It’s Tour Down Under time again!  Above is the TDU village last weekend– I’d imagine it’s a little busier by now.

Like last year, the Lance Armstrong Twitter Ride (and fund raiser for the Queensland floods) started in Glenelg. The ride began a little after 10:00AM Saturday (Adelaide time) and did a loop north up the coast. It was about 25C (77F) and sunny, and the weather for the week of the TDU should be dry with highs in the low 20s to 30s (70-90F).

I rode the Trek on this ride, which doesn’t have a computer, so I can only guess the ride was a little over an hour long and about 30km. Anyway, I didn’t get any good photos, but here’s what the start/finish looked like:

The opening race for the 2010 Tour Down Under was the Cancer Council Helpline Classic in the Adelaide Parklands on Sunday 17 January, 2010.

The peloton coming up Bartons Road

The peloton at corner one

Riders from Team Astana and Team RadioShack

Gregory Henderson, Team Sky (winner of the 2010 Cancer Council Helpline Classic)

Lance Armstrong, Team RadioShack

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.