{"id":429836,"date":"2026-01-22T11:31:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T11:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/429836\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T11:31:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T11:31:07","slug":"tips-from-the-pros-koala-spotting-down-under","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/429836\/","title":{"rendered":"Tips from the pros: Koala spotting down under"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every visitor to Australia hopes to catch sight of the tree-dwelling marsupials and our riders have been determined to make the most of their time down under. Fortunately, Henrietta Christie\u2019s<\/a> time-tested koala spotting strategy has served the squad well.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of our first days here, we saw two koalas and I spotted both of them!\u201d Henri said. \u201cI really struggled the first time I did the Tour Down Under. I didn\u2019t see any koalas. And then my second year here, I was riding next to a friend who is the queen of spotting koalas, just unbelievable. I asked her for her secret and she said you\u2019ve just got to look for a blob. And so that\u2019s what I do. I then focus on the blob to see if it\u2019s a koala blob or if it\u2019s just shaded tree branches.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stina Kagevi<\/a> has seen Henri\u2019s technique in action, but is still a rookie herself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI need to properly learn from Henrietta how to spot a koala,\u201d Stina said. \u201cShe said you look up at the trees in the shade and just look for a big gray dot. I\u2019m not so good at it because it goes so fast when you\u2019re riding. How do you see that?! But Henri is good at it. I\u2019ve seen koalas in the wild before and it\u2019s just as good as I remembered. It\u2019s just a fluffy little bear up in the tree!\u201d<\/p>\n

While this is Henri\u2019s fourth year of starting her racing season in Australia, her teammate Noemi R\u00fcegg<\/a> added an extra dimension to koala spotting. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou know the yellow car game where you whack the person next to you when you see a yellow car? It\u2019s quite an aggressive game,\u201d Henri explained. \u201cWe started this at a training camp in Sierra Nevada. So Noemi had the idea that we should do it like with yellow car but instead of hitting each other, we give each other a hug like a koala. That is such a typical Noemi, wholesome idea for a game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, Noemi is a big fan of her game.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time you see a koala, you know you will get a hug or you know you can give a hug so that\u2019s a big motivation,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Alice Towers<\/a> is new to EF Education-Oatly this season and now that she\u2019s been able to successfully support Noemi in her quest to win a second consecutive title at the Tour Down Under<\/a>, she can relax and focus more on koala spotting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to spot a koala solely by myself,\u201d Alice said. \u201cThe only time I\u2019ve ever seen one is because someone else has pointed one out to me. I\u2019m the last person to see it, looking around while they\u2019re all pointing at it and I\u2019m thinking, \u2018What are you pointing at?\u2019 I\u2019ve never actually just looked up and seen one so I\u2019ll be really pleased if I can just look up and see a koala.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the squad appreciates any wildlife spotting, Noemi said that koalas are the grand prize.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been talking a lot about koalas and yesterday Mags<\/a> spotted a kangaroo but the excitement wasn\u2019t that much in the group. For me, kangaroos are super cute. If I saw a kangaroo, I would be super happy, but koalas are extra special.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noemi did admit that there is some wildlife she is hoping to avoid.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope I never see a snake,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m a bit scared of them. Every pee stop we do, we have to be really careful of snakes. And also spiders. Spiders are my worst fear. If I saw a big spider, we\u2019d have a big problem.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every visitor to Australia hopes to catch sight of the tree-dwelling marsupials and our riders have been determined…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429837,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-429836","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}