Gordon retains Crocodile Trophy race lead as Van Boxstael wins stage 5

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Belgium's Stijn Van Boxstael took the win on stage 5 of the 2019 Crocodile Trophy in Skybury, Queensland, on Wednesday, while South Africa's Alan Gordon retained the overall race lead.

Van Boxstael was able to keep pace with the lead group for most of the 120km stage, and then attacked with 25km to go to take the victory from double stage winner Bart Classens of the Netherlands by more than a minute-and-a-half.

"I went, and nobody was on my wheel, so I kept on going and gave everything I had. And, well, I have the win, I have a boomerang, I'm really happy," said Van Boxstael, seemingly as pleased with the Australian stage race's daily prize as with the stage win itself.

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Austrian rider Angelika Tazreiter – the only elite-category woman taking part in this year's race – finished strongly in 12th place on the stage to retain her 11th place overall.

There were no great changes in the elite men's overall classification, with Gordon retaining the race lead over Australian Michael England by 6:06, having stolen another 12 seconds with his third place on the stage.

Classens solidified his third place overall, now 11:49 down on Gordon, with Spain's Brandan Marquez Fernandez in fourth, a further 34 seconds back.

The day's stage winner, Van Boxstael, kept his fifth place overall, 54:14 down on Gordon.