Hi, this is Pat Norwil with the Crocodile Trophy, in the beautiful town of Port Douglas. Everyone is very excited — we're finished with the race, with the exception of the parade today. Most people are just completely relieved. One of the Austrians, Kurt, came up to me yesterday and grabbed me and said, "I am a lucky man." And I think a lot of people feel that way, that they are pretty lucky to have finished this race.

I have mixed feelings about it. Part of me is glad that I finished and finished fairly well. Another part of me is disappointed that I lost all of my motivation at the end and was frustrated with the constant daily paceline of cycling. It's just unusual for mountain biking to be so much like a road race. Ever since the Mareeba stage, where I went from 3rd to 6th, because of the road stage, there was 40 kilometers of road. I noticed that my spirits had just been not there, and my motivation has been really lacking.

Yesterday was good, but the day before was awful. The day before that was okay. It's just been a hard 15 stages. A lot of people feel that the race was too long. I think he (the director) needs to make some decisions on the lengths of the stages. I think they're way too long. To race for eight hours at such an intense level and then come in and unload your luggage from the truck, drag it to your campsite, erect your tent and organize your clothes, get a shower and get to the mess hall before they shut down to have some food which was usually mediocre, and then fall into bed and get up the next morning to do it all over again, day after day. It's really been pretty wearing on everybody.

We're in the rainforest and the humidity here is just astronomical. I wake up in the morning, just pouring sweat out of me. But it's the jungle, it's beautiful, it's the coast. It's the beautiful, tropical Australia that I came here to see. After today's parade, I'm going to be on vacation to enjoy some of this scenery and these beautiful white sandy beaches.

That's all!

— Pat Norwil, MountainZone.com Correspondent