Response at Gay Games showed RAAM project worthwhile

I handed out about 800 pamphlets about our project of a HIV+ team to do RAAM in 2011. I was extremely heartened by the positive response - everyone was in support!
I was also made aware of the utility of the project, when a number of other athletes were willing to share quietly that they too are HIV+, and when a professional guy from Western Europe confides that I'm the first person whom he has met knowingly with HIV. We're lucky with the medications these days - it makes our appearances the same as other people. But it also means that stigma against HIV+ persons can continue anonimously.

3 x Gold at Gay Games Cologne (and some new teeth!)

At very short notice I was able to race my bike in Cologne Germany at the World Gay Games, with 10,000 athletes from all over the world. There was a lot of very strong, able and focussed athletes. I had entered the Road Race, the Criterium, and the Time Trial, but could take with me only one bike, so I took the TT bike, and hoped to rent a road bike once in Cologne. That did not work out for the Sunday.

Even so, I did go to the Road Race circuit, to withdraw (can’t do the road race on my TT bike!). But there, Aussie Olympian Michelle Ferris very kindly lent me her bike! The route was more like a crit than a road race – 20 x 2.2km laps of suburban streets, with 90 degree turns and 2 small roundabouts. With over 75 competitors, the road was full! I was determined to stay in the front bunch the whole way, and that proved successful - I came 7^th overall, averaging 41.25km/hr, and I won the MM5.

The criterium on Tuesday was a very challenging circuit – it was a 975metre rectangle around 4 soccer fields. Two lengths of the track were 4-5 metres wide, and the other two were only 3 metres wide, so it was all extremely tight. It was also wet and slippery. My goal was to stay upright, so I ensured that I had no other riders in the 30metres in front of me. I did not care if others were drafting behind me – an unusual strategy for a crit but at least they would not take me with them if they fell. I came 5^th overall, and won the MM5!

Then my own real race – the TT. It was a complex 10km circuit with 3 u-turns and 2 x 90 degree turns. More than half of it was on the freeway, which was closed for the occasion (!). But the closure meant that we had only a short window of time for the TT, and it was changed from 20km to 10km. Hard and Fast!!. Given the multiple u-turns, at 15:20, I was very happy- I got the hat trick: 3 x gold!

Then I was riding home. Cologne has lots of cycleways alongside the footpaths, but often with a 3-5cm height difference. At dusk, I hit that height difference, received 7 stiches in my head, and 3 new teeth. L But Team Sydney, the Sports Organisation responsible for the gay athletes from Sydney, as well as the Dutch cyclists were fantastic in their assistance.

The camaraderie amongst the cyclists was terrific – we all had a fantastic time whilst engaged in solid competition. We had riders from all over Europe, USA, Russia, New Zealand, South Africa, Brazil. At the Games in other sports, there were competitors from countries such as Ghana, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Iraq and UAE. The challenges that they face merely by attending the Gay Games makes it all worthwhile.