Monday, July 25, 2011

Australia Has A New Sporting Hero!

Monday 25th July, 2011

Congratulations Cadel Evans!!!  Australia has a new sporting hero in Evans after he won the Tour De France.  The first time an Aussie has won the race in its 108 year history and the oldest winner (he's 34) to win it since World War 2. 


Bike riding has 2 new fans in Tony and I.  Yes, we have gone and watched the Tour Down Under that is held here in Adelaide in January, but we have never understood it.  By watching the Tour de France we now have a good understanding of what it is to ride in a bike race.

We know what the yellow jersey means, the green jersey is for the winner of the sprint races that is incorporated into each stage.  The polka dot jersey is for the winner of the King of the Mountain and the white jersey is for the best rider who is new to the Tour.

Watching the Tour has started to take it's toll.   Hehehehehe Tony slept in this morning.  Normally he is up at 5.40 am but this morning we didn't wake up until after 7.00am.  It was a mad rush for him to get ready for work but he said he was only about an hour late.

The girls unfortunately don't know how to sleep in.  They were up early yesterday morning playing on the Wii.  I think it was part excitement too about going to Disney on Ice.

Soon after they had breakfast they were wanting to get ready to go.  We decided we would leave the car at Tony's work and catch the tram to the Entertainment Centre.  We left home around 11.30am, went and had some lunch and then headed down to the Centre.

Best Friends

Taylor was looking forward to it as it was her first time going but this was Katie's fourth time.  We took her to her first Disney on Ice in Melbourne.  Since then she has been to each one that comes to Adelaide.

This year they had Ariel, Cars, The Lion King and Tinkerbell.  The girls thoroughly enjoyed it.  Katie said it was the best one ever.  Tony and I thought the ice skating wasn't as good as in previous years but the overall production was great.  Taylor has asked to come again next year.






We caught the tram back into the city, picked up the car and went and dropped Katie off.  She said that she had had the best weekend ever.    Jodi had rung earlier to let us know that she would be home after 6.00pm so we took Taylor and had some dinner and then dropped her off.  She was so excited telling Jodi all about her day.

Tony and I went home and got ourselves ready to watch Cadel Evans' victory ride into Paris.  What struck me was the friendliness of all the riders towards one another.  Apparently it is tradition that the winner of the race rides with no pressure put on them as no other rider is trying to beat them.  The only 'racing' done was for the sprint to the line and this was fought out by the 'sprinters'.

The riders had a 95km ride through the outskirts of Paris and the only racing done was the last 48kms when they ride 8 laps of the Champs D'Alysses.  I now can't wait for the 2012 Tour de France.  Maybe Tony can take his holidays during this time.


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