On the steep uphills to Irvinebank Swiss marathon champion Urs Huber showed again that nobody can beat him on the longer climbs, however time gained going up was lost by Urs not daring to tempt a river crossing in the closing kilometers of Thursdays stage. At the close of the days play, Urs holds a 4 minute lead over Dutch rider Jeroen Boelen in GC. At the 17th Crocodile Trophy all cards are still on the table…
Worldwide the race is known as “the world’s longest and hardest mountain bike adventure for professionals and amateurs” and it was adventurous spirit and improvisational skills that prevailed at Koombooloomba Dam. On the eve of the stage, in the flooded race camp, the organisers decided to spare the riders from what would have been a gruelling and potentially impassable stage along the Powerline Track, instead opting to race straight to Irvinebank bypassing Gunnawarra.
The revised route was welcomed by many riders, especially those familiar with the Powerline Track: 36 km of easy off-road trails followed by 22 km asphalt and 38 km of difficult mountain biking on undulating terrain. Whilst not easy, the final section of the stage did reward riders with fast and sweeping descents to get the adrenaline pumping. It had stopped raining, the sun tried hard to come out and the trails were grippy. Fun was had, but the sign at the final turn off to Irvinebank was about to bring a change to that- “Mount Misery Road” – short and steep pinches kept challenging the riders’ endurance on the final kilometres into the small mining town.
“What am I doing here? I wished that I was anywhere but out there on those last 10 km”, said Australian rider Brad Davies. “So hard, but such a nice ride!” Davies was the big surprise of the day. The 41 year old Melbourne based rider was the only Master (M1 and M2) rider in the elite front group that powered to the finish. That group was formed immediately after a breakneck start. With Davies, there were Urs Huber, Jeroen Boelen, Wolfgang Krenn and Mike Mulkens, the top 4 of the GC, as well as Josef Benedseder, Christoff Sokoll, Kevin Hulsmans and Chang Min Park. Three Australians Mark Griffin (Ashfield Cycles), Justin Morris (MarathonMTB.com) and Ashley Hayat (The Fitzroy Revolution) were only able to keep up with the cracking pace for the first six km until the second group was then formed. Missing in the front group: Korean Geeni Yong Choi who punctured his front tire early on – and his bad luck continued as he rolled across the finish line with another flat rear tire. Closely in pursuit of the Korean was another unlucky fellow – Dutch rider Huub Duijn had misunderstood announcements at the rider briefing and thought there would be a neutralised start. That wasn’t the case and he missed his spot in the lead group.
The nine riders in the lead group worked together well, knowing nobody woud try to brake away before the terrible Mount Misery Road. Davies, leading the M2 classification, did his part in the group. “Honestly, contrary to many others, I had a good night’s sleep, even better than the night before when I had a lot of water puddles in my tent. I share the tent with Jessica Douglas who leads the women category. We both slept very well”, continued Davies who was 5th last year at the elite 24H mountain bike solo world championships in Canberra.
With 25 km to go, Huber and Boelen started to fire up the engines. They did it smoothly, but firmly. No surprise attack, just accelerating very strongly. The first one they left behind was Park, then Sokoll fell back, followed by Davies (who suffered a flat tire) and finally Hulsmans had to let the others go. A bit further also Krenn and Mulkens couldn’t keep up anymore. Only Josef Benedseder from Austria was able to follow Boelen and Huber. The race was on as the road continued to go uphill, this time Huber attacked ridding himself of the last remaining member of the lead group, Boelen. First the Austrian rider exploded, then Boelen too. From now on it would only be a question of staying safely on the bike to win the stage.
“Uphill I saw Urs Huber constantly some 300m in front of me, which is quite a lot when you climb, on the downhill sections he disappeared out of sight”, commented Boelen. “The last 5 km were technically challenging. Three times I nearly crashed on the fast descents. That was the point where I decided not to take any risks any more, but suddenly I saw Huber walking through a deep river crossing. I took all risks and rode through the river, putting my weight to the back end and hoping not to crash. I succeeded to cross the river on the bike. Suddenly only 50 meters separated me from Huber. Unfortunately we were already too close to the finish for me to take advantage of it.”
Huber won his second consecutive stage and increases his lead in the GC by a mere 6 seconds.
“When you ride in the front, those river crossings are hard to take.”, explained Huber. “You have no idea how deep the water is or how rideable or walkable the surface is. I didn’t dare to take a risk. The most important thing for me was to keep this nice leader’s jersey.”
Tomorrow’s stage will take riders on an 84 km race with start and finish at Irvinebank. Huber again will start in the red Crocodile Trophy leader’s jersey with Jeroen Boelen following in the white jersey of the points classification.
Category standings at the end of the third stage:
Elite:
Urs Huber
Jeroen Boelen (+4m11s)
Wolfgang Krenn (+17m29s)
Masters 1:
Ashley Hayat
Graeme Arnott (+3m57s)
Mark Griffin (+5m21s)
Masters 2:
Brad Davies
Shaun Portegys (+22m58s)
Carl Maroney (+1h58m)
Masters 3:
Pio Tomesetig
Dennis Bowen-Day (+24m57s)
Andrew Radcliffe (+52m33s)
Female:
Jessica Douglas
Parr Sharman (+4h10m)
