Crocodile Trophy

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Brentjens Attacks Huber as Battle Heats Up

John Flynn / 27.10.2009

Dutchman Bart Brentjens today launched a determined assault on the race leader's jersey of Swiss cyclist Urs Huber and in the process claimed his fourth stage victory as the Crocodile Trophy reached Mount Mulgrave Station in Australia's remote Outback.

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 Australian Josh Prete, that held together until hitting deep sand at the 100 kilometer mark.
"I saved as much energy as I could until the big river crossing that everybody was afraid of," Brentjens said after one of the toughest victories of his career. "It was like 5k's of really deep sand before the crossing and everybody was struggling a little bit."

Brentjens attacked Huber in the stony, dry river bed of the Mitchell River, a crossing Crocodile Trophy competitors in previous years have had to swim across. "Nobody got away until the last few hundred metres through the river. There were some walking parts, big rocks, stones, and no water anymore," Brentjens said. "On the other side we had to climb up out of the river and I got a gap."

The Trek Bart Brentjens team owner continued at full gas, hoping to peg back the margin of almost two minutes between himself and Huber in the General Classification. Ten kilometres out from the finish, with the gap between himself and Huber growing, the Dutchman appeared to have the on-course lead. That was until 'the man with the hammer' whose presence at the Crocodile Trophy is feared, hit Brentjens from above. "I gave everything I had for like 25k's, at the beginning it was really good, I had power, but I died the last 5k's," Brentjens admitted.

"I was totally black, my feet were burning and my head, I couldn't see anything. "I was so lucky that I saw the finish and I had a small gap but he's (Huber) a tough guy."

Huber finished the marathon 137 kilometer stage clearly the fresher of the two main G.C. Contenders. He also managed to limit the damage inflicted by Brentjens to around forty seconds, with the time gap between himself and The Dutchman standing at one minute and six seconds. "Yes today it was not the high temperatures that were the problem, my problem was the sand, Brentjens is very strong in the sand," Huber admitted post-stage. "Thirty kilometres before the finish he attacked and came in the front. It did not look good for me but the last ten kilometers I came more near to him."

Belgian Mike Mulkens produced his best ride yet at the 2009 Crocodile Trophy to claim third for the stage and third place in the overall classification. In the process, he managed to unseat Jure Robic from the top three after the Slovenian appeared to struggle with today's savage pace. See All Event Posts