Where was I during the race?  Check out my .015 seconds of fame on Stage 2 at the King of the Mountain.  Somehow, I made it into this shot on stage 5 twice:

See all of my 2011 Tour Down Under posts and photos: 2011 TDU

These were taken in McLaren Vale at Tatachilla and California Roads.

After the loops in McLaren Vale were over we drove up to the top of Willunga Hill. These were taken about 400m from the King of the Mountain:

Yesterday I rode in the Challenge Tour, which followed the stage 4 route, including Checker Hill. I got up at 4:00AM, rode to Norwood for a 6:30AM start. Rode until about noon and stopped for a beer, finished around 1:30PM. Total distance was around 165KM including the commute to the start.

The Norwood start, around 5,000 of the 8,000+ total riders:

One of the water/hay stops:

Beer stop, with shady-looking guy leering at my purple bike:

I couldn’t see much at the stage 4 finish, but if you look closely at the last photo you can see a Garmin rider:

Bonus. Phil actually crossed the line first: