It’s not often you can say you’ve ridden the same course as some of the worlds elite but a group of Tamworth social cyclists will soon be able to lay claim to that.
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Fourteen members of the ARC Cycling group will on Friday join thousands of other cyclists in the Bupa Challenge Tour.
The challenge offers participants the rare opportunity to ride an actual stage of the Tour Down Under.
“We leave at 7am and the pro’s leave at 11,” Arc Cycling coordinator Jarrad Cotterell said.
“The whole idea is for us to get around the 157.5km and get to the finishing line before they finish.”
It will be the first time for all 14 riding in the challenge.
“We travel to a lot of different tours in the region,” Cotterell said.
“We ride for fun but we train so hard it’s good to test your fitness.”
“Not only that it’s a great experience for all the people involved to get away on a cycling trip.”
“This just seemed to be at the epic end of the scale.”
They’ll be among 2000 cyclists tackling Stage 4 of the tour, which will take them from Norwood to Campbelltown.
“It’ll be the hardest ride any of us would have done,” he said.
“There’s a lot of climbing.”
After a bit of a rest and recuperation, and few well-earned refreshments they will kit up again on Saturday to cycle out to Willunga Hill and watch the finish of Stage 5.
It will be about a 70km ride out and then back again.
“The thing with Adelaide and the tour is they turn the city into a tour central,” Cotterell said.
Like the Country Music Festival, but with a cycling flavour.
The event has drawn some of the biggest names in the sport and Cotterell is personally looking forward to seeing reigning World Road Race champion Peter Sagan.
In the Tour Down Under on Wednesday, Armidale rising star Sam Jenner produced a determined ride in stage two covering 148.5km from Stirling to Paracombe.
Jenner was the 59th rider to cross the line, 1:44 behind stage winner Richie Porte.
He has played a pivotal role in the UniSA outfit leading the Winning Team award, a prized category on the annual tour which has made South Australia its home.
The New England export sits in 12th place in the young rider classification behind Portugal’s Ruben Guerreiro.
Porte (BMC) produced an explosive burst in the final kilometre of the ride to race away for a 16-second success from Gorka Izaguirre (Movistar) and Esteban Chaves (Orica-Scott).
Thursday’s third stage is a 144km ride from Glenelg to Victor Harbour.