Week 1 summary

Hard to believe we have been here a week already!
As usual, the Aussie hospitality is great.

We got in about 9:30 A.M. on Wed. the 2nd, a few hours delay in LA but not too bad.
Of course it's a long flight but the plane didn't have a lot of passengers so we got three seats each to stretch out in and try to sleep some. Still not real comfortable but ....
Our friends Chris and Lyn met us at the airport with a sign welcoming us in. Great to see them again.
We got all the luggage, including the bike box and after opening the box for customs, off we drove to Goulburn, the first inland city of Australia. It is about 200K south of Sydney.
Once in Goulburn, we upacked some, relaxed a bit and them headed for the shed to put a bike together.
First road race/club race south of town at 6:30. It was scheduled for 22K, out and back, with handicap starts.
There were only a few riders, about 9 total that showed up.
I left the start line with 2 others, second group out.
Tough race with little sleep, I'd been traveling for about 50 hours. I stayed with our group until the turn around, eventually got back into it but still ended up last about 100 meters off the last guy. Still not bad for me and the conditions.
Finally got to bed and slept very well.
The next few days were a blurr, still getting use to the time change. A road ride on Wed and Thursday and then track night at the local asphalt 400 meter track on Friday night. Still not a lot of riders so the races, 5 of them, happened about 10 minutes apart. Best race, last one, 20 lap scratch, ended up 4th out of 6.
In between racing there has been Bar BQ's in Sydney, sailing on a 31 foot sail boat in Sydney harbor and motorcycle trips around the local tourist areas and of course, more push bike rides and races.
The last race was supposed to be a criterium staged on a local car race track. Instead, another out and back road race because they were re paving the race track.
Last nights race was another 20K or so. Similar handicap starts. This time I started in the third pack, 6 minutes back of the first pack. There was 4 of us together. I drifted off a bit but by the turn around I was catching riders. Another hard but fun ride, I finished 9th over all out of about 20 or 21 riders, about 3:30 off the fastest pace of the day.
Todays a recovery ride day, tomorrow off to Canberra for the day and then Saturday is the big Goulburn Track Power track carnival. Over 150 entries so far, maybe more.

Meet you at the dog pound tent at the track about 6