FLYING Dutchman Bart Brentjens turned the tables on Swiss rival Urs Huber to claim the second stage of the Crocodile Trophy mountain bike classic yesterday.

Brentjens completed the 171km stage from Lake Tinaroo to Granite Gorge in 2hr 55min 42sec, the same official time as the next riders across the line Huber and Slovenia’s Junij Robic.

Pictures: Crocodile Trophy MTB 2009

Huber retains his overall lead after a dramatic day which featured a re-start after riders were faced with a fallen tree on the road to Mt Edith.

The course had been cleared the previous day but a tree, weakened by a recent bushfire in the area, had fallen overnight and blocked the riders’ progress.

Brentjens, who finished second to Huber in the opening stage from Cairns on Tuesday, was delighted with the stage win.

"I’m very happy, it wasn’t as difficult as (Monday)," he said. "The last 10km was real fast with the wind at the back, a tailwind.

"Most of the time in mountain biking it’s always hectic with some turns at the end, so I was leading the last kilometre and took some risks in the corners very fast, and they couldn’t catch me before the line."

In a world-class field, the Tropical Tableland Discovery team of Josh Prete, Steve Rankine and Isaac Tonello has shown the benefit of dedication to training to lead the teams event.

Atherton product Prete has been training in Brisbane under the direction of master trainer Nic Formosa but Rankine and Tonello had to take unconventional approaches in their preparations for the event.

Rankine, from Mossman, has been working on Cape York installing television antennas and training at night on an indoor trainer with Tonello, a physiotherapist, training at 3am under lights to prepare for the Croc Trophy.

Prete, the youngest rider on the field, is enjoying the opportunity to match up against the
front-runners.

"Yeah, it’s good, they’re definitely very talented," he said of his opponents.

"They just sit on the front riding on tempo and I’m just hanging on the back."

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