Yesterday I rode in the 2010 Tour Down Under Mutual Community Challenge Tour.  This recreational tour followed the same 160.5km route as stage 4 of the 2010 Tour Down Under.

I started from our home in Glenelg at 5:05AM, and rode about 16.5km to the start in Norwood. The challenge tour started around 6:25AM, and I arrived in Goolwa a little after 1:00pm. In total, I rode 177.6km, with a moving average speed of just under 28kph, and a ride time of about 6:40.  For comparison, Andre Greipel (Team HTC-Columbia), finished the timed 149.5km route first with a time of 3:30:29.

Here you can see my modified Stage 4 route map with the extra leg from Glenelg to Norwood.

I rode with some fellow mountain bikers for most of the 160.5km.  Riding in a group certainly helped the miles (kilometers?) go by faster, and really helped in the strong crosswinds and headwinds north of Goolwa.

Somewhere on the road outside of Goolwa.

Recovering in the car park outside of a bottle shop near the finish.

This is as much of the pro-tour finish as I saw.  More photos and video are available from AdelaideNow.

This morning (Saturday), I was planning my day at the 2010 Australian MTB Nationals when  we noticed some helicopters circling near our house.  Normally this could be a shark sighting, but the helicopters were too far inland.  I checked the news, a rare event for me, and saw that Lance Armstrong was having a small “training ride” in Glenelg, announced a couple days prior on his Twitter feed.  I found the story about 8:50 AM, and the ride started at 9:00 AM.

Luckily, we live less than a five minute ride away from the start of the ride.  I rode out of the door as quickly as I could, and made it for the start.  This is what I saw.

The ride was about an hour long and 30-35km, including the distance from the house, and 4,000-5,000 riders took part.  I was able to ride up to the front of the pack and see Armstrong, McEwan and some others.  However, all I have to show you are some mediocre photos. If you want some video, Adelaide Now has a short clip.

Lance Armstrong is somewhere in the middle of this crowd.