Tour Down Under 2015: The Santos TDU is here and so is a new Adelaide to discover

IT was 16 years ago that South Australia’s Stuart O’Grady won the inaugural Tour Down Under. South Australia has come a long way since that historic moment.

The TDU will run through some of the world’s most spectacular wine producing regions when its runs through the Barossa Valley.

IT was 16 years ago that South Australia’s Stuart O’Grady won the inaugural Tour Down Under.

More than 300,000 spectators lined streets of more than 50 South Australian towns to support an event that filled a gap left by the demise of the Grand Prix.

Today the continuing success of the TDU is expected to see almost 800,000 people, many from overseas and interstate packing hotels, caravans, B&Bs, injecting $50 million into the state’s economy as they turn out to cheer on an international field.

And they will discover a city that has transformed physically, has been touched by the ferocity of nature, and whose lifestyle has made Adelaide an envy of the world.

The New York Times this week rated Adelaide as one of the best places to travel in 2015.

More than 30 small bars operated by a new wave of entrepreneurs has given a new energy to the hidden laneways and the often unexplored nooks of the city.

A redeveloped Adelaide Oval rises above the parklands and has driven a new economy in the CBD, filling hotel rooms and providing a boost to the winter economy.

Across the river, a short walk over the new Torrens Footbridge takes tourists to North Tce and the revamped Adelaide Convention Centre.

English celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has also arrived in town opening a restaurant in an old bank on the corner of King William St and North Tce.

Further down North Terrace, Adelaide’s “cheese grater” the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute is a crowning architectural achievement and a bastion of a new economy that the city needs to overcome the decline of manufacturing.

Next door the state’s largest ever public infrastructure project, the $1.85 billion Royal Adelaide Hospital is quickly taking shape, while across the city new hotels have risen to accommodate the ever growing number of festivals and events that are spread across the year instead of being shoe-horned into “Mad March”.

Visitors who venture 30 minutes northeast of the city into the Adelaide Hills will be confronted with the aftermath of the bushfire that tore through regions which are set to host the first and third stages of the Tour Down Under.

Cycling heroes will flash past blackened trees and scorched land where just weeks ago firefighting heroes from here and interstate fought catastrophic conditions to defend homes in towns such as Kersbrook, Cudlee Creek, Houghton, Inglewood, Gumeracha and Humbug Scrub.

For the first time in seven years the TDU will return to Glenelg, the city’s most popular metropolitan beach, which is just a short tram ride away.

A beach is never far away from visitors to Adelaide and some of the best fringe glorious McLaren Vale, just 45 minutes south of the city.

As for wine, well, the tour passes through some of the world’s best regions of McLaren Vale, the Barossa Valley and the Adelaide Hills.

Stop off at one of hundreds of wineries on Adelaide’s doorstep and sample locally grown produce from a smorgasbord of providores that are making South Australia a must-do on the food trail.

The excitement begins today as the inaugural Santos Women’s Tour launches eight days of fierce competition.

To everyone, enjoy your stay.

Originally published as Tour Down Under 2015: The Santos TDU is here and so is a new Adelaide to discover