Woongoolba S.S.

Almost 6:00 today. By that time Cheryl was already dressed and out the door to get her bike to the trucks for the drive out the 20k course.

The 20k course was held in Woongoolba, QLD which was about an hour drive from Broadbeach into the cane fields. Woongoolba consisted of about a 800 meters of various buildings, houses, and a primary school. The Woongoolba State School was our official host in Woongoolba. Without doing any actual research, it appears that Woongoolba's claim to fame is that it is on the way to Jacob's Well, QLD, which in turn seems to be most well known for bumper stickers asking "Where the hell is Jacob's Well?"

It turned out to be a lovely little spot. They chose the remote location so that they could keep the race to a single lap (no counting) and close all the roads for the duration of the race. Spectators and athletes came out on four buses which stayed out there for the duration. To make it more exciting the official painter of the Transplant Games made the trip out to capture the cycling venue (turns out his name is Bob Gammage and he is known as a live event painter).

The Road Race was much more organized than yesterday's event. They organized the age groups into two big groups which started about 10 minutes apart and each to be led by a motorcycle. Within each large group they set off each age group at 30 second intervals. Cheryl was in the first group and her age group left third. How the age groups were organized within the larger groups made no sense,but it worked out.

During the race the competitors were able to draft within their sex/age group. The 19-29 men were large enough that there was a lot of strategy on the course. They stayed together for the first half of the race when a Javier from Team USA, a Spaniard, and a Hungarian started to push the pace. The Hungarian made a break and thought he got free until Javier pulled him back in. They worked together and put a big gap on the rest of the group. With a couple of kilometers left the Hungarian thanked Javier for his help and promptly dropped him to easily take the win. Javier took the silver over 5 minutes in front the rest of the rider.

With only three cyclists in her age group and the Swede taking off like a shot from the line, Cheryl had little opportunity to draft. She said she kept up with the Hungarian for the first couple of kilom

eters, but eventually got dropped. The most harrowing experience was when the peloton of 50-59 men passed. Cheryl moved over to hug the side of the road. As the peloton raced passed the Europeans were yelling "allez, allez, allez!" Cheryl finished strong just behind a couple of Team USA men, taking the bronze in her age group.

The most dramatic ride of the day was Denise's. While we were waiting for everything to start her tire exploded. A new tire was quickly found and replaced. No worries, as they say here. There was event lots of consideration made to keeping the tire pressure a little lower to prevent another blowout. Ten minutes later and the officials were starting to call the first group to the line, her tire blew again.

This time as they were fitting the tube they realized that her tire had worn and it was causing the tube at 100 psi to push through and explode. While there were more than enough extra tubes, nobody had a spare tire. Thinking quickly, John put a $5.00 Australian bill between the tube and tire and got her back on the road. Miraculously she made it around the 20k course without the tire blowing again and took home the bronze.

While Cheryl was on the course, Molly made friends with the Woongoolba S.S. students and did some painting. The students had come out to cheer the racers so Molly joined them. She

made friends by handing out Team USA pins and "Donate Life" stickers. In return they gave her a Woongoolba S.S. pin. Molly also got to contribute to the official painting of the cycling venue. She added the green blotches to the trees and shrubbery.

After the long ride back from Woongoolba, Molly and I hit the pool while Cheryl cleaned up and relaxed. We than met up with Jim and Dani and

took the bus over to Surfers Paradise where they were having a little artist market at the edge of the beach. Molly found a ring that she could not live without and Cheryl and Dani bought bracelets made of plated silver forks. We also learned a lot about opals.

After dinner it was straightaway to bed.