Flag drops on Turtur’s Tour
EVEN as Stuart O’Grady tries to absorb 21 years of the Tour Down Under in 10-minute conversations, he is thinking about the 22nd edition.
The 10-day event starting tomorrow in Adelaide is at a watershed moment, with Mike Turtur in the process of handing over to O’Grady as race director.
Turtur, the 1984 Olympic track cycling gold medallist, is the Tour creator and its only boss.
What started out as an ambitious six-day men’s stage race is now a festival also featuring a women’s tour, an expo, paracycling and an exhibition track event. Since O’Grady was confirmed as the new race director last year, the first Australian to win Paris-Roubaix has been having a crash course in Tour Down Under knowledge alongside Turtur.
“Every now and again he tries to blurt out 21 years of information in about 10 minutes,” O’Grady said.
But he has hit the ground running.
“I’m already deep into my course design for 2021, which has been a lot of fun,” said the Adelaide native and the winner of the first Tour, in 1999.
“In the back of my mind, I’ve been aiming for this role for many years and I always thought, ‘wouldn’t this be a great stage?’ ”
Turtur’s resignation caps a period of unprecedented transition for the Tour.
Several key people who have been fixtures for more than a decade have left their roles, for a variety of reasons.
Turtur said that had brought its challenges, but the foundations were solid. And at its heart, the Tour has not changed since day one.
As Turtur notes, the Tour lives or dies on South Australian Government support.
“We always knew it’s a tourism event. It just happens to be a bike race,” he said.
To that end, whatever is to be said of Lance Armstrong’s controversial 2009-11 visits, there is no denying the impact.
“What Armstrong did was he brought people to the race who were thinking about it, talking about it — but never came,” Turtur said.
“Once that group of people came, they’re coming back and they’ve also told their friends.”
He will continue organising the Track Down Under exhibition event at the Adelaide Superdrome. When the men’s Tour ends at the top of Willunga Hill on January 26, he is adamant there will be no tears.
“A lot of planning and thought has gone into this ... I’ve had a dream run,” he said. “I will be more than happy — I will be ecstatic.”