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11th Crocodile Trophy - October 18-30, 2005
Felt Dream Team diary
Murphy's Law rules the day
Stage 7 - October 24: Irvinebank - Chillagoe, 115 km
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The bad luck account for stages 7 and 8 was opened by David Wood, who insists on wearing sandals and was consequently stung by a scorpion between his toes. Wood, who is not one to complain, was in serious pain. "Like a red hot poker" he described the feeling between his first and second toe.
This happened minutes before rollout. Once the race started the trouble continued, with a deviation from the course for support vehicles, which saw all the team support people including yours truly travel an extra 80 kilometres off course between kilometre 26 and kilometre 60.
As I drove the ute through some very wild country I came across a six-month-old foal with wire wrapped around its leg and tied to a post. The next 30 minutes were spent trying to get a handle on this horse and the wire off its leg, with no assistance from the local Aborigines who owned all of the free ranging horses. Between the feral dogs and what looked like very hungry horses it was a sorry site indeed.
When I asked two men working on the road to go back and help me I once again met with nothing but abject apathy. The conversation went so far as a toe to toe exchange of expletives and finally with no joy I drove away, very upset! In the end the foal had to be left with the wire wrapped around its leg as the Dream Team needed to be fed. This unexpected delay meant the second feed zone was missed and Mauro Bettin, who was racing his way to a stage victory, was a little frustrated.
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After Bettin passed I was informed that Zemke had crashed but was ok and Hundertmarck had snapped his frame in one of the more technical sections of the course - he swapped bikes with our local Cairns man David Wood. David apparently had to force the German to take his bike and then proceeded to walk the next 20 kilometres over some of the roughest country we've seen.
David jerryrigged the broken frame with some zip ties and a piece of wood, allowing him to coast on the down hills and even a little bit on the flat (of which there was little), but he had to push the bike up every hill for at least 20 kilometres. We had to make the decision to take the spare bike back on the course to the neutral support vehicle so that David wouldn't have to walk 65 kilometres to the finish.
This being a 'damned if you do and damned if you don't' situation meant I had to abandon our team leader Mauro Bettin for the third feed as well. When I passed Hundertmarck on the spare bike he was bouncing up and down as if on a pogo stick - the spare bike had very ordinary front suspension. I stopped again to give him a fork pump to try to steady his mount for the final 60 kilometres on bitumen. Hundertmark's main problem at this point is his butt. He is battered and bruised by three different saddles, and spending considerable time sitting on ice.
In the end Bettin took the stage in a sprint. This was Bettin's third stage victory, and with victory came good morale and understanding. He did mention something about being more important than a horse, but it was purely in good humour.
Stage 8 - October 25: Chillagoe Time trial, 30 km
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This was effectively a rest day for the team, and while staying in a hotel watching the sun finally come out, everybody was feeling relaxed.
Jens Zemke set the mood with his text-book Time Trialing style, making it look easy and comfortable; in 40 degree temperatures it was neither. Even though he repeatedly commented on the length and the nature of this hellish event, he had a great day and was back in his element.
Kai Hundertmarck, on the other hand, was still tweaking the changes to his bike as he swapped his components and forks to the new Felt frame. He rolled to the start line with only a rear brake engaged and three seconds to the gun, and 500 metres into the ride he stopped to re-adjust his saddle. As a result of this panicked preparation Hundertmarck was not looking for anything but recovery over the 30 kilometres, and after losing so much time in stage seven, he is now only looking to help Bettin and count coup on another stage.
Mauro Bettin finished a relaxed second place and had no intention of going 100 per cent for the tt. 'Large' was enjoying the day tweaking his bike, putting on new forks and preparing for the next gruelling four stages, because now the race really tests both man and machine. Hundertmarck, Zemke, and I spent an hour at the local billabong swimming with some local Aboriginal children, and after watching them flipping into the water from a flying fox Hundertmarck and Zemke tried to emulate them.
Unfortunately for Kai, he froze when it was time to let go of the flying fox and proceeded to fly backward into the rocks, cutting his foot and ankle. He'll live, but it could be (aside from his posterior) the only injury the German will sustain at the Croc Trophy. Dream Team support staff of Monica, Doctor Nico and I went for a scenic 30 kilometre ride at high noon and are now all sporting sunburn. There's some anxiety about what is to come on the next four stages of the race, but we're still aiming for overall victory.
