October 19, 2014 (Australia) – Today provided an emotional finish at Lake Tinaroo in Atherton for Stage two of the Crocodile Trophy – Greg Saw, a homesick Australian, originally from Atherton and now living in Norway, not only took out the stage win in his home town, but also took over the overall elite race lead. Milton Ramos (ESP) comes in second ahead of Ivan Rybarik (CZE), Cory Wallace (CAN) and Jiri Krivanek (CZE). The fastest women today by about ten minutes ahead of Imogen Smith was amateur rider Rita Estevez (POR).

With his parents eagerly awaiting him at the finish line, Greg Saw took out today’s stage win at Lake Tinaroo on the Atherton Tablelands. A brisk breeze blew across the lake as Greg crossed the line after 3h34:24.60 after a marathon race from Cairns through Dinden National Park and past Copperlode Dam towards the steep climb onto Mt Edith, the highest elevation of today. The gap of almost 4 minutes to second Milton Ramos from Spain and yesterday’s winner Ivan Rybarik (CZE) was enough to even bring him the overall race lead and he will start tomorrow’s third stage in the Crocodile Trophy leader jersey.

“I really didn’t expect this today – I was hoping for a good result because I wanted to do well, it’s as if my life is going full-circle”, said a teary-eyed 37-year old at the finish, who now resides in Norway with his wife and two children and who said that he came to the Crocodile Trophy to cure his homesickness. “I just miss the heat and I haven’t been home much over the past 10 years, so when I saw that the new Atherton MTB Club was going to be part of the stage plan, I just had to come”, he added.

It seems Greg’s stage win was meant to be with many fellow Elite riders suffering mechanicals. “I can’t believe it – I had a flat on the exact same section of the race track as in 2012”, said Ivan Rybarik, shaking his head about his now 2:30 min gap in the general classification, which sees him in second. Milton Ramos is overall third with a gap of just over three minutes and Cory Wallace drops into fourth place – gaining a lot of time towards the end, a loose head-set on the handlebar early in today’s race had forced him to stop and adjust it, loosing valuable time. Martin Blaszó from Hungary is now fifth overall.

Strong performance by amateur women Estevez
Imogen Smith from Sydney still leads the women’s field by four minutes, however, today’s fastest woman was Rita Estevez from Portugal who finished then minutes ahead of Smith in 5h16:37.19.

The leader jerseys were awarded to Greg Saw and Imogen Smith in the elite categories and Ondrej Slezak remains in the Best Australian jersey. Guido Thaler defended his Austria-leader jersey and in the Amateur category Andrew Hall from Canberra will start in the Alpentour Trophy leader jersey tomorrow.

Tomorrow’s third stage will have participants ride in neutral to Atherton’s Rifle Club grounds, from which they will venture onto a 20km-monster loop within the new Atherton MTB trail network. In total, three laps need to be completed on a very tight course with a lot of “Aussie-style” MTB singletrail section, which had riders speculate about the race favourites over dinner at Lake Tinaroo tonight.

Results

Elite Men

1. Greg Saw (Aus) iHus-Spiuk Norge     3:34:25
2. Milton Ramos (Esp) Intense-TowCar     3:45
3. Ivan Rybarik (Cze) Way2live Quantum Racing     3:52
4. Cory Wallace (Can) Kona Factory Team     4:04
5. Jiri Krivanek (Cze) Prestige hotel     6:42
6. Marton Blazsu (Hun) Kross Hungary     6:43
7. Ramses Bekkenk (Ned) Koga KMC     10:46
8. Yuki Ikeda (Jpn) Topeak/Ergon/Canyon     13:14
9. David Rosa (Por) Liberty Seguros/Movefree     13:15
10. Guido Thaler (Aut) Craft/Rocky Mountain     13:15
11. Ondrej Slezak (Aus) Way2live Quantum Racing     20:00
12. Leander Hamelink (Ned)     22:12
13. Alexander Geelhaar (Ger) Redheads Team / RC Schnaittachtal     25:30
14. Bjorn Rondelez (Bel) desperate husbands     28:39
15. Mike Blewitt (Aus) Subaru-MarathonMTB.com     47:44
16. Thomas Begert (Ger) Redheads Team / RC Schnaittachtal     1:07:31

Elite Women

1. Imogen Smith (Aus) Subaru-MarathonMTB.com     5:26:26
DNS     Jasmin McMillan (Aus) Tenni’s Rattle n Hum

GC after Stage 2

Elite Men
1. Greg Saw (Aus) iHus-Spiuk Norge     5:11:58
2. Ivan Rybarik (Cze) Way2live Quantum Racing     2:30
3. Milton Ramos (Esp) Intense-TowCar     3:05
4. Cory Wallace (Can) Kona Factory Team     8:02
5. Marton Blazsu (Hun) HUN Kross Hungary    11:03
6. Ramses Bekkenk (Ned) Koga KMC     11:04
7. Jiri Krivanek (Cze) Prestige hotel     11:35
8. Yuki Ikeda (Jpn) Topeak/Ergon/Canyon     14:05
9. Ondrej Slezak (Aus) Way2live Quantum Racing     21:01
10. Guido Thaler (Aut) Craft/Rocky Mountain     22:46
11. Alexander Geelhaar (Ger) Redheads Team / RC Schnaittachtal     34:25
12. Leander Hamelink (Ned)     39:46
13. Bjorn Rondelez (Bel) desperate husbands     43:37
14. Mike Blewitt (Aus) Subaru-MarathonMTB.com     57:52
15. David Rosa (Por) Liberty Seguros/Movefree     1:05:18
16. Thomas Begert (Ger) Redheads Team / RC Schnaittachtal     1:34:39

Elite Women
1. Imogen Smith (Aus) Subaru-MarathonMTB.com     7:31:32