PLAYING IN SATAN'S BACKYARD

(POST FROM CARLOS' FACEBOOK PAGE).

"Okay everyone, finally back home and on the mend. For me a kidney stone 1cm large and a abrasion on my backside kept me from finishing this incredible race. Patrick got sidelined by heat exhaustion and really showed what pushing the limit really is. 

One word to describe he whole thing, Epic.

Simply put, I have to go back. Watch the video below to get a glimpse of what I mean."

Playing in Satan's backyard. (click to watch video)

CAIRNS POST - October 11, 2011

Handcyclists' grueling test on the Crocodile Trophy. (Andrew Piva)

Two American paraplegics will attempt to match the legendary feat of Belgium's Marc Herremans by completing the Crocodile Trophy Mountain Bike Race ....read more.

PARTY TIME

The after race gala was great. The food was awesome. We had an enormous table with more than 20 people sitting with us. Everyone here is really great and we all had a great time.

The best part was to see Andrew go up on stage to receive his finisher's crocodile trophy.

FINISH LINE AT GRASSY HILL

The end of the race at Grassy Hill was great! Everyone was there. The place is absolutely amazing. The view from the top of the hill are just spectacular. 360 degrees of ocean, beaches, sky.
All of the riders made up the very steep hill all the way ti the top.
Gerhard was nice enough to recognize Carlos and Patrick's efforts and gave each of them a boomerang for participating of such grueling race.
Carlos is still at the hospital, but Pat  and Andrew were there.

DIFFICULT INTERNET ACCESS.

I just wanted to apologize to everyone for being so slow on the blog updates, but internet in Australia is hard to find!
I will keep updates coming.
Thanks for your patience.

MORE TROUBLE FOR CARLOS!

We headed to Cooktown to check on the others and wait for Andrew to finish the parade at the top of Grassy Hill.

When we got to the  hotel the news where not good.  Patrick is recovering quite quickly, but Carlos not so much.The night before, after dinner, he had to be rushed to the hospital with pain, nausea and vomiting. After some test it was found that he had a kidney stone. What else could go wrong here?

Carlos spent all day at the hospital, but the only way to control the pain was with medication. The doctors wanted him transferred to Cairns, where he could have access to better medical care. So the decision was made that Herman (again) would drive them to Cairns early the next day, after the race was all finished.

LAST STAGE

This is it. We’re finally here. The last stage. 81.5 km from Starcke to Hope Vale, the Official finish, then 46 km of neutralized escorted parade into Cooktown, all the way to Grassy Hill.

Hope Vale is a small Aborigene community that received us with open arms and offered us a barbecue by the community pool! It was the perfect end for the hot day.

Needless to say it was great to see Andrew cross that finish line!