Tour Down Under race founder and director Mike Turtur to step down after next year
The man who started the Tour Down Under and who remains the linchpin of the race 21 years later, Mike Turtur, is set to step aside from the top job after next year’s event.
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The man who started the Tour Down Under and who remains the linchpin of the race 21 years later, Mike Turtur, is set to step aside from the top job after next year’s event.
The Advertiser can reveal that Turtur — who has been race director for every edition since its inception in 1999 — plans to oversee one more race in 2020 before standing down.
It is expected that he will be involved in a carefully orchestrated handover to his successor but any decision will be made by the State Government and Events SA.
South African Daryl Impey won the overall race on Sunday, after Richie Porte took the Willunga Hill win, the first time the race finished there.
Turtur will hold his traditional post-race press conference on Monday but speaking from Willunga on Sunday said the latest move to shift the hill-top finish to the final stage was a success.
“It really did set up the last day to be an unknown finale and we got exactly that, we didn’t know who was going to win,” Turtur said.
“When Bevin cracked on the climb we knew he was out of contention and the other five came to the front and Richie made his move a bit earlier than normal but it wasn’t quite enough to get the ochre jersey.
“Daryl Impey held on and I still think his intermediate sprint efforts and the way the team chase those time bonuses was a big factor and good on him.
“The crowds were huge — down around the bottom circuit they were scattered everywhere, it was another fantastic day and the weather was beautiful.”
Tourism Minister David Ridgway declared this year’s race a “spectacular success” with Santos signing on for another three years as naming rights sponsor, and overseas and interstate visitor numbers expected to exceed the 46,000 that were here last year.
“As of last night there were 18 riders who could win and looking at the crowds it was probably the largest crowd ever on Willunga Hill, so it just goes from strength to strength,” Ridgway said.
“There is construction going on at the back of Parliament House so you couldn’t go there (CBD) and what a great alternative (moving the last day to Willunga), the riders will love it and we’ll get a finish on top of the hill that will be one of those all-time favourite memories.”
Turtur, an Olympic gold medallist on the track from the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, was the brains behind the first TDU in 1999.
He had the idea for the race in the early 90s and approached the government during the Atlanta Olympics, pitching the event as part of a long-term replacement for the Formula One Grand Prix which had just been lost to Melbourne.
“We were going to lose the Grand Prix in 1996 and in (Graham) Ingerson’s mind he thought the project as presented had merit,” Turtur said before this year’s event.
“We only had a million-dollar budget and in my wildest dreams I never thought we’d get that for a bike race.
“But to their credit they could see the value in giving it a shot. And what the Liberals did was the best decision strategy wise that any government could have made.
“Instead of trying to replace the Grand Prix with a big event — which is impossible because the Grand Prix was just too big — they made a decision to get several events to try to return the economic benefit that they were losing.”
Turtur has been at the helm of the event which has gone from an unknown start-up race in 1999 to opening the UCI WorldTour season 10 years later.
But he has also been able to reinvent the race to continually produce an interesting course and keep riders and fans guessing.
The biggest change was in 2012 when he moved the Willunga finish from the township to the top of the hill, and this year moved it to the final day of the race.
The world’s best climbers including Richie Porte have declared the atmosphere on the 3km climb as good as any in the Tour de France.
“It’s just a lovely day out there, you kind of pinch yourself riding through the crowds … it’s a great day for Australian cycling,” Porte said after winning the stage for a sixth consecutive time on Sunday.
Turtur’s reputation as not just a cycling but sport promoter is almost unrivalled in South Australia. Last week he introduced a new track event to the TDU festival, known as The Advertiser Track Down Under, and it attracted the biggest crowd seen at the Adelaide SuperDrome in a decade.
reece.homfray@news.com.au
Fans on edge as they wait for Richie win
THEY came early, some before dawn, to claim their spot on the narrow edges of the steep ribbon of bitumen on which their idols would soon compete.
Some found room to park a vehicle, others set up chairs beneath a gumleaf canopy, clambered up cliffsides or squeezed alongside the barrier in the final metres of the climb.
They came for the race, the spectacle, the camradery.
But most of all they came to see one rider and whether he could fulfil their hopes again.
Richie Porte didn’t let them down, surging once, then again, to claim a lead he held across the line at the top of Willunga Hill.
Watching on a big screen at the finish, fans roared each time he built an advantage, then exploded as they turned to watch him finish in style.
South African rider Daryl Impey, who finished third to Porte on the stage, claimed his second successive overall crown in the Tour Down Under, and was also warmly received.
Before the drama of the day unfolded, amateur riders young and old tackled the challenge of Willunga Hill themselves.
Some cruised up with seemingly little effort, others puffed and panted their way to the line.
For 13-year-old Kurtis Leicester, of Leabrook, who rode with dad, Shaun, it was his first ascent
“It’s tough at the start,” he said. “But you just have to get in a groove and make your way up.”
Another young tyro, Finlay Woolford, 6, of Coromandel Valley, was wearing the colours of his hero Richie Porte as he tore around in the spectator area near the finish.
He has been to every stage of the tour this year, with parents Graeme and Sally, and met his sporting idol in person earlier in the week.
Janis Crawford, from the South Island of New Zealand, has come across for the tour five times.
Her colourful riding attire, including rabbit ears and tutu, means she has become well known to other racegoers and even riders.
“I’ve got a better dress up wardrobe than my granddaughter,” she laughs.
“I love being in such close proximity to the stars — it’s wonderful. And I love the way Adelaide gets behind the tour. It’s a wonderful event and very well run.”
Justin Bryden and Nicole Jones bought and repaired their red 1977 Kombi 10 years ago especially to travel to the tour from their home in Melbourne.
They have been to the event nine times since then and the old van has become a fixture parked alongside the race route.
After driving to Adelaide a week ago, they have followed each stage of the race.
They staked their spot a few hundred metres from the Willunga finish line in the early hours of the morning.
“The hills can be a struggle,” he says of the long trip over. “We drive during the night so it is cooler.”
— Simon Wilkinson
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