Stage 3, Atherton to Irvinebank – 111km
The Australian media has called it the “Czech domination” at the Crocodile Trophy and also their fellow riders admit that Ivan Rybrik and Ondrej Fojtik’s performances of the last three stages are to be admired. After today’s wild 111km Stage 3 ride across the rough terrain of the Hasties Swamp National Park, Rybarik kept pushing hard and left Fojtik and the Austrian chaser trio with Hrinkow, Benetseder and Krenn behind. Whilst after almost four hours Fojtik finished second and Hrinkow ended up securing the third place, Kate Major was again the fastest female racer of the day and the Crocodile Trophy adventure was still in full swing with Mark Griffin and Aaron Lakeman increasing their lead in the new two-man team category.
He arrived at the finish with a big smile, but you could see the sheer exhaustion from racing at high pace for almost four hours in the Australian Outback heat on Ivan Rybarik’s face. “This was one of the hardest days in my life”, said the new race leader today. “My plan had been to get back the leaders jersey, but it wasn’t easy.”
Belgian rider Mike Mulkens and the Austrian Josef Benetseder tried to break away early, however, Rybarik and Fojtik led up a chaser group including Dominick Hrinkow (AUT), Wolfgang Krenn (AUT) and the Canadian Cory Wallace to catch up. As the pace then slowed and the riders tried to frantically preserve their energy, the two Czech riders, who know each other well, decided to pick it back up. They dropped the group and on the first long descent towards the first feedzone, Rybarik had gained a minute on Fojtik.
“We are really good friends and ride together a lot back home in the Czech Republic, but this is racing after all and we need to be competitive”, explained Rubena Rocky Trail Team CZE racer Rybarik at the finish. “I noticed Ondrej wasn’t riding at a 100% today, so I grabbed my chance and thought ‘This is it, maybe I can get the jersey back’ and I just tried it. I am happy that I could do it, but you never know, there are still six days to go.”
“No water, no power, no legs”
That’s how Ondrej Fojtik described today’s stage as he arrived at the finish with a gap of almost 10 minutes on Rybarik. He looked disappointed and added that it had been a typical Croc stage, that’s long, steep and hot. “This was a hard day. Ivan was just so strong today, I couldn’t keep up.”
First-time Croc racer, young road talent Dominick Hrinkow from Austria, placed third today. “Benetseder, Krenn and I rode well together today and when we were dropped by the two Czech riders, we just tried to keep our pace up. About 20 km before the finish I felt strong and was able to ride away and decided to sprint solo to the finish.” Hrinkow’s goal for the remaining week is set high
With Rybarik again ahead in the general classification, Kate Major has increased her lead in the female category with another stage win today.
Beating the Irvinebank curse
Marc Baechli, winner of today’s M2 category, rolled across the finish line outside the Irvinebank pub particularly relieved. “Last year my cassette broke and I had to run the last 30 km into town. Today was a special stage for me and coming into Irvinebank on my bike was my main goal. To win my age group on top of it makes me really happy.” A strong Werner van der Merwe from the Subaru/MarathonMTB team claimed the fastest time in the M1 classification with his second consecutive stage win today.
Whilst the top riders are in for a daily battle for positions in the front, the Crocodile Trophy adventures unfold in the midfield and back. Riders from all over the world have come to Far North Queensland to challenge themselves, to experience nine days on their bikes in the Outback and it’s often groups of friends that are in it together.
“Strike hard, strike home”
This slogan of their Squadron Nr. 349 of the Belgian army keeps the four F16 pilots and their Ridley Team going each day. “This is just an awesome adventure”, said team leader Kris “Jimmy” Hendrickx today. “It’s exactly what we imagined and hoped for – hard, rough and the experience of a lifetime.” The four F16 fighter pilots have also entered a team classification and are content that they manage to ride together every day. “That’s what we planned, we wanted to do this race together and we tried to be on the same endurance level, so we would be able to be out on track, the four of us together.” I had not always been easy to prepare and train for this race, that’s known as the “hottest, longest and most adventurous MTB race in the world”, Hendrickx admitted. “Combining training, racing and preparing for this journey with family, kids and a full-time job requires full commitment”, he added.
That he was a lucky guy admitted also Aaron Lakeman from Sydney, who is leading the two-man “Adventure” classification with Mark Griffin and their Rubena Rocky Trail Racing team after finishing as the fastest team for the third day in a row. “My wife Annie deserves to get one of my stage win-boomerangs, because she let me go on this indulgent tour with my riding buddies.” The two-man team category had been added to the Crocodile Trophy classifications this year and team riders need to cross the finish line within two minutes of each other. “Yesterday, Aaron suffered on the long climbs, but today we both found a good pace and really enjoyed riding and racing together. It’s good, because you get to encourage each other and now that we have a comfortable lead in the team classification, I think, we’ll just make sure we’ll keep looking after ourselves out there and take every stage as it comes”, added Griffin, who said that he is looking forward to bring one of his stage win boomerangs back to Sydney for his godson Josh and tell him all about his mountain bike adventure in the Australian Outback.
Stage 4, Irvinebank to Irvinebank – 26 km, 600m x 4 Laps
Czech rider Ivan Rybarik wins the fourth stage of the 2012 Crocodile Trophy at Irvinebank today and the overall race result stays the same with Czech and Austrian riders dominating the top five positions: Rybarik leads ahead of fellow Czech rider Ondrej Fojtik in second and the Austrian Wolfgang Krenn is third. Ondrej Slezak (CZE) is fourth and Dominick Hrinkow (AUT) claims fifth overall place. With a solid performance, the Belgian rider Michiel Van Aelbroeck (BEL) was second at Irvinebank and Ondrej Fojtik crossed the line as third.
“I didn’t want to take any risks today and kept pushing hard. I still feel very strong and that I have some reserves left for the coming stages”, said the retired pro-cyclist and geography and PE high school teacher today. Together with his wife a doctor he operates a naturopathy clinic in the Bohemia region of the Czech Republic and when he is not riding his bike, Rybarik is studying to become a nutritionist. “We have a 16 month old daughter, Elena, and I am very lucky that my wife is so supportive of my cycling passion, so I could train all last year for the Crocodile Trophy.” He was in his best physical shape ever, so that his bike would hold up for the remaining stages was his biggest hope, he added.
Belgian surprise podium
Today’s second fastest racer at Irvinebank was the Belgian rider Michiel Van Aelbroek. “I came to this race with no particular interest in the general classification, but I wanted to do really well in at least one stage. So today, I tried to attack early on and had Mike Mulkens [BEL] with me, but Rybarik doesn’t hand out any presents – his counterattack came fast and we didn’t get away.”, said Van Aelbroek of his experience out on the race track. He said that it was understandable that as the race leader you would want to have a comfortable advantage and added, “As long as Rybarik rides that strong, all we can do is watch, so I’m actually quite happy with my second placing today.”
“It’s like Ivan is racing his own race this year”, agreed today’s third, Ondrej Fojtik, who said that his main goal over the next few days was now to hang on to second place overall, adding “The technical sections were very challenging today – a lot of steep and rough dry creek crossings and I’m just happy that I’m at the finish in one piece.”
Technical sections challenge Croc field
She had been surprised at the singletrail sections and dry creek crossings today, said Kate Major, still the fastest lady in the race. “After about half the lap we left the wide offroad section and entered a technical singletrail – one of the creek crossings caught me out and I crashed, but with every lap, I enjoyed it more.” In the overall female classification, Alice Pirard (BEL) is coming in second and fellow Belgian Tinneke Van de Voorde currently is third.
Riders raced through undulating terrain and thick bush on narrow trails, crossing countless dry creek beds with big boulders that challenged their mountain biking skills. After another climb that seemed tame, but “still hurt”, as some of the finishers admitted, it was a wild descent into Irvinebank again. Most riders took more than an hour to complete each lap and the midday heat was punishing.
Rubena Rocky Trail Racing CZE fastest team after four stages
With his Rubena Rocky Trail Racing CZE team mates, Ondrej Slezak and Michal Kafka, overall leader Rybarik is also ahead the Crocodile Trophy team classification with the Australian “Crocodile Tears” team from Canberra coming in second. Third after four stages is the local Cairns team “Tenni’s / SKM”.
The accidental team
After lunch, it has been reported that last year’s M1 winner, Christof Marien (BEL) had crashed due to a handlebar issue with his bike and was slowly making his way into the finish. Earlier in the day he had been riding in a breakaway group with fellow Belgian rider Mulkens. While Marien was looked after by the medical team on stand-by, his bike was fixed by the two mechanics, who also travel with the event. Just as Marien was heading out for his next lap, Eddy Snelders, the Belgian national football trainer, was walking towards the finish with a flat tire. At the same time more Belgian racers arrived in the event centre: Philippe Maertens, commentator and press officer of the Radioshak Nissan Trek cycling team, Guy Vandijck, two-time winner of the GVA Cyclo Cross Trophy as well Alex Moonen.
They all encouraged Snelders to have his tube changed and to keep riding and with Marien providing the spare parts, soon they were on their way again. They kept riding together for most of the day and are proof of the racing spirit among Crocodile Trophy participants, which is to stick together when it gets tough and to help and motivate each other to finish each stage – hopefully with a smile.
Results
Stage 3
Elite Women
1. Kate Major (Aus) 4:50:49
2. Alice Pirard (Bel) O2 Bikers – WMTB.be – Schwalbe 0:37:46
3. Tinneke Van de Voorde (Bel) 1:39:32
4. Annie van der linde (Ned) 2:09:15
5. Jade Forsyth (Aus) 2:38:06
6. Kirsten De Keyser (Bel) 2:57:31
Elite Men
1. Ivan Rybarik (Cze) Rubena Rocky Trail Racing CZE 3:44:09
2. Ondrej Fojtik (Cze) 0:10:42
3. Dominick Hrinkow (Aut) 0:15:23
4. Wolfgang Krenn (Aut) 0:19:59
5. Ondrej Slezak (Cze) Rubena Rocky Trail Racing CZE 0:20:08
6. Josef Benetseder (Aut) Team Eybl-Gastrogas.at 0:21:16
7. Steven Rankine (Aus) Tenni’s / SKM 0:21:44
8. Justin Morris (Aus) Subaru/marathonMTB.com 0:25:23
9. Michiel Van Aelbroeck (Bel) O2 Bikers – WMTB.be – Schwalbe 0:26:52
10. Mike Mulkens (Bel) 0:27:00
11. Mike Blewitt (Aus) Subaru/marathonMTB.com 0:28:27
12. Matthew Page (Gbr) 0:31:06
13. Evan Corry (Aus) RUOK Corry Cycles 1 0:31:07
14. Guillaume Bourgeois (Swi) 0:36:46
15. Paul Mashford (Aus) Tenni’s / SKM 0:39:24
16. Patrick Konrad (Aut) 0:49:01
17. Ritchie Motke (Ned) 0:51:48
18. Luke Haines (Aus) 0:56:16
19. Peter Fröhlich (Aut) Rams Cycling Black tusk 0:56:29
20. Cory Wallace (Can) 0:58:42
21. Evert Desmidt (Bel) 1:45:39
22. Tommy Arnoldy (Lux) CT Toproad Roeserbann 02 2:01:10
23. Sebastian Einsle (Lux) CT Toproad Roeserbann 01 2:01:11
24. Stefan Hackl (Aut) 2:03:40
25. Lukas Babor (Cze) 2:29:08
26. Francis Ransley (Aus) RUOK Corry Cycles 2 2:40:18
DNF Den Hutmacher (Lux) CT Toproad Roeserbann 01
DNF Jason English (Aus) RUOK Rocky Tail Racing
Stage 4
Elite Women
1. Kate Major (Aus) 5:52:00
2. Alice Pirard (Bel) O2 Bikers – WMTB.be – Schwalbe 6:17:32
3. Tinneke Van de Voorde (Bel) 7:13:57
4. Annie van der Linde (Ned) 7:43:23
5. Jade Forsyth (Aus) 8:39:45
6. Kirsten De Keyser (Bel)
Elite Men
1. Ivan Rybarik (Cze) Rubena Rocky Trail Racing CZE 4:17:27
2. Michiel Van Aelbroeck (Bel) O2 Bikers – WMTB.be – Schwalbe 4:23:01
3. Ondrej Fojtik (Cze) 4:26:23
4. Wolfgang Krenn (Aut) 4:29:32
5. Cory Wallace (Can) Kona-MBC 4:30:16
6. Ondrej Slezak (Cze) Rubena Rocky Trail Racing CZE 4:30:34
7. Matthew Page (Gbr) 4:33:06
8. Steven Rankine (Aus) Tenni’s / SKM 4:40:11
9. Dominick Hrinkow (Aut) 4:41:06
10. Mike Blewitt (Aus) Subaru/marathonMTB.com 4:47:24
GC after Stage 4
Elite Women
1. Kate Major (Aus) 17:15:30
2. Alice Pirard (Bel) O2 Bikers – WMTB.be – Schwalbe 18:50:03
3. Tinneke Van de Voorde (Bel) 21:58:08
Elite Men
1. Ivan Rybaric (Cze) Rubena Rocky Trail Racing CZE 13:12:28
2. Ondrej Fojtik (Cze) 13:27:52
3. Wolfgang Krenn (Aut) 13:52:17
8. Cory Wallace (Can) Kona-MBC 14:30:53