The crowds flocked in their tens of thousands to support the 2014 edition of the Tour Down Under. Source: Samuel Wundke / News Limited
I HOPE UCI president Brian Cookson got a long, hard look at the thousands of faces in the crowd at Rymill Park from his spot on stage at the Tour Down Under presentation on Sunday.
The head of world cycling which is currently reviewing the structure of the sport and the make-up of the WorldTour calendar did not need to jot down any notes.
The overwhelming evidence that a) the Tour Down Under deserves its rightful place on the WorldTour and b) it should not be moved from the January school holiday window, was the view from the podium.
Cookson would have seen a sea of camera phones, kids sitting on their parents' shoulders, others with their hands in the air celebrating the best athletes from what is surely one of the fastest growing sports in the country.
He would have seen the same view from the podium at any other town all week.
Adelaide has done it again and produced a Tour Down Under that has been hailed the greatest ever.
And that's saying something given the hype when it first went to ProTour level in 2008, or when Lance Armstrong (pre-doping confession) hit town in 2009, and when Australian team Orica-GreenEDGE made its WorldTour debut in 2012.
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This was the 16th edition of the race and the momentum shows no signs of slowing. From the estimated record 760,000-strong crowds, to the live TV coverage, edge-of-your-seat racing and quality of the field.
We may not appreciate the magnitude of having Cadel Evans, Richie Porte and Simon Gerrans racing like their lives depended on it on South Australian roads until they are retired.
Because in 50 or 100 years' time, we will be talking about three of the greatest road cyclists Australia has ever produced. Certainly in Evans's case, we already are.
As they reflected on a week of highs and lows on Sunday evening, all three praised the event and its fans.
"It's just nice to come to a race like the Tour Down Under to start your season and all the talk in the peloton is it is one of the best races around," Porte said.
"The fans really make this race, honestly, the racing is fantastic and the fans really make the ambience," Evans said.
"The race is obviously working really well, they're attracting a world class field every year and from all reports the spectators are just growing and the race is becoming more and more popular. They've got a pretty good recipe already," Gerrans said.
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Porte perhaps said it best on top of Old Willunga Hill on Saturday evening when he declared anyone who believes cycling is not a mainstream sport in Australia is kidding themselves.
One of the great things about the sport is it's accessible to everyone - take the TDU's opening and closing criteriums in the city for example.
Where else can you take a family of five to an afternoon/evening of world class sporting entertainment and it costs you absolutely nothing? Buy the kids and ice cream and you're still in and out for less than $10.
Try doing that at the Twenty20 Big Bash, World Tennis Challenge, a motorsport race or AFL football? Not that cycling is any better or worse than those sports, but it's as close to free entertainment as you will ever get.
From the Bay Crits in Melbourne, to the national championships in Ballarat, to the Tour Down Under in Adelaide, this summer has been the greatest advertisement the sport could have hoped for - and coming off a time when it needed it most.
The sport has weathered one of the worst storms imaginable and both cycling and the Tour Down Under aren't going anywhere.
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