Chris Roche


Team :      Climber, General Classification rider
Resides:   Mackay Qld
Results:

2008:

2nd GC Cairns Tour 2008
1st Cairns Tour 2008 Criterium


May 2008 Sunny Coast Kawana Island Criterium  Diary Entry

Saturday afternoon saw Evan, Kyle and I entrust our bike bags to the luggage handlers at Jet star, who are renowned for their care when handling fragile items. After a short flight we arrived in Brisbane and headed off to get the hire car and more importantly, some food. This is where the weekend took its 1^st bad turn. We had only just got to the baggage collect area when Evan says “I’ve forgot me laptop, it’s on the plane” Not being allowed back aboard the flight attendant went to look for it and somehow managed to look straight past it. We later located the pc once it arrived in cairns! Never the less we eventually got to our accommodation on the sunny coast and were happy to get some sleep. Thanks to Evans aunty and uncle for the beds for the night.

We woke Sunday morning to the noise of small dogs smashing their heads into a screen door, quite hard. We wasted no time getting ourselves to the place the crit was to be held, job well done to Evan on his navigation skills. Rain was falling lightly as we put the bikes together and started our warm up. The women’s race went without a drama and we were soon rolling around the course sizing it up. The rain with its impeccable timing started to come down fairly heavy and eventually all the riders were forced under cover. Things went downhill from there with the race officials deciding the risk to the riders was too great and cancelled the race!

Despite the riders having their say the decision had been made and the officials stuck to it. We were wet, cold and extremely annoyed to say the least. It was a long way to come to be wet and cold.

Another one of Evans aunts put us up for Sunday and Monday night so another big thank you there. We salvaged what we could from the day by a trip to DFO and a couple of bargains. Monday morning was a couple of hours in the saddle with a ride over Mt Nebo and Mt Glorious. A great coffee at a little place on top of Mt Glorious was worth a mention. We followed this up with a fast and furious trip visit to dream world. Up very early Tuesday morning to airport and a brief flight back to Mackay to reflect on the weekend. A disappointing weekend for racing was saved by some quick thrills and good coffee. Thanks also to Donna and Butsy for providing transport to and from the airport.