Canadian Cyclist

 

September 17/17 20:40 pm - Crocodile Trophy Stage 2, Bouchard still in lead


Posted by Editoress on 09/17/17
 

Canada's Leandre Bouchard defends his Crocodile Trophy Elite Men's leader jersey during Stage two from Cairns to Atherton.

Riders arriving at the finish at Lake Tinaroo on the Atherton Tablelands recounted a brutal stage with massive 'ramps'. Once again the Crocodile Trophy lived up to its reputation as the "hardest mountain bike stage race" on earth right on day two. The 79km marathon stage started with a neutral ride out of Cairns towards the escarpment where the official start gun went and riders started the first tough climb towards Copperlode Dam. The the elevation profile was full of steep pinches and hills - 2100vm were to cover in the one day.

The top three in the general classification raced and crossed the finish line together at Lake Tinaroo in 4:09:38: Anton Sintsov (Rus) and the Canadians Leandre Bouchard and Andrew L'Esperance all clocked in the same race time. This means that the general classification will stay the same and the gaps between the top riders remain unchanged: Leandre Bouchard ahead of Andrew L'Esperance (+1:29.4) and Anton Sintsov (+4:38.2).

The amateur field showed strength with Erik Dekker (NED, A3) racing onto the overall fourth position in today's stage ahead of the Australian A2 racers Ondrej Slezak and Alex Malone.

In the overall women's field, Haley Smith (Can) finished in 4:32:06 ahead of Swiss amateur rider Daniela Erni Ruoss (4h55:10.0) and Kylie Lindsay from Australia (6h20:49.0). Yana Belamoyna did not start the day.

Locked gate causes problem
Slight upset at mid-race due to locked gates along the "Sunwater" waterways, the lead car with the crew that marks the race track was stuck. With the permits all in order starting the day, the racers were able to pass through and raced the remaining distance on an unmarked race course based on solely on GPS coordinates that the organisers had provided in the event lead up. As a consequence 13 riders unfortunately missed a turn and did detours between 5 and 8km before rejoining the correct race track.

Race organiser Gerhard Schönbacher commented, "This was a very unfortunate situation, especially as we relied on our permit documentation, however, we understand it was a mere miscommunication that caused the Sunwater gates to be locked. Those things can happen and I thank our UCI Commissaire Peter Blakey for handling the situation in a very professional manner. I have been informed that the 13 riders were able to provide GPS information of their race times and based on their additional kilometres had an average time deducted from their race time today."



Results

Stage 2: Cairns to Lake Tinaroo, 79 km / 2100 vm
1 Anton Sintsov (JBG-2 Team) 4:09:38
2 Leandre Bouchard (BH SR Suntour KMC)
3 Andrew L'Esperance (Forward Racing-Norco) both s.t.
4 Erik Dekker 2:00
5 Ondrej Slezak (Quantum Racing Team) 6:56
6 Alex Malone (Cyclist Magazine) 7:26
7 Tom Van Brempt (Ferme de la H) 11:48
8 Daniel Beresford (Team Cycle Station/Hammer Nutrition/Norco) 14:12
9 Hiroyuki Okamoto (INPULSE) 14:12
10 Ben May (Bicycle Riders/Specialized/Infinit Nutrition) 16:16
11 Grant Webster (Apollo Bicycles - nitelights - BBD - dust monkies) 16:22
12 Peter Lister (Corry Cycles ACE Racing) 20:10
13 Michal Kafka (Quantum Racing Team) 21:25
14 Haley Smith (Norco Factory Team) 22:28
15 Mike Blewitt (Subaru-MarathonMTB.com) 23:26
16 Micheal Wilson 24:38
17 Graeme Young 25:02
18 Peter Urdl 25:14
19 Martin Wisata (Il Pastaio / Rocky Trail Racing) 28:24
20 James Garry (Ashfield Specialized Racing) 29:52
21 Brian Tracey (ECS) 31:08
22 Johnathan Todd 33:04
23 Nick Hutton 33:16
24 Blake Coppo (Corry Cycles Ace Racing) 34:08
25 Jürgen Krieber (MTB-Intersport Montafon/Fahrschule Mallin) 39:08
26 Peter Winfield 42:16
27 Rod Stormonth (Cops at the Croc - Enduro Magazine) 42:26
28 Richard Read (Cops at the Croc - Enduro Magazine) 43:56
29 Olaf Trenner (Trenner der Renner) 44:34
30 Daniela Erni Ruoss (2XU) 45:32
31 Bart Duraj (Astute Financial Racing Team) 45:58
32 Brendon Skerke (Astute Financial Racing Team) 46:00
33 Jaroslav Slezak (Quantum Racing Team) 46:20
34 Cees De Ridder 49:01
35 Pieter Van Der Eijk (MTB Team FATlab NL) 49:02
36 Serge Muylle (Serge Muylle) 49:11
37 Jean-Luc De Bruyckere (Bezmbikers) 50:36
38 Marc Russenberger (2XU) 52:26
39 Michael Peters (Zelzer Racing Team) 52:38
40 Sebastian Arnstedt 58:18
41 Stefan Zorniger (Team Strassacker) 1:03:19
42 John Harris (JH) 1:03:40
43 Nick Smith (Nick & Nick) 1:04:54
44 Nick Gatland (Nick & Nick) 1:04:54
45 Balboni Vanni (BICISCOUT.IT) 1:04:55
46 Radek Jaros (Quantum Racing Team) 1:08:32
47 Paul Brown (Inparadise) 1:09:22
48 Jodi Brown (Inparadise) 1:09:22
49 Robert Fritz (Team Sportordination) 1:11:12
50 Romana Fritz-Winter (Team Sportordination) 1:11:12
51 Pieter Lanssens 1:11:36
52 Luc Van Aelbroeck 1:14:58
53 Roman Pfister (ROMO Cycling Team) 1:19:50
54 Mick Ritchie (Cops at the Croc - Enduro Magazine) 1:31:51
55 Willem Dijk 1:34:32
56 Daniela Rebhan (Steil is geil) 1:53:01
57 Alexander Onofre Brempel Ballester (Bikepoint Mallorca Racing Team) 1:53:01
58 Carsten Selbach (Steil is geil) 1:53:01
59 Kylie Lindsay 2:11:12
60 Damien Fenning  
DNS Yana Belamoyna


Stage 1

 

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