Mike Turtur’s top moments from the first 19 years of the Tour Down Under
OLYMPIC gold medallist Mike Turtur has been race director since the Santos Tour Down Under’s inception in 1999. The past 19 years have provided many great moments, but we asked Mike to rate his top 20. Here they are ...
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OLYMPIC gold medallist Mike Turtur has been race director since the Santos Tour Down Under’s inception in 1999. The past 19 years have provided many great moments, but we asked Mike to rate his top 20. Here they are ...
1 The Greatest
My idol and the greatest of all time Eddy Merckx made a visit to our race in 2012. Eddy even gave the locals a huge thrill by taking part in the Bupa Challenge Tour and training with former cyclists.
2 Rainbows
The TDU has seen the rainbow stripes of the UCI World Road Race Champion jersey take to the peloton four times, most recently in 2017 with Peter Sagan. It is always an honour and something special to see those strips on our start line.
3 The First Race
1999: The first Tour Down Under is held and is the culmination of years of planning and negotiation. Capping this achievement was the race being won by South Australian Stuart O’Grady, riding for the French team Credit Agricole.
4 Contador, the
comeback kid
In 2005, after recovering from serious illness, Alberto Contador made his comeback to professional cycling at the TDU. His Spanish team Liberty Seguros secured the grip on the race by taking first, second, third and also fourth in the stage on Willunga Hill. Contador was given the stage win by his teammate and race leader Luis Sanchez after the pair destroyed the leading bunch on the final climb. Tour de France winner Contador, to this day, still says this is one of his greatest moments in cycling.
5 ProTour
In 2008, the Santos Tour Down Under joined the prestigious UCI WorldTour and was the first event outside cycling’s traditional home of Europe to do so. The UCI WorldTour brings together the most prestigious teams and riders in the world to compete in the best races. This was followed in 2010 by Santos joining the Tour Down Under family as naming rights sponsor.
6 The hills are alive
When Cadel Evans made an appearance at the Santos Tour Down Under in 2010 he did so in
the rainbow jersey of a world champion, showcasing his aggressive riding, especially on Stage five to Willunga, which included two ascents of Old Willunga Hill. On the second ascent, Evans attacked with Spaniards Valverde and Luis Leon Sanchez and Slovakian Peter Sagan. There was no upset result, but it was a crowd pleaser.
7 Green with envy
Australia’s first World Tour team was launched before the 2012 race. Then named GreenEDGE, now Mitchelton-SCOTT, the team backed up from the national titles, where team member Simon Gerrans won, by helping him win the Tour for the second time, adding to his 2006 win. After a dramatic photo finish against Spaniard Alejandro Valverde on the first stage finish on the top of Old Willunga Hill on the second last day he missed the stage win, but took the leader’s jersey.
8 East End reigns supreme
Crowds lining the East End circuit have grown from strength to strength. From the very first night in 1999, we knew we were on to something special, hoping for 10,000–15,000 spectators and having 40,000 show up. This was a big moment, our time to shine.
9 Horsing around
The fourth stage of the 2004 event from Unley to Hahndorf suddenly came alive mid-race when a horse bolted from its handler and ran towards the peloton. Fortunately, the horse veered away at the last second.
10 Believe it, or not
In 2002, Australian Michael Rogers, was run into from behind by an official motorbike near the summit of Menglers Hill on Stage five to Tanunda. When Rogers discovered his bike was kaput, he saw a fan whose bike was the same brand, size, dimension and gearing. The only difference was the colour. Rogers took it and rode 80km to chase down O’Grady. Rogers won the Tour.
11 The Creation of the Festival
In 2003, the Breakaway Series (recreational ride) was held with just 620 riders. This has grown and developed to become the Bupa Challenge Tour attracting more than 6000 riders annually. This was the first event in what is now the extensive Santos Festival of Cycling.
12 Hot, hot, hot
Heat has been a common element of the race, but no edition has pitted the peloton against harsher conditions than the 2006 edition when temperatures averaged 40 degrees and exceeded that mark for four days.
13 Willunga Hill,
the hilltop finish
Willunga Hill has a history of shaking up the peloton, with challenges, chases and competitive riders all coming out to play. Willunga Hill, and the wider McLaren Vale wine region, has been a fixture of the TDU since the inaugural event in 1999. But in 2012, the race took a challenging turn, with Stage 5 finishing on top of Willunga Hill, the second of two King of the Mountain climbs. It has been a huge success and was one of the best changes to the race and one of the most anticipated days of the race.
14 Here comes the rain …
and concrete!
2007 was the year Tour de France green jersey winner and Australian cyclist Baden Cooke won the stage into Victor Harbor through the pouring rain, the first time the race had experienced wet weather conditions. What many don’t know is that prior to the lead into the town, I was on my hands and knees clearing spilt concrete from the road with a broom!
15 We are the champions
The TDU has hosted the legends of the sport throughout the history of the race, the best of the best! Peter Sagan, Paolo Bettini, Greg LeMond, Sir Chris Hoy, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Miguel Indurain, Anna Meares and Cadel Evans have all been honoured for their achievements.
16 Four-time TDU winner
You still can’t go past Simon Gerrans, the TDU’s only four-time overall winner as one of our key moments. A true gentleman of the peloton and a rider who has contributed so much to our race.
17 Sprint kings
2012 was Robbie McEwen’s last TDU. I loved seeing two big sprinters in McEwen and Greipel, both highly credentialed on the international stage, go head to head with an equal record number of stage wins here at the TDU.
18 Down but not out
After an uphill finish in 2012, race organisers added another crucial climb in 2013 with the Corkscrew near the end of the 116.5-km second stage from Mount Barker to Rostrevor to entice more aggressive racing. It was not the climb that would be remembered but the descent, after a breakaway of riders led the race down to the finish where Briton Geraint Thomas (Sky) won. Behind them, were two crashes soon after the summit. A small group went down and then another ploughed into them.
19 Lance Armstrong
Lance Armstrong made his return to professional cycling at the 2009 event – he came, he saw and he attracted the fans. The fact remains that Armstrong’s participation had a major impact on the race and saw growth that we could have only dreamed over in a short period of time, which we have worked hard to maintain.
20 Happy Birthday!
If you had asked me in 1999 what the next 20 years would hold for the TDU, I could never have imagined we would achieve so much as an event in such a short period of time. The success of the event is testament to the support of our partners and, especially in those early years, the ownership shown by the people of South Australia. In 1999 the average punter would not have known what a peloton was, a domestique or a soigneur but 20 years on and we have an entire state of cycling experts.
Originally published as Mike Turtur’s top moments from the first 19 years of the Tour Down Under