January 18, 2008 - Sitting on one of New Zealand's finest beaches, my toes soaking in the crystal-clear ocean, and my head protected from the sun's violent rays by a so-English sunhat, hardly seems the ideal place to preview the first event of the 2008 cycling season. Yet why not - 12.000-miles away from the mud-spattered cyclo-crosses I see on the Internet each weekend, and almost as far away from the chilly training camps of Spain, Italy and France, this really is the perfect place for such a task. After all, it wouldn't do to get too involved just yet, would it - there's ten months of race-photography awaiting me just around the corner! In fact it all kicks off next week, with the Tour Down Under establishing new political territory as the first ProTour event to ever take place outside of Europe. In recent winters, I've spent my days down-under studying Internet images of the latest team kits, preparing myself for the return to work in February by familiarising myself with all the new colours, designs and co-sponsors of the top teams. This year is different - all I have to do is fly myself across the Tasman Sea and watch the team presentation in Glenelg, on January 20th.

About ten years ago, in November 1998, track-builder and six-day race-organiser, Ron Webb, walked into my kitchen and asked if I'd like to be the official photographer for a new race in Australia. Sure, I said, I'd love to - and I next saw Ron again as we were boarding a Malaysia Airlines 747 airplane in the middle of the following January. It was a bloody long journey, mate, and a very short stay in Adelaide, but I've been making the journey each and every year since then, drawn back to the warmth of the South Australian people and the heat that is a permanent fixture of their lives in January. I've now tailored the journey to suit my winter travel plans, and instead of going from London as per the original trip, or flying out of Los Angeles on the occasions when I had reason to be there for work just prior to the TDU, I prefer to get down-under weeks ahead so I can better enjoy the race, and its stunning scenery, by adjusting to the time zones and the temperatures well in advance. For reasons that still lack adequate explanation, I'm still employed as the official race-photographer, despite the nuisance and general mayhem I like to cause when I'm let loose on this great and still-growing event.

Will Adelaide in 2008 be so different from Adelaide in 2000? Yes, it'll be massive in comparison, most especially because of the presence of those eighteen ProTour teams. Back in 1999, there were just five top-level squads - Telekom, Saeco, Lotto, Francaise des Jeux, and Credit Agricole, with the rest of the 110-rider peloton made up of national Australian teams like the AIS, or locals like UniSA, the university-sponsored team that got the locals cheering loudly each and every day. UniSA finally won the race with Patrick Jonker in 2004, but they are the ones who miss out this year because of the Pro Tour rules. AIS - the Australian Institute of Sport - has kept its place for the tenth anniversary edition. I remember that first race, in fact the very last stage of it, when AIS's leader, Cadel Evans, crashed on a corner in the city-centre criterium and went to hospital with a suspected broken collar-bone. Suddenly, there he was, walking around the finish area with his arm in a sling, laughing at his stupidity. So we all laughed with him, teasing him that he should have come to the race on his Cannondale mountain-bike instead… In fact, Evans has returned here year after year, more mature with each visit to a race he treats as good PR in his own country, and good training to-boot. He doesn't actually win, but at least he's stopped falling off.

Photographically, the TDU is a real beauty, with the scenery in South Australia so distinct from any other race we get to work at. I've photographed the race's familiar landscapes from just about every angle, and perhaps five-times over, but each year brings something new to the viewfinder. I just know there's a better shot to be had of Hahndorf, the quaint German-inspired township that stages a finish each year, and the bash through the Barossa Valley deserves a fresh look too. It'll be hard to beat the shot of the famous Palm Trees in Seppeltsfield - the one that made a 'Focus' in Cycle Sport back in 1999, and which I try to improve on each time we're there. Same goes for the penultimate-stage shot of Aldinga Beach, of the peloton racing like crazy for a flying sprint with the Southern Ocean as a breathtaking backdrop. I can't wait to point the lens again at these iconic landscapes of the TDU - especially with about 130 riders in that peloton instead of the more familiar 100…

Fact is, Adelaide is Stuart O'Grady's home-town, and this is one of the reasons why the race got started in the first place. His family are to be found in every aspect of it, either as noisy fans or serious race-officials. 'Stuart's Dad, Brian, drives the motorbike carrying the blackboard man - the official (actually Stuart's brother, Darren) who writes the time gaps on a black board for any escapers and their chasers. Stuart's sister, Leslie, used to control the back-room staff, and Stuart's wife, Ann-Marie, was formerly a podium girl in the earlier years. Another member of the O'Grady clan (we believe it to be his mum, Faye) produced thousands of 'Stuey sticks' - face-sized, cardboard cut-outs of a smiling Stuart on a stick - without which you cannot be considered to be a true O'Grady fan. With O'Grady even-more popular here after his Paris-Roubaix victory and nasty Tour de France crash in 2007, those Stuey-sticks will be seen just about everywhere. Who knows if the man can win a third time in Adelaide - O'Grady has pulled off so many surprises in his long career, anything is possible. One thing is for sure, the new, mainly-white colours of his CSC team, will be a prominent feature of next week's racing.

O'Grady can expect quite a challenge in this 2008 edition. In addition to the European riders coming for the first time, where former winners like Luis Leon Sanchez (2005) and Martin Elmiger (2007) will be trying to win again, O'Grady faces his stiffest challenge from the huge batch of Australians racing here. Top of that list is 2006 winner, Simon Gerrans, now of Credit Agricole. And as usual, Robbie McEwen is certain to be competitive in the sprints, as will Allan Davis, Graeme Brown and Aaron Kemps of the new-look Astana team.

The TDU represents a different start to the season for me, and not just because it is a ProTour event for the first time. The race is running one week later this year to coincide its end with Australia Day - the national holiday of the country - when it is hoped tens of thousands of spectators will cheer the final stage around Adelaide. This date-change means no Cyclo-Cross World Championships for me in 2008 - and no Tour of Qatar either. I've not missed a 'cross championships since the early-1980's, so it will be a bit strange to be sweating in a 100oF heatwave instead of freezing my tootsies off in a cold north-Italian meadow. From then on, the season reverts to normality, with the Tour of California just a few weeks away, followed by the Het Volk classic in Belgium. Apart from what I hope will be great photography, these three vastly different races have a common thread joining them together. They signal that the new 2008 road season is well and truly under way. Allez!

Graham Watson