Hi this is Pat Norwil calling from Adelaide, Australia, and the Crocodile Trophy 2000; standing at the payphone with blue skies and slight clouds, highs in the low '40s — it is winter in Australia.

Three days of rain and high winds when I arrived; it's been chilly. Most of the Australians aren't used to this kind of weather and definitely the athletes that are rolling in from Europe did not expect this so there's a bit of uncertainty to what the direction of the race is going to be.

Some controversy has already arisen with Team Fuji, which is going to be a five- or six-person elite cycling team that is the favorite. And the individual racers from across the globe are wondering how they're going to be categorized with the elite guys. So a bit of questioning going on...tomorrow is Friday, and the prologue, which is a 6km race on the beach on the Indian Ocean — it's going to be kind of interesting at low tide. Could be kind of soggy, kind of like Alaska.

We do our transfer to Mary on Saturday and start the official race on Sunday, which will be 85 miles going across the Sturt desert. Most of the athletes are showing up last night and today to acclimatize. The European flights are about 32 hours compared to the US flight, which is about — 32 hours. So there's no advantage to coming to Australia for the out-of-towners.

Unfortunately, there's only two Australians that are going to be doing the race, most of the competition is European — lots of Austrians, Dutch, Italians, a few from Holland. It's definitely the high-end European show. We're looking forward to some good competition and right now most of the athletes are walking around and posturing and talking endlessly about the competition.

I am rooming with a Dutchman and a Swiss. We wake up in the morning and we speculate on Eric Vonheur, who's the favorite, and how he's going to do and how we're going to do against him and how everyone else is going to do. So it's been pretty dang fun.

Stay tuned for more!

— Pat Norwil, MountainZone.com Correspondent