Huber picks up where he left off at the Croc

Urs Huber has continued impress at the Crocodile Trophy by winning the opening stage of the 2010 race. The defending champion finished four minutes and 32 seconds ahead of the same man who had challenged him for the top step of the podium last year, Bart Brentjens. Canadian Cory Wallace put in an exceptional performance to finish third, 16 minutes and 25 seconds down on Huber but six minutes clear of the next competitor.

A tweet from Brentjens soon after the race indicated that the stage had got off to a stilted start with a delay of two hours and a re-start 25 kilometres into the course. The delay was caused by a mudslide set off by torrential rains in the region in recent days. Despite the disruption, Huber was able to maintain his composure to deal best with the slippery conditions.

“It was extremely difficult. The terrain was very slippery and muddy and was constantly slightly uphill. It always felt like getting stuck,” said Huber after the stage. “I’m very glad and happy about the time gap that I was able to gain today.”

The time gap in question was the 4:32 that he picked up over Brentjens, his closest rival at last year’s race and again the man-most-likely to challenge Huber’s plans for back-to-back titles. Despite his wealth of experience, Brentjens revealed after the stage that a relatively elementary facet of racing wisdom had limited his chances of staying with his Swiss rival.

“I didn’t eat enough during the race pause. My brother did give me a bar and there was fruit at the depot, but towards the end I became extremely hungry and ran out of energy,” Brentjens explained.

Abby McClennan was the fastest female on day one finishing in the front half of the 75 competitors who make up this year’s field. She is aiming to surpass her podium performance in the 2009 race but admitted that this year’s course had been a shock to her system. “It seems so much longer and harder than last year’s race,” she said. “The climbs never seemed to end. It was just up up up.”

Beastly day for the Austrian boys

There was a certain sense of irony for team McSabotage’s first day of competition. The Austrian team, which includes Vorarlberg-Corratec professionals Philipp Ludescher and Rene Haselbacher suffered a spate of mechanical issues.

“I took the detour and the restart on the chin. That’s part of the adventure of a Croc Trophy. And I’m a pro in fixing chains now,” said Ludesher, who finished the day eighth fastest. “Without the malfunctions I would have been fifth. I’ll be able to build on that tomorrow.”

Haselbacher was also forced to cope with his own run of mechanical hiccups, as was the team’s third member, Christoph Sokoll. “About 25km before the finish a screw on my pedal broke and I didn’t have any foothold on the steep downhill sections,” said Sokoll after a tough day’s racing. “The ‘Oesterreich-Rundfahrt’ (race around the borders of Austria) is like a kids party compared to this.”