Wednesday Wanderings with ARR authors.
Cheryl Adnams shares Le Tour Down Under and an excerpt from
Chasing the Flames
In the second book of my Muller’s of McLaren Vale series, Chasing the Flames, my heroine Trisha is devastated that our hero Brian’s ex-wife has shown up and thrown a spanner in the works of their fledgling relationship. Broken-hearted, Trisha agrees to date a man who is staying at the Muller’s Bed and Breakfast Cottage. But the other man is a cyclist and Trisha is coerced into riding a bike to the top of Old Willunga Hill to watch the penultimate stage of the Tour Down Under world cycling tour.
Chasing the Flames touches on a small part of the excitement of the event through Trisha’s eyes.
Bernie Eisel & Cheryl, Team Sky Cycling
I am a self-confessed velophile. Which means I am a giant fan of the professional cycling and have even made the pilgrimage to France to see the ultimate cycling event, Le Tour de France. My love affair with cycling began back in 1999 when the Tour Down Under was first created. But in 2005 when the tour was promoted to World Tour status, it added a whole new dimension to what I have always known as the “best week of the year”.
Many of you may be ready to move away from this blog thinking, “what does cycling have to do with Australian rural romance?” Well, I’ll tell you.
One of the greatest things about the Tour Down Under is that this six stage cycling race travels through some of the most stunning scenery of South Australia. Over the years the tour has ridden stages beginning and ending in rural towns such as Mount Barker, Stirling and Lobethal in the Adelaide hills; Victor Harbor and Goolwa on the Fleurieu Peninsula and as far afield as Tanunda and Angaston in the Barossa Valley and Mannum on the Murray River. The television coverage is world-wide and there is no better tourism promotion for our state.
The cyclists ride up steep hillside roads with names like Corkscrew and Menglers Hill providing spectators with not only a view of the fit, lycra clad sportsmen (hello romance!) but also wonderful views of the diverse and exquisite South Australian countryside.
The peloton rides through McLaren Vale (credit Belinda Stevens)
The Queen stage of the Tour Down Under takes in a three lap circuit around the McLaren Vale wine region, where spectators quaff wine at cellar doors as the cyclists fly by. It speeds along the pristine white sand of the coastal esplanades of Port Willunga and Aldinga before it takes its first turn up Old Willung Hill to the mass of waiting crowds to rival those you see at the Tour de France.
Cyclists ascend Old Willunga Hill (credit Belinda Stevens)
The teams of cyclists who come to this first world tour of the year include many of the same cyclists who ride in the Tour de France each July. Being South Australia and summer, the cyclists often have to ride in forty plus degree temperatures and last year they rode through the charred remains of the fire ravaged hills after the catastrophic bushfires that swept through Sampson Flat in early 2015.
If you have never been to the Tour Down Under then you probably won’t understand what it means to “Feel the Rush” as the slogan goes. But I hope I have captured enough of the tours ambience in Chasing the Flames so that fellow velophiles will get to relive that thrill through Trisha’s experience.
Luckily, Trisha is fit enough and makes it to the top of the hill on her bike. Would I ever attempt that feat I hear you ask? Hilariously, I don’t even own a bike!
Old Willunga Hill Finish Line (credit Belinda Stevens)
Cheryl is sharing an excerpt from Chasing the Flames
Trisha was no wimp. She knew she wasn’t. She ran, she swam. She’d stayed lean and fit as she headed into her forties. But riding up Old Willunga Hill on a bike was tantamount to suicide, in her estimation.
Mac was sweet and patiently waited for her every hundred metres or so as she stopped to look for the lung she’d dropped or to reconstitute the muscles in her legs, which had turned to liquid and melted down into her shoes.
Despite all that, the crowd that had gathered along the side of the road all the way up the hill for the real race were brilliant. They were so supportive of her efforts and of all the cyclists struggling to battle the King of the Mountain, which the professional road cyclists would conquer later that day in a quarter of the time. Twice.
Todd and Lucy had taken off ahead at Trisha’s insistence that she was holding them up.
She’d pushed Mac to do the same but he’d stuck and probably ridden twice as far due to riding up and down and up again so he could stay with her to urge her on.
She was entertained along the way – between moments of wishing Mac a horrible and painful death for talking her into this madness – by the colourful characters that cycling brought out. She didn’t think she’d ever seen so much Lycra concentrated in one place, and while Mac filled his more than adequately, others looked more like sides of beef squeezed into too-small girdles.
Cycling fanatics had camped overnight for the best positions, particularly at the top where Trisha finally reached the King of the Mountain banner over the road, which – she thanked all her gods – flattened out towards the finish line of the day’s race.
People she didn’t know cheered her on, and as she crossed under the archway Mac moved in to give her a huge hug and kiss that caught her off guard. Thankfully, their bikes made it difficult to get too close and she was able to pull away quickly.
‘You’re a legend, Trisha!’ Mac attached his lips to hers again and she turned her head to break the lip lock. She was sweaty, puffing and uncomfortable. And she kicked herself mentally that even after everything that had happened, all she could think about was Brian.
Todd and Lucy rode up to them then, looking the perfect picture of a sporting couple.
‘You did it!’ Lucy beamed, unclipping her helmet. ‘You did so much better than my first time. I had to walk my bike up most of the way when I first attempted it.’
Trisha was proud of herself, but really all she wanted was a big drink of water and a long lie down.
Sometimes the hottest fire burns with an old flame.
Trisha Carne has loved Brian Muller, of Muller’s Field vineyard, for as long as she can remember but the moment has never been right. Then an unexpected kiss on New Year’s Eve has Brian looking at her in a new way. Has she finally caught his attention?
Brian’s been doing it tough since his wife left him, and has retreated into the safety of bachelorhood. So he’s surprised to find this new fling with an old flame is starting to bring him back to life. Until his ex-wife turns up in McLaren Vale and he’s thrown into a state of confusion.
Will Brian and Trisha let their pasts keep them from finding true happiness? Or will they have the courage to chase the flames that still smoulder between them?
Chasing the Flames is available in eBook from all good retailers.
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Read more about Cheryl and her book on MEET CHERYL ADNAMS
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