Yo guys and gals! Sorry for the little break! I’ve been over at the Tour Down Under in Adelaide with the FulGaz crew. Well, it’s not the Tour Down Under this year, but the Santos Festival of Cycling, due to that pesky virus keeping all the World Tour teams away. The racing was mostly NRS Elite teams, but a few Aussie professionals were on the roster, including Richie Porte and Luke Plapp.

Firstly, the team were there with the FulGaz bar/truck, setting up in the event village and also at each of the stage finish lines. The Wahoo KICKR Bike was set up inside for people to try, plus a bunch of promo gear and snacks to keep the crowds happy.

Secondly, we were there to cheer on Aidan, our FulGaz ride engineering guru, who was racing for his new team NERO Continental. It was great to see him step up and mix it with some major names. Aidan always gives 100% to everything he does, and comes away with a massive grin on his face, no matter how hard the racing was (and the racing was HARD).

I took a bike with me (my alloy framed Kinesis Aithien build) and while I didn’t get to ride quite as much as I’d have liked, I did get to explore a little of what the Adelaide Hills have to offer.

With temps nudging into the mid 30 degree C range every day, the rides were all early morning. Stu, Mike and I rode a fantastic loop around Norton Summit – Mount Lofty with Nathan Hass (a former World Tour Pro for Cofidis, Dimension Data, and Katusha–Alpecin). Nathan is an all-round top bloke, full of laughs and entertaining stores from within the pro peloton. We’re hoping to work with him in some capacity moving forward.

Even without the “big names” in attendance, it was still a great race and a worthwhile trip over to Adelaide, a part of Australia I hadn’t seen before. There are some fantastic (and tough) climbs only a short hop from the city centre. I can now see why so many strong cyclists hail from the Adelaide area.

I would have liked to get in a few more days of riding of course, but it wasn’t to be this time. Now that I’ve had a good preview, its a good excuse to plan my next trip over. Maybe in 2023 when the World Tour level race hopefully returns!