Annemiek van Vleuten (Orica-AIS)(Image credit: Crocodile Trophy/Regina Stanger)
Manuel Pliem (Aut) Team KTM-Rad.Sport.Szene(Image credit: Crocodile Trophy/Regina Stanger)
Three-time Crocodile Trophy winner Urs Huber bounced back from the disappointment of a mechanical in the finale of stage 3 to take his second stage win of 2016. The Swiss rider remains the overall race leader with stage 3 winner Sebastien Carabin (Merida-Wallonie-Vojo Mag) sitting second overall.
In the women's race, Annemiek Van Vleuten suffered as the race leader took a wrong turn and saw her large lead in the morning become a 1:04:22 deficit to the winner Alice Pirard. The Belgian becomes the new race leader with half the race to come.
"The stage was not too difficult but got a bit tight at the 35km mark when I had a flat tyre. Bas Peters just flew past me and Sebastien Carabin went with him. I had to bridge the gap which was about a minute and managed to do so right before the flat part in the middle of the stage," Huber said of of his second stage win in four days. "Well, I think it wasn't very fair to attack when I had the mechanical, which I told them. Then I had another flat tyre and they waited for me, which I thought was very sportsman-like. Towards the finish Sebastien and I were equally strong, we didn't attack each other anymore and I was actually happy after two flats to being able to stay with him. I was able to claim the stage in a finish sprint."
For Pirard, to take her third win of the race and move into the leader's jersey was a surprise as she explained.
"I'm surprised that Annemiek is not here, she must have taken a wrong turn or crashed, because I heard during the race that she had a big gap, like 15 or 20 minutes. I hope she's ok and that she will come soon," she said. "For me it was a hard day, I was kind of in survival mode because I'm getting tired... just surviving in the forest. I did enjoy the last singletrack downhill though, that was really nice. We'll see.
"The next stages coming up are all really fast and rolling, which doesn't suit me generally, because I like the technical stages, but well, I'm so tired and in survival mode right now."
Stage 5 is the longest of the race at 131km with the riders to travel from Atherton to the Skybury Coffee Plantation.
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Full Results
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Elite men
#
Rider Name (Country) Team
Result
1
Urs Huber (Swi) Team Bulls
3:28:17
2
Sebastien Carabin (Bel) Merida-Wallonie-Vojo Mag
0:00:03
3
Bas Peters (Ned) MijnBadLiv/Giant offroad team
0:05:24
4
Michiel Van Aelbroeck (Bel) WMTB.be
0:07:27
5
Matthias Grick (Aut) KTM Ebner Transporte Cycling Team Graz
0:11:38
6
Manuel Pliem (Aut) Team KTM-RAD.SPORT.SZENE
0:18:52
7
Stef De Louwere (Ned) Veco cycling team
0:28:13
8
Frédéric Ischard (Fra) Team velochannel.com
0:46:23
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General classification after stage 4
#
Rider Name (Country) Team
Result
1
Urs Huber (Swi) Team Bulls
12:49:51
2
Sebastien Carabin (Bel) Merida-Wallonie-Vojo Mag
0:01:40
3
Michiel Van Aelbroeck (Bel) WMTB.be
0:46:29
4
Bas Peters (Ned) MijnBadLiv/Giant offroad team
0:50:35
5
Manuel Pliem (Aut) Team KTM-RAD.SPORT.SZENE
0:55:13
6
Matthias Grick (Aut) KTM Ebner Transporte Cycling Team Graz
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