Tour Down Under
Team UniSA-Australia Supporters Club
Team UniSA-Australia Supporters Club
Saturday, January 22, 2005
Stage 5 - Willunga to
Willunga (147km)
by Emma Masters
One of the very real benefits of a sporting event like the Jacob’s Creek Tour Down Under is that it doesn’t stay in the city centre.
The race moves out into South Australia’s country areas, giving regional communities the chance to get involved and experience the riders in action.
And every year, tens of thousands of supporters line the streets and roads of their regional areas to cheer the riders on. Many decorate their homes and businesses and some towns arrange other events and activities around the day the riders come to town.
This was certainly the case for Willunga, the host of the start and end of stage 5 of the race, and surrounding towns that line the route of this sea to vines stage, including Aldinga, McLaren Vale and Port Willunga.
Those living along this particularly scenic stage, with beautiful coastline and abundant vineyards, have gained a reputation for really putting on a show for the riders and each area has jostled, with friendly rivalry, to get the best dressed town award since the tour started seven years ago.
McLaren Vale (1999) and Aldinga (2000) have each won the award once, with Willunga winning in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004. And this year was no exception with Willunga taking it out for the fifth year in a row.
The chairman of the Willunga Committee, Brian Reader, said they worked for the nine months leading up to the Tour Down Under organising everything from decorations for the streets, to competitions, stalls, food and entertainment.
“We had residents lining up at six o’clock this morning to help put up the 6,000 balloons and streamers we’d organised over the last four days,” he said.
“The community spirit here is amazing and very refreshing. It’s so wonderful to see people pulling together and working like a team for an event like this. The place really comes alive for the tour.”
This year Willunga took on the theme of the “Global Village.” Many shops decorated their window fronts with a flag and colours from one of the professional riders and teams participating in the race. There was a massive balloon in the shape of a globe on the main corner, with smaller ‘globe balloons’ put up around the streets.
There was also face painting, mist tents, stalls, music and entertainment, with the Tea Tree Gully Band, the Redbacks, on the march and moving through the crowd playing contemporary songs ranging from Alphonsus Cassell’s Hot Hot Hot through to ACDC’s Long way to the Top.
With an estimated crowd of around 100,000 lining the streets for the Willunga to Willunga stage, it is quite possible that this is one of the favourite stages of the race for many people.
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