Tour de Timor: Top End trauma team uses bike race to hone skills
A specialist medical team who provided help to Typhoon Haiyan victims is using a multi-stage bike race in East Timor to keep their skills sharp.
Riders in the 2014 Tour de Timor mountain bike race - which this year covers more than 365 kilometres over five days - are under the care of the Darwin-based National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre (NCCTRC).
The team, made up of doctors, including surgeons, anaesthetists, nurses, paramedics, heat-stress specialist and logisticians, are using the race as practice for deployment to disaster zones.
In 2013, the NCCTRC provided assistance to the Solomon Islands following a dengue outbreak and to the Philippines in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan.
During the Timor ride, which began in Dili on Saturday and finishes on Wednesday, the team from NCCTRC builds a clinic near the finish of each stage to treat riders for dehydration and muscle cramps.
Since Independence East Timor has struggled to build its medical infrastructure and the team from Darwin has helped to build skills among local paramedics.
Mark de Souza, NCCTRC Acting Deputy Director Disaster Response, said the team faced long days but spirits were high.
"The days are pretty long, we are up by 4am local time, in bed by 10pm," he said.
"Fatigue is an issue, but people are very motivated and it's an amazing adventure."
He said one team member was in particular demand - Dr Matt Brearley, known as The Heat Guy - who mans the cooling station for riders coming in from hours of riding over unsealed roads in mountainous regions with an average humidity of about 75 per cent.
"It is a great reassurance for the riders, particularly international riders, that they can have this level of care," Dr de Souza said.
He said competitors would be in good hands "if they have a serious spill".
Dr de Souza said most of the team had not met before the Timor mission.
"The logistics of packing up a small-footprint field hospital every evening and morning, packing it into vehicles and setting out on the road in convoy requires a lot of professionalism.
"We've all been put together... so far the team has really gelled and is doing a great job."
The centre, based at the Royal Darwin Hospital, was formed after the 2002 Bali bombings to "provide a local response capability and an internationally unique education, training and exercising capacity, as well as state of the art research in disaster response and the physiology of heat management in first responders".
Riders from temperate climates have thrived in the hot and humid conditions.
Canadian Cory Wallace has worn the yellow jersey since the first day, winning every stage and leading by 47 minutes.
The UK's Catherine Williamson is the leading woman and holds third place overall in a field of 73.
Competitors have come from as far afield as Australia, Malaysia, Portugal, South Africa and Denmark to join local riders from East Timor.
