A brief back story

I'm now home after spending a few days in Timor post the race and thought it would be best to give you a few words and images to help understand the stage by stage account to come. Before I get to that, I'd like to state for the record, the message Steve received wasn't from me. I was too busy suffering in the hills to call anyone to tell them that I was suffering.



I left Melbourne on a cold afternoon, the temperature hovering around 13C, when I arrived in Dili (the Capital) the following morning it was already pushing 28 on it's way to the mid 30's. Just to try and get ahead of the hydration curve I was drinking 6-8L of water per day, and with tap water a no go it meant lots of the bottled stuff.

Dili is a small flat area on the coast, surrounded by hills, in fact as you fly in you'll notice that the whole country is basically tiny bits of coastline set against some big hills. Perfect for big boys like me......

The country is one of contrasts. Squalid looking homes with satellite television. Pot holes big enough to hide the Spanish inquisition, and just as unforgiving, smooth hotmix that turns to rocky gravel nightmares, well nightmares for the roadies, with almost no notice. Basically roads that require serious 4WDs when none are owned.







The race was in it's first year so had some minor bugs. My name was listed as Nell rather than Neil. A couple of times I was shown placing worse (same/similar time) that I finished. It was definitely not all bad though, we had great support at all the towns we stayed in. Food was provided in mountains and our safety was ensured by by UN troops with guns big enough to make Arnie cry.

Presuming the race format suits me next year, this one will definitely be on the calendar. It'd be impossible not to want to spend 5 days of winter racing in such stunning scenery with friends old and new.


If you can't wait for the details of each stage you can check out some of the following:

The race website, sadly it doesn't have results yet.

Cycling news coverage of the first 4 stages.

SBS has highlights packs. First couple of days. Day three. Day four. Day five.