Benetseder wins Crocodile Trophy stage 8

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Austrian Josef Benetseder won his second Crocodile Trophy stage on Saturday into Hope Vale. The wide and open Outback Highways suited the European road pro, and he crossed the line in 3:59:50 with a gap of almost six minutes to the main field, which arrived in big bunches and several finishing sprints to decide the final placings.

Second place in the elite men's division for stage 8 went to last year's fastest Australian Steve Rankine from Cape York ahead of Czech Jiri Krivanek by just two seconds.

Mark Frendo from Australia still leads the race overall by almost 12 minutes ahead of Cory Wallace and Jiri Krivanek.

Liesbeth Hessens won the women's category by 26:41 over runner-up Maria Cristina and holds a likely insurmountable overall lead with just one stage remaining.

The penultimate stage of the 19th Crocodile Trophy had riders head out from the sleepy town of Laura onto Battle Camp Road into the Lakefield National Park and the scenery was dominated by the iconic Australian Outback landscape – wide and deep-red gravel highways under bright-blue skies.

Kangaroos, lizards and all kinds of birds accompanied the riders as they were racing in the heat towards the coast and the Aboriginal town of Hope Vale. Several river crossings provided a welcome cool spray of water and the terrain kept changing from rough and corrugated gravel roads to recently upgraded asphalt highways.

Ideal conditions for road pro Benetseder

"I have to admit that I had my eyes on this stage right from the start in Cairns," said stage winner Benetseder. "I knew that after the second feed zone there would be some steep climbs and I used my chance to attack."

The Austrian won his second stage of the race on his home country's National Day. "Today is a special day in Austria, we celebrate our National Day," said am emotional Benetseder. "That was a big motivation for me – two years ago, I lost a stage win in the finish corner on that day. I had some unfinished business at the Croc, but now I've got the stage win back."

Cory Wallace, one of the main favourites and currently second overall in the elite category behind the Australian Mark Frendo, was disappointed with his race. "I tried to chase Josef, but no one would work with me. Mark was obviously just keeping me at bay, but with today's head wind I didn't stand a chance keeping up with a road pro on my own."

He explained that a breakaway group of four had formed, which saw Benetseder escape – Wallace, Frendo and the Czech rider Krivanek couldn't keep up with the fast pace and eventually let themselves fall back to the next bigger chase group.

Frendo cautiously optimistic about tomorrow's arrival in Cooktown

With a gap of almost 12 minutes to Wallace, Frendo for the first time showed some excitement. "My main fear now is a mechanical, I'll be very careful tomorrow to keep it all together until Grassy Hill," the humble former U19 and U23 mountain bike national champion said at the finish.

The now 28-year-old had just gotten back into racing and plans to compete in more stage races in future. "I raced with Cory at the Mongolia Challenge earlier in the year and got a good idea of what level of endurance it takes to have a chance to beat Cory. I trained hard and went into this race with confidence that I could do it."

Frendo's victory tomorrow would be the first Crocodile Trophy win since fellow Australian Adam Hansen's double-victories in 2004 and 2005.

Sunday's final stage features a 50km leg with sandy terrain and river crossings from Hope Vale through Endeabour River National Park. The final challenge will be the 30% climb up to Grassy Hill, which mark's Captain Cook's landing spot in Australia almost 250 years ago.