Les Burdett pitches in for Bupa Challenge Tour as part of the Santos Tour Down Under

LES Burdett was pretty good at riding a lawnmower but you won’t catch him riding a bike despite inspiring a cycling team to tackle next month’s Bupa Challenge Tour.

12/12/14 - Jim Mead, Gerold Ward, Les Burdett, Ben Sullivan, Paul Ingram and Anthony Pope getting ready for the Bupa Challenge. Picture Simon Cross

LES Burdett was pretty good at riding a lawnmower but you won’t catch him riding a bike despite inspiring a cycling team to tackle next month’s Bupa Challenge Tour.

The group dubbed “The Burdetts” have been gathering from Adelaide, Darwin, Sydney and Melbourne for the past five years to tackle the Tour Down Under’s participation ride in January.

“We also come to the cricket each year and we needed something to call ourselves,” team member Gerald Ward said. “I think it was the year Les retired or close to and because he’d been an institution at Adelaide Oval we decided on ‘The Burdetts’.”

What started with eight has now grown to a team of 11 cyclists who also do a ride along the Great Ocean Road. They finally got to meet the legendary curator himself in 2012 and despite not being a cyclist, Burdett embraced the idea.

“I approached him and I was a little bit concerned he might say ‘hang on, that’s my name’ but he had a good laugh and we had a couple of beers,” Gerald said.

Burdett said he was flattered the boys had named their cycling team in his honour but he wasn’t flattering in Lycra and wouldn’t be joining them on the road.

“I’d look like Humpty Dumpty on a seat,” Burdett joked last week. “Whenever I ride a bike every way I go I get a head wind. But it is flattering the boys think enough of me to call their team ‘The Burdetts’.”

Next year’s Bupa Challenge Tour takes cyclists 151.7km from Glenelg to Mount Barker but cyclists can also choose from three shorter distances.

For more information or to register for the ride on Friday, January 23, visit www.tourdownunder.com.au

Originally published as Les Burdett pitches in for Bupa Challenge Tour as part of the Santos Tour Down Under