Win a Tour de France with Phil Anderson

LIAM Houlihan braved the elements with cycling legend Phil Anderson, and now you could too with this exclusive competition to the 2011 Tour de France.

The view of Mt Beauty from Svarmisk resort. Picture: Supplied

FIRST, there was a blackout.

Then, the power came back on, and a Tour de France legend and I found ourselves looking at the southern hemisphere's largest collection of musical animated miniature Christmas scenes.

The storm raging outside was drowned out by the din of dozens of tiny choralists, carols and fairground voices echoing around the empty chalet hotel basement.

As the lights from all the individual displays, revolving Santas and ice-skating figurines flickered against the dark basement walls, I thought of the bio on the Tour veteran's website.

"Phil Anderson OAM is one of our cycling heroes ... won two Commonwealth golds 16 years apart ... turned pro ... joined intensely competitive European road circuit ... first Australian and non-European to win prestigious Tour de France yellow jersey ... then won 10 more yellow jerseys ... daringly challenged French favourite Bernard Hinault ... rose to No.1 in the world ... pain ... determination ... excitement."

I looked at Anderson filming figurine children going round and round in mini tea-cup rides with his iPhone in the subterranean room in the middle of the Alpine National Park and I tried to recall exactly how we had got there.

It all started when I was offered the chance to spend a summer's day riding up a bloody big Victorian mountain with cycling royalty Anderson, to write a story about the Seven Peaks Alpine Ascent Challenge. The plan was that Anderson, his partner Annie and I would meet at Mt Beauty, then ride the 30km uphill to the Falls Creek village, finishing at a point 1.2km vertically above where we started.

As I imagined it (to the tune of Farnsey's Playing To Win) the sun would beat down as I pumped my legs like pistons and delivered myself to the finish line. It would be an emotional journey as I struggled, went tomato red, chafed, blistered, cramped, cursed, blamed altitude sickness and eventually blubbered like a baby.

But with Anderson sharing golden nuggets of inspirational advice learnt hard over millions of kilometres on the road, I would eventually triumph over my almost complete lack of will and physical fitness.

Excited, I borrowed a flash retro Paconi roadbike from Borsari Cycles in Carlton founded by Olympic gold medal-winning Italian-Australian Nino Borsari and fanged out of Melbourne up the Hume.

Where it all began
After a restful night luxuriating in the stylish 2001: A Space Odyssey-style designs and Swedish hospitality of Mt Beauty's Svarmisk resort and spa's serviced apartments, I met Phil and Annie.

But things were not exactly as planned. It had been raining heavily for 24 hours. The only cars on the road were emergency vehicles. We ate lunch and waited for it to clear. It didn't clear. It got worse.

It was Wednesday, December 8, and it was meant to be sunny but overnight more than 50mm of rain fell across the state with Falls Creek and Mount Hotham both recording 26mm. As it kept raining heavily, we did a drive with the bikes to the top of the mountain to see what the weather was like all the way up. The answer was, equally bad.

But we were committed I had, after all, bought a $3 raincoat from the Mt Beauty Op Shop. We would drive to the bottom and ride up come rain, hail or shine.

But when we tried to drive down, emergency services refused to let us pass - the road was closed, it was a weather emergency.

It was the only day we had to ride together so we pedalled the open route down the other side of the mountain the road to Omeo (which looked like Scotland but with less nice weather) and got drenched.

There was a thunderclap and flashes of lightning behind the clouds. Phil told me to pretend I was coming up on Lance Franklin in the Tour and the flashes were adoring paparazzi, but it felt more like an episode of Man vs Wild.
We got back to the safety, warmth and civilisation of our luxurious serviced Altezza apartment, where there would be delicious food we just needed to put it in the electric oven.

Then there was another thunderclap, and the lights and all the power went out. Famished we made a plan B to meet the Falls Creek marketing manager for a beer at the village pub.

The pub would have back-up electricity, we figured, and we could all inhale a hot parma and pot. We drove the 300m to the pub so as not to get struck by lightning or be washed away, but when we entered it was pitch black. We negotiated blind corridors and got to the bar where six silhouettes stood in the dark.

It felt like we were slowly descending into a post-apocalyptic dystopia but, on the upside, having a world champion athlete and his super-fit girlfriend on your team had to improve your odds.

Finally, relief
Eventually the power came on and the bar manager showed us her large, exotic and unexpected collection of musical animated miniature Christmas scenes arranged with love in the basement.

It had been a strange day. We ate back at Altezza and over a bottle of red I extracted war stories from Phil, who also showed me his favourite wildman YouTube videos of crazy people doing crazy things on bikes. The next day the sun came out, the roads reopened. We said our adieus. I drove to Harrietville and cycle-walked up about halfway to Mt Hotham village.

Eventually I was rescued by a kind lady from the resort who drove me to the top of the mountain, fed me, then dropped me off for the more enjoyable 30km descent.

In the end I may not have conquered a ferocious mountain ride with a Tour de France legend but I saw a big collection of Christmas scenes.

And for whoever wins the Alpine Ascent Challenge: I'm sure there will be no flood warnings in sunny Paris.

Getting there
Hire a road bike from Borsari Cycles, 193 Lygon St, Carlton, for $60 a day. Ph [phone]. Mt Beauty and Harrietville are both about a four-hour drive up the Hume Highway from Melbourne.

Staying there
- Svarmisk, 84 Bogong High Plains Rd, Mt Beauty. Ph [phone], email [e-mail], see www.svarmisk.com.au
-Altezza 1570 apartments, Falls Creek, 9 Sitzmark St, Falls Creek. Ph 0420-515-712, email [e-mail], see www.altezza1570.com

WIN: The challenge
Here's how to win a one-week trip for two to the 2011 Tour De France guided by Aussie cycling legend Phil Anderson:
- Register to receive your 7 Peaks passport at www.alpineascentchallenge.com.au
- Ride four of the seven following classic alpine peaks before March 31, 2011 - Falls Creek, Mt Baw Baw, Mt Buffalo, Mt Buller, Dinner Plain, Hotham, Lake Mountain - and get your passport stamped.
- Return your boarding pass and you will go into the draw for prizes for any peak completed, plus the major prize draw if you complete four or more climbs.
-There is also a 7 Peaks iPhone app to monitor your climb and compete against others on the individual resort leader boards.

The author travelled courtesy of North East Victoria Tourism.

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