Christoph Sokoll one year after terrible billabong crash / Bernhard Eisel’s training mate wins in Laura. Christoph Sokoll had made a name for himself in cycling already by riding 190km in the front as a first year elite in the 2009 Mendrisio World Championship, which was won by Cadel Evans. Now the mountain bikers know […]
Croc Trophy Stage 7: Pain Train
Stage7: Mount Mulgrave to Laura. 151km Today’s 151km stage had many unenthused faces upon the startline, the 189km previous days stage had put many into a pretty serious hurt locker. The stage today promised less climbing but poorer road conditions than the previous day. With a new race leader in Jeroen Boelen from Milka-Trek, the […]
Unbeatable Huber beaten by heat
Urs Huber was ready to win his third consecutive Crocodile Trophy. He only needed to follow his biggest competitor Jeroen Boelen, but in an epic marathon stage of 189 km, Huber broke. Like most of the riders today, Huber punctured, but the jersey weraer also ran out of energy in the hot outback of Queensland. Some of the […]
Croc Trophy Stage 6: Death march
Mt Mulligan – Mt Mulgrave: 189km When people think of the Croc Trophy, and like me say that they will never ever do it because it is just too hard and stupid, they have visions of today’s stage. And it is worse than you imagine. It was so hot I wouldn’t be surprised if I […]
Croc Trophy Stage 5: Mechanical Carnage
Irvinebank to Mt Mulligan: 105km, 1200m climbing While the Subaru-MarathonMTB.com Team were divided overnight between hotels and under canvas, we were united on our plan for the day. We hoped to get Justin into a break, whether it was before the rougher section at km21, or after, the race would have to dictate. It was […]
Boelen tastes success offroad
Belgium’s Mike Mulkens was the hero of the day but came away empty handed. The race around the dirt roads of Irvinebank was claimed by Jeroen Boelen (Milka-Trek-Bart Brentjens MTB Team) from the Netherlands in a sprint finish. He out-muscled Wolfgang Krenn, leader Urs Huber and Josef Benedseder in the dash towards the line. Dominant today […]
Croc Trophy Stage 4: Killer Kermesse
Irvinebank – Irvinebank: 84km Good news – no rain today! We had evacuated ourselves to a motel again last night, allowing for plenty of good food and some clothes washing in Atherton. We had heard it would be 84km today, and when we arrived back in Irvinebank we heard it would be a 9am start, […]
Racing looking brighter in FNQ
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 […]
Croc Trophy Stage 3: Fast and Furious
This mornings start was again wet wet wet. Rumours of a polite neutral first 35km were quashed by race organisers on the start line. Hence, it was flag drop and race on from the bog fest that was Koomboolooba campsite. Soon into this stage the flag was not the only thing that was getting dropped […]
Rain again lashes Croc Trophy, but racing begins
Torrential rain hit the Crocodile Trophy for a second day in a row on Wednesday, creating havoc for race organisers who were able to re-route the course in order to allow racing to begin after Tuesday’s neutralised stage. The downpour meant that communication of stage results is likely to be delayed until tomorrow, however we […]