Today saw us tackle the first ‘proper’ Crocodile Trophy stage after yesterdays short XC stage at Smithfield. On paper the 102km from Cairns to Lake Tinaroo had me wondering what I have gotten myself into especially after looking at the profile which include 2500m of climbing. After yesterday’s stage which included a loose seat I […]
Ivan Rybaric wins Croc Trophy 2012 Stage 1
Stage 1, Lap race Smithfield 5 x 6km laps, 800m Surprise stage win by strong Czech racer Ivan Rybaric Ivan Rybaric had won two stages at the infamous stage race in 2008 and showed a strong performance today, adding a third Boomerang to his collection at the lap race in Smithfield today. Belgian rider Mike […]
Croc Trophy Stage 1: Smithfield XC
In a big change from 2011, the 2012 Crocodile Trophy started with a standard cross country format race. Using the old World Cup/World Championship trails in Smithfield, the local course setters came up with a challenging but not overly technical 6km loop for the racers to start on. With 130 racers in Cairns for the […]
Crocodile Trophy 2012 – new route, and new logistics!
As has been been publicised, the 2012 Crocodile Trophy route will be markedly different from pervious years. Dropping a day from 10 to 9 days, a circuit XC event to start with, and in general a more ‘mountain bike’ focused event than before may well change the face of the Croc as we know it […]
Croc Trophy: Overheard in the bunch
Like any bike race, be it road or mountain, long or short – you can never tell the whole story. There is far too much going on. Various allegiences form and fall apart, micro-relationships may last for a section of trail or road, yet disintegrate due to the smallest of disagreements later. One of the […]
Croc Trophy Stage 10: The never ending struggle
Starke – Cooktown: 128km The last day, and we were all ready for it. Last night was later than expected, as dinner was delayed, and therefore the race presentation to celebrate Graeme´s fabulous 2nd place was skipped. Talk abounded of a Gentlemans Agreement for the last stage. We had heard this was customary, […]
Croc Trophy Stage 9: Queen Stage, and 2nd place for Biscuit
Kalpowar – Starke. 148km, 600m Day nine. At this point we were well into a longer stage race than any of us on the Subaru-MarathonMTB.com Team had done before. Various TransAlps, the ABSA Cape Epic, iterations of the Sudety MTB Challenge, Scody Cups – none of those go beyond eight days in their current […]
Croc Trophy Stage 8: Maddog on the Podium
Laura to Kalpowar: 89km, 200m By the numbers, today could be an easy stage. After the two previous days of torture, a relatively flat sub 100km day was greeted happily by all of us on the Subaru-MarathonMTB.com Team. It even allowed for a slightly easier day for our Super Team Support crew, Pete Figg, with […]
Arnott places second in Queen Stage
In the Queen Stage of the 17th edition of the Crocodile Throphy, Subaru-MarathonMTB’s Graeme (Biscuit) Arnott stomps home in second place. Not the longest but without any doubt the technically hardest stage had race leader Jeroen Boelen’s name written all over it. The Dutch Milka-Trek rider arrived in Starke some ten minutes earlier than the […]
The Croc lives up to its name
Former Slipstream/Garmin rider Huub Duyn stage winner in the midst of bush fires and crocodiles. Good that the Normanby River, in which the infamous Queensland’s saltwater crocodiles where sighted just a few days ago, separated the raging bush fires from the finish area or the stage would have had to be neutralized today. After a […]