CAIRNS' Abby McLennan has finally been rewarded for six days of hard slog, winning yesterday's 137km Crocodile Trophy stage from Chillagoe to Mt Mulgrave.
After battling a stomach ailment for two days, the leader of the Rattle & Hum team found her best form yesterday and was the only woman in the field to hang on to the leader’s group until the first checkpoint.
Pictures: Crocodile Trophy MTB 2009
She ran into some on-course dramas from there though, with husband Scott, one of her two team helpers, puncturing just after the feed zone.
McLennan also punctured but borrowed a wheel from teammate James Banner-Smith as she ploughed on alone.
She was later joined by women’s race leader Monique Zeldenrust, who decided to back off slightly today with sizeable race lead still intact.
In a sporting gesture, Zeldenrust offered the stage to McLennan, who had shared the effort on one of the
Trophy’s toughest journeys.
"I can’t believe it, it’s a dream come true, Monique is such a good sport and she rewarded me for working hard, so it’s really good, I’m just lost for words," McLennan said.
"I felt good today I was strong but I had a few issues with flat tyres and James (Banner-Smith) got me going again."
Dutchman Bart Brentjens won his fourth stage yesterday and launched a determined
assault on the race leader’s jersey of Swiss Urs Huber.
The former world and Olympic champion chose the perfect moment to attack on a stage littered with seemingly never-ending obstacles, including stony creek crossings, deep sand patches and blinding bulldust.
Brentjens and Huber were part of a four-man lead group, also containing Belgian Mike Mulkens and Tropical Tablelands Discovery team member Josh Prete, that held together until hitting deep sand at the 100km mark.
Brentjens attacked Huber in the stony, dry river bed of the Mitchell River and had the on-course lead at one stage before Huber came home strongly to limit the damage to about 40 seconds.
In Saturday's 100km stage, which started and finished in Chillagoe, Brentjens showed why he is considered the Lance Armstrong of mountain bike racing.
After suffering an early puncture, Brentjens hauled in a deficit of five minutes to catch the lead group of race front-runner Huber, Jure Robic, Mike Mulkins and Prete shortly before the turnaround point.
From there he proceeded to do much of the work, driving hard into a headwind over the final 50km.
Mareeba’s Isaac Tonello is leading his category, while McLennan is third in the her division less than 10 minutes behind Austria’s Lisa Pleyer.
Overall standings: 1 Urs Huber (SUI); 2 Bart Brentjens (NED); 3 Mike Mulkens (BEL); 4 Jurij Robic (SLO); 5 Tomas Kozak (CZE); 6 Milan Spolc (CZE); 7 Kai Hundertmark (GER); 8 Isaac Tonello (Mareeba); 9 Branko Grah (AUT); 10 Steve Rankine (Mossman).
