Australian Mark Frendo claimed his second Crocodile Trophy stage during a marathon from Cairns into Lake Tinaroo and defended his overall leader's jersey. He increased his race lead, winning ahead of the Austrian pro-road racer Josef Benetseder and the Canadian Marathon National Champion Cory Wallace. Liesbeth Hessens was the fastest woman for the second day in a row, showing a strong performance on the gruelling climbs through the Dinden National Park.

Most of the riders in the Crocodile Trophy race had regarded stage 2 as the real start of the action. After yesterday's lap race at Smithfield for stage 1, the 90km stage 2 had its official start high above town on the road towards Copperlode Dam. A large lead group of almost 30 riders set a high pace right from the start.

After gruelling climbs and steep descends that seemed to never end, the first feed zone was located deep in the tropical bushland of Dinden National Park, and by then, an Austro-Australian breakaway group had formed with race leader Mark Frendo and the two Austrian racers Wolfgang Krenn and Benetseder. With a gap of only a minute, Wallace and the Czech rider Jan Fojtik were in hot pursuit, followed by Matthew Page, Jiri Krivanek and M1 rider Mario Färberböck.

Prooving his strong endurance skills, Benetseder attacked just before the second feed zone and surprised his fellow riders with an impressive climbing ability. On the steep ascent towards Mount Edith, the highest point in Far North Queensland, he was able to increase the gap to over two minutes, with Wallace and Frendo chasing hard.

A more than 10km rapid descend to Kauri Creek was the reward before the finish at Lake Tinaroo and only Frendo was able to catch up, cross the finish line for his second stage win with over a minute gap.

"Benetseder was really strong on the climbs today, but luckily on the last downhill I had an advantage over him," said the mechanical engineer and passionate mountain biker from Brisbane at the finish.

On the picturesque shores of Lake Tinaroo, Wallace finished in third ahead of Krenn and Krivanek. It was bad luck for Fojtik, the young Czech rider, who had started so strongly. He faced sharp, chronic pain in his lower back and had to retire 30km before the finish.

Stage 3 preview

Tomorrow's third stage will be an 80km marathon with more than 2,500m of climbing, featuring a 30km loop on the new Atherton mountain bike trail network before heading towards the historic mining town of Irvinebank across rough Outback roads and spectacular river crossings.

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