Last year the Mt Buffalo Challenge was started on this website, it has proved to be quite popular in it's inaugural year.I'm still getting the odd time coming in but it's clear the sting is out of the tail.We've had 33 competitors both male and female coming from many different levels.  At the moment the leader is Shane Miller with a very impressive time of 51 minutes  39 seconds. I've been wondering what to do about the competition,I will be awarding a very special trophy to the winner, I'm hoping this will be a perpetual trophy for other years too. 
I'm after some suggestions before deciding on future of this and other years Challenge.I'll throw out a few ideas and hopefully will get some feedback and suggestions from others.

1. How do we wind up the competition for this year? Late Iast year I had been thinking we may be able to have a handicap ride off using the times submitted by entrants. But I believe this probably is not that feasible and that it would be difficult to arrange and how many people are likely to turn up for the race? Also many people are in their off season and not training much. 
Which makes me think the person with the quickest time come March 31st deserves the trophy.I'm thinking about framing one of my TDU photographs for the fastest female.
2.I'd like to run the Challenge again this year (starting after the snow season) and I think Mt Buffalo is the best option.


So if anybody has any suggestions about the current or future Mt Buffalo Challenge please leave a comment at the bottom of this blog.

This just came in from the Alpine Cycling Club this afternoon. I spotted a couple of locals in there and it made me pretty excited about the 2012 edition. Right now I feel like some motivation is needed, hopefully this will do the trick.We are so lucky this excellent event is held right on our doorstep.

After changing over to Speedplay pedals a few months ago I have been aware of the fact you have to grease them occasionally.This has been in the back of my mind for some time and just the other day I had an idea about how to achieve it. Having a strong connection to a farming background and a pretty decent workshop, the idea of using a chainsaw bar grease gun occurred to me.It's a little spring loaded grease gun with a pointy end used for lubricating the rollers in the end of a chainsaw bar.The good news was I happened to have one. I have just tried the technique and it was so successful that I just had to blog about it.Plus I get to take close up photos which I love as well.I reckon there would be plenty of other ways to achieve the same result,this was the one I came up with using the tools I had.

I've just created a photo gallery with all the images from the Tour Down Under. It's in Cycling Photography, under the Galleries Tab above or just click here.

I found stage 6 one of the most difficult to photograph and I'm not that happy with the results. It was pretty hot and I couldn't seem to get in a good position for decent composition etc. Anyway I'll post a few for good measure and to finnish of the Tour which I thoroughly enjoyed.So many highlights it's hard to pick a stand out moment, I will not forget the stage that Will Clarke won in Stirling and the feeling that seemed to reverberate through the whole crowd. For me there was a sense that something very special had been witnessed that day. I've not long arrived home after the 830 km drive and I would be happy if I didn't have to drive again for a week.That said,I've had a ball and I hope you have enjoyed looking at the photos.

Yesterday the Old Wilunga Hill finnish lived up to the hype, with huge crowds and a very exciting finale.During the Tour I've tried to see as much of the racing as possible and feel like I've achieved this pretty well for my first time.Also trying to take photographs from different perspectives where possible. Today the result is still in the balance and I can't wait for Stage 6 to start.Below are some of my shots from yesterday.

 The weather has been perfect since that horrible day we had on Monday. Quick 50 km this morning with the Captain's Crew, including a run up Mt Lofty before a quick shower then off to the racing.
Stage 4 started in Norwood and finished in Tanunda. I managed to get to the start area and then jumped ahead to the feed station at Springton, my last stop for the day Menglers Hill KOM, about 20 km from the finish. Got some shots of the riders suffering up the climb with one of  my favourites being Andre Greipel with his tongue out on Menglers Hill (he lost lots of time today and now has no chance of winning overall) I'm going back to the photo gallery mode for the post today as it takes ages for me to load each photo individually so don't forget you can click on an image to see it larger, and a caption, if I've added one.

What a great day in South Australia today. With a short ride today with the Rapha mob along the beach and returning to Unley for the start of stage 3.  We had the Saxo Bank and RadioShack-Nissan team van's, parked just outside the coffee shop we entered. Seeing Jens Voigt outside signing autographs and getting his photo taken with fans, Von from Team Kosdown was not about to miss out. Jens who is very obliging with his time, as are most of the professional cyclists, which is really nice to see,so Imagine my surprise when Jens and some of his team came and sat at the table next to ours. After mustering up the courage to ask Jens,he signed the back of my WestEnd Bike Hub Jersey. I've got a photo of him signing it thanks to Von but I might not post it until I've photoshopped my bald spot.
After the race got underway I rode back to Glenelg and jumped in the ute and headed for Victor Harbor via Goolwa, leapfrogging  the race so I could see them from 2 different locations. Here are a few pics from today and I wont bother with any race reporting as there are people much more experienced with that side of things and you've probably already read what happened.

The day dawned in Adelaide to a lovely summers morning, meeting the Captain's crew at 6.30am for a early morning ride was just the tonic to start the day. I left the hardy crew at the top of Norton's Summit and rode back by myself so I could get to the start of stage 2 at Lobethal. I did manage to get a little lost on my return ride, but nothing I couldn't work out with the maps on my iphone. It did mean however, that by the time I arrived at the start it was about 10 mins until the race got under way so I didn't have much time to take photos and soak up the atmosphere. I did have a chat to Nathan Haas about the previous stage and how tough the conditions were. I also came across Elvis punching out a few tunes, so it appears the King resides in Lobethal. 


After the race got underway I drove to the Cat 2 KOM at Fox Creek. It's about 5km long with the first 4 km being not that steep but the last km really had a decent kick that would hurt the legs. After the race went over the climb and I was wandering back to my trusty hilux I noticed one of the local wine growers had his tractor in quite a predicament on a very steep hill and I've included a photo below of his conundrum,maybe he had been sampling some of his own produce.

I then managed to not really get lost, rather driving in the general direction where I thought maybe the race would magically appear from.However,this was not the way things turned out, so I just set the GPS for Stirling where the stage would finnish and  settle in for the remainder. A huge crowd had gathered in Stirling to witness an amazing effort from Will Clarke who won the stage. It was a honour to witness his effort which I'm sure many of you will have read about by now.

So here is today's pics, and the theme became Black and White during the editing process.

Today was the first stage of the TDU and what a stinker of a day. One that saw me move out of my tent and into a motel,my Engel car fridge popping the circuit breaker time and time again and the profanities I heard on the UHF radio from truck drivers held up by the race I could not repeat on this blog. With the mercury hovering around 40 degrees celsius, a North Westerly wind that would blow a dog of it's chain, it was going to be a tough day in the saddle for the pros.It's days like today that I am blessed to be too old and slow to be racing my bike. In the first 2 hours of racing the main field covered just over 53 km so you don't have to be Professor Julius Sumner Miller to realize that is slow for these guys. So here are a few photos from today's stage.