Hi, this is Pat Norwil with the Crocodile Trophy and we just finished our last competitive stage, stage 14 — Cooktown to Cowbay. Then we did a 60 kilometer transfer to Port Douglas, and now we're in the beautiful resort of Port Douglas, right on the coast. It was a pretty spectacular stage — about 140 kilometers and it followed the coastline — the coastline is steep. Kind of like Highway One in northern California, but all dirt. Huge 12 and 10 percent grade climbs.

It was in the high 90s today and the humidity in the rainforest was just — God, I climbed out of the tent in the morning and I was just dripping with sweat. I put all of my clothes on, dripping with sweat. The whole day was pouring out of me, and us, everybody. It was kind of funny, Jan Kopka asked me if I would do a breakaway with him at the 60 kilometer stage and I was like, "Jan, man, this is pretty early to try to take off." And he was like, "Oh, I feel really strong today and you're climbing really strong on the hills today." And I'm thinking to myself, "Yeah, I'm in it for 140 kilometers, I'm not in it to kill myself in 120 kilometers." So he takes off and nobody chases him. It started getting kind of hot at about 80 kilometers and that's when the main pack dropped me, and I rode alone to the finish.

But Jan got caught by Thomas Dam of Denmark at the 120 kilometer mark, and Thomas pretty much dusted him on the flat pavement to the end. Jan finished 2nd, about 10 minutes behind him. Then Simon Apperloo from the Fuji team finished 3rd, Simon is the overall winner.

Last night we had a bit of a problem with Roger Smeets. He came down with a really high temperature and it turned out that he was extremely dehydrated. At two in the morning they flew him out to the hospital in Cairns, and he's there under 24 hour observation. It doesn't look too good for him. I mean — he's not in a coma or anything but he's severely dehydrated. And he's got some kind of infection, they're doing blood tests on him right now. So he flew out, and Ron, one of his teammates accompanied him. The latest word is that he's in stable condition but still on the critical list.

It was rather interesting, the news I heard last night at about 10; then in the morning it went through the camp like wild fire. I was amazed that everybody was rather calloused. It was like, "Well, what does he expect? He didn't drink enough." You know, I guess the reality is that he didn't. Here he's got five men looking after him, he's got a masseur, a cook — three cooks, he's got a team manager. He's got all this support and yet — he's a professional racer — and yet, he's the cream of the crop and he goes down with extreme dehydration. You know, you'd expect that from one of the hobby riders but not from a pro.

That was the mood of the camp this morning. Everybody was just like, "Well, forget it. He's out — better for all of us." It's a dog-eat-dog race and that's unfortunate because he wore the leader's jersey for so long. But I just talked to Simon Apperloo tonight and he's like, "Well, I hate to win on this note." But, shit, Simon, you were stronger. You knew that you had to drink massive liquids every day after you raced and during your race. And here's Roger, he's drinking a can of Coke and espresso 20 minutes after he finishes. You know? It's like, "Duh."

A lot of happy campers right now, we're all pretty excited we finished. Tomorrow is the parade stage, the 15th stage where we ride from Port Douglas to Kurunda. It's an 80 kilometer ride, we'll all ride together until 75 kilometers and then the race starts. Then it's a five kilometer sprint. I'm pretty much locked in to 11th or 10th place. The closest guy behind me is an hour and a half. I think Jack Oldfield from Alison Springs is about 10 minutes ahead of me, and I doubt if I'm going to put 11 minutes on Jack in a five kilometer race unless he has a double flat. Which is kind of doubtful, the guy's a total smart cookie and prepared himself quite well for this race; came back from the depths of depression in the first four or five stages to really do well.

It's pretty much over. A lot of happy people, me included. I had a better day today than I did yesterday, I had a better day today than I had in the last three days. My spirits are much higher.

Carrie did awesome today, she finished in the middle of the pack and finished really strong. She said that she felt "recovered" from the Mareeba stage where she was out there for 14 hours. Or the Laura stage, where she was out there for 14 hours. So that was good to see, good to see her come back. She's kind of like the sister of everybody in this moving caravan across the outback. So there's a lot of proud people. Plus, she is the only woman to finish this race. So take your hat off for Carrie because she's definitely impressed a lot of people. I think she's pretty dang happy about it.

That's about it for now, talk to you later.

— Pat Norwil, MountainZone.com Correspondent