October 20/14 12:57 pm - Crocodile Trophy: Stage 3

Posted by Editoress on 10/20/14
 

David Rosa gets first boomerang for Portugal
The Portuguese Olympian and Cross-Country (XCO) National Champion David Rosa won today's marathon stage at Atherton MTB Park, which many experienced Crocodile Trophy racers today described as one of the most challenging days in the history of the event. Held on parts of the Australian National Marathon Series course, Rosa wins the stage with a four-minute gap ahead of Ramses Bekkenk from The Nederlands and yesterday's stage winner Greg Saw who defended his overall race lead. Imogen Smith returns strongly and is the fastest woman of the day.

He had been today's race favourite and in a not so unexpected move after a neutralised ride from Lake Tinaroo to the town of Atherton, David Rosa attacked right from the official start. Entering the vast Atherton MTB Park singletrail network as the lone escapee, he was able to quickly ride away from the elite group and keep a four minute lead throughout the three laps on the 20km circuit. "On the first lap I just had fun and got used to the tight switchback climb and fast rolling descents", David Rosa said of his successful day. "I found my rhythm and during the second lap I really tried to push it hard to increase my gap to the chasers - but I paid for it on the third lap, my legs feel like concrete now", he admitted at the finish. Since a broken wheel incident during the event's first stage on Saturday left him with almost an hour's gap, David Rosa said he had some unfinished business at the Crocodile Trophy that he wanted to take care of today. Finishing in 3h:20:00 he concluded as he picked up the stage win trophy, an Australian boomerang, "I know, I can't get the overall top spot anymore; my gap is too high. So it was my goal to get a stage win and a few good placings to get as many UCI points as possible."

The elite group in the meantime settled in behind Cory Wallace who kept the pace up during the first lap. Soon after, Ramses Bekkens, Greg Saw, Milton Ramos and Yuki Ikeda made their move, rode away from Wallace and finished after three laps in that order at the camp site at the Atherton Rifle Club.

Ideal race track for Australian amateur racers
In the amateur classes the Australian competitors dominated their fields - and Canberran racers in particular. Andrew Hall defended his "Best Australian" leader jersey today with a top 10 overall position of today's stage in a race time of 3h40:47.271, only 20 minutes of the elite winner Rosa, and won the A2 (30+) category for the second consecutive time. "This is the sort of race track that we Australians are used to, this style of riding I knew would suit us", said Andrew Hall today. Fello Canberrans Jason Chalker (40+ stage winner) and Garry James (50+ stage winner) agreed. "We didn't have to train for this type of racing, we focused on the wide fireroad climbs to be competitive with the European racers", they explained. Andrew Lloyd from Newcastle (NSW) won the Under 30's category in 3h44:24.013 today, crossing the line as outstanding 13th overall today.

No change in the "Best Austrian" and "Best Australian" leader jerseys - Guido Thaler (AUT) and Ondrej Slezak (AUS) still have a tight grip on their respective titles.

Greg Saw defends leader jersey as fellow elites shuffle
Overall in the Generall Classification, Greg Saw defended his leader jersey and now leads by 4:16.41 ahead of Spain's Milton Ramos and the Dutch rider Ramses Bekkenk (+11:03.85), who defends his third place. Cory Wallace is still fourth overall (+14:16.24) and Yuki Ikeda from Japan advances into fifth place. A big upset for the 2012 Crocodile Trophy Champion, Ivan Rybarik from the Czech Republic - at the start line today as category second overall, he crashes during the second lap today. Rybarik escapes uninjured, however, one of his bike wheels suffers some damage, causing him to loose valuable time and dropping back into sixth spot behind Ikeda in the overall elite category classification.

Stage 3: Atherton MTB Park, Queensland, 60km