with Racine 70.3 I think. However Chris Lieto did decide to race at the last minute which raised the bar a little and is always good to have high quality opponents to measure against.

The weather is typically cold in the morning with a big layer of fog over the river and vision is poor. It was no wetsuit for us and the river swim was pretty slow. It’s a pretty simple upstream swim to the turn around and come back to the start  point. It really did feel like we were swimming against the current the whole way. I was in touch with the main group at  about 400 meters and then a little loss of concentration and they were gone and I was trailing with one other guy. It also made it hard when I couldn’t see the other guys as we could only see about 30 meters up the river.

I exited the water with the fastest girls who started two minutes behind! This was a big crush on the ego and I knew I had to work pretty hard as I had a bad swim. I was struggling for the first 30k of the bike as I was freezing and had goose bumps all over. I was just praying for the sun to come out and warm me up. The main difficulty I was having was keeping my mind focused on the job and keeping positive. Once the sun poked through and I started to warm I started to ride better and by the 40k mark I had caught a couple of guys. It’s a very lonely road out there and it’s amazing the effect it has when you start to pass people after one hour of seeing no one except maybe two photographers. My confidence was going up and I knew I was riding well enough to be able to run well.

I headed out of transition in about 9th place and after my last few races where I had not run well I had a good plan on what I had to do to run well. Even though I could not possibly win from that position I wanted to prove to myself that I could pull a good run if I stick to my plans. I was feeling good and all was going well through the run course and after two miles I was starting to pass people and in some parts I could see the main line of guys except for Doe and Lieto who were in 2nd and 1st with no threat from anyone. The turnaround point for the run is a one mile lap around a lake within a winery. It was at this point I saw there were two guys who were about 1k ahead and I knew if I could hold pace I would be able to catch them. It was this point where I saw Macca who was full of encouragement and on my way out of the winery he was giving me some good words of encouragement. I was feeling good and this only made me feel better to have a Ironman world champ ride beside. Unfortunately this is illegal and he was told to move on but it was great while it lasted.

I was starting to cramp in the hamstrings but was managing to keep it under control with good technique. With 500 meters to go I had passed the two guys in front of me and was in fifth place. I rounded the last corner and as I did this I ran into an age grouper running wide around the corner. To avoid the collision I jumped over the witches hat and my hamstring cramped! I tried to run it through to the finish without the other guys seeing but Tim Marr must have noticed my big down change in pace and he came back past me and I couldn’t get it going again to get it back. So I had to finish with a 5th place and very happy to run 1.15 and have the fastest run!

Race Results

What started as a casual conversation about watching the 2010 Tour de France, turned into a trip of a lifetime following the 3rd largest sporting event in the world.
With Europe being in the grip of the soccer World Cup and French politics in turmoil with scandels and the banning of the Burqa , the Tour certainly was’nt front page news until the 2nd week.
Our group of 4 ventured to the Haute Savoie region of France with bikes packed with the hope of riding some classic Tour climbs.
We arrived in a heatwave which seemed strange as the Mount Blanc and surrounding mountains were covered in snow. Our home for the next 2.5 weeks was in a small village between Cluses and the ski resort Flaine which is about 1 hour drive from Geneva airport. Our first ride to explore our new surroundings found us climbing stright out of the driveway to the col de Pierre Carree at 1844m. A beautiful setting at the top of the climb set the scene for the next few weeks. In total we climbed 14 Cols and numerous famous TDF climbs.
With names like , Alp d’Huez , Col L’iseran, Col du Colombiere, Col de Joux Plane, Col du Galibier, Col du Telegraphe, Col de la Forclaz under our belt we then went on to watch the Tour stage’s 8 and 9 and also vistit Morzine on the rest day [all these were riding distance from our chalet].

With the temp in the 30s most day’s we had  a fantastic run with fine day rides. We did feel for the tour riders on the hot days. We struggled at our pace and can only imagine what it was like to ride at race pace in the mid day sun day after day.

How good was it to see Cadel Evans in the Yellow Jersey. I think most of the Australian general public dont realise what an achievment this is.I think Contador and Shleck are a long way in front of the pack this year, should be a good show down leading into Paris.

See instore now . All road bikes reduced while the Tour de France is on.

He is a keen Mountain Biker, joining us most Tuesday nights for our MTB ride. Come down and say hi to Zeke next time you are in and share in his enthusiasm for everything BIKES.

If you want a huge challange then train up for this event next year. It is one of the best races on the callander.

This years winners in the 100km were ,

Mens; Adrian Jackson

Womans ; Judith Arndt

Topgear cycles staff member Brad Bullock blitz the field [well most off em!] after a few years away from the sport. Brad is aiming for Ironman Australia at Port Macquarie[3.8km swim,180km bike,and 42km run] in April and hopefully onto the Hawaii Ironman in October. Brad finished 12th in a time of 4 hours and 4min [Swim 26min,rode 2.15 and ran 1 .19 for the1/2 marathon] just 10min behind Ironman world champ Craig Alexander.Brad was first in the 30to34 age group.
Come on down to the shop and get some tips from Brad to get you powering on the bike!

Well done to all who got through this race!

What an amazing week at the Tour Down Under it has been. Check out our pics from the race in the next couple of days.

Congratulations to the organisers of the TDU for putting on a race that would rival the atmosphere of any race in Europe. The crowds on Willunga Hill were going nuts when Cadel attack in his world champs jersey.
Great crowds line the streets all week long. One of the best things for me is that Lance didn’t dominate the press as he did last year as the race had so much action he was just another rider .  Hopefully you get the chance to go over and experience this race for yourself.