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Estonian Allan Oras en route to a stage victory.(Image credit: Crocodile Trophy)
Udo Huber in Laura(Image credit: Crocodile Trophy)
Udo Huber nears the Laura River(Image credit: Crocodile Trophy)
The start of Stage 8 of the Crocodile Trophy in Laura(Image credit: Crocodile Trophy)
The stage podium.(Image credit: Crocodile Trophy)
The racers cross a river(Image credit: Crocodile Trophy)
Urs Huber, Bart Brentjens and Mike Mulkens speed through a river(Image credit: Crocodile Trophy)
The peloton(Image credit: Crocodile Trophy)
The first three GC riders battle another day(Image credit: Crocodile Trophy)
Allan Oras claimed today's stage arriving at Cooktown. The Canadian Cory Wallace and the overall leader Urs Huber completed the podium high above the coastal town.
"This is the most beautiful view I have ever seen in my life," said an astonished Oras after just having arrived at the Grassy Hill high above Cooktown after four hours, 41 minutes and 24 seconds of riding. With this stage win at the Crocodile Trophy, a long desired dream had come true for the 34-year-old Estonian. Nevertheless, immediately afterwards he had eyes only for the panoramic view, which Captain Cook himself must have marvelled at in 1777 upon his arrival: green rain forest, white beaches and the azure ocean.
Already in the lead bunch with Rene Haselbach and the two Belgian riders Mike Mulkens and Cristof Mariën from kilometre 15, the 2009 European marathon champion was the only one who was able to fend off the approaching chase group. He increased his slim lead of 30 seconds to five minutes towards the finish line.
"My friend Jaan Kirsipuu helped me and carried a lot of the work load," said the first-time traveller to the Southern hemisphere and surprise stage winner. Oras hadn't believed in the success of his attack until the last metres. The five-minute lead, however, emphasised the Rietumu-Delfin team rider's perfect form of the day quite clearly.
Astonishingly also, Cory Wallace was able to break away from the seven-rider strong chaser group. The Canadian rider gained a lead of 23 seconds upon the overall leader Huber on the brutal final 30 percent ascent and now hopes for more climbing challenges like it over the last two days.
In fact, Huber had trusted in his climbing abilities and hoped for another stage win, however, in the end was happy about his third place for the day. "Allan somehow got away from us. There wasn't much harmony among our racing field today, so we didn't continue trying to chase him," the Swiss rider recounted. The 25-year-old was still able to expand his buffer in the overall rankings to about five minutes, despite a moment of shock at a river crossing where he almost crashed.
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In all other categories, the respective overall leaders arrived at Cooktown as stage winners. With that, the two Australians Abby McLennan and Hans Dielacher (M3) have maximised their efforts at the Crocodile Trophy so far: seven days, seven victories.
What the two - and the remaining 66 participants - benefited from: the 142km long road from Laura to Cooktown, which has been counted as the "stage from hell" until now, lost a bit of its scare due to comprehensive road works over the past year. Nonetheless the one or the other kilometre of the dreaded corrugated awaited the riders, however, in between packed dirt and fixed roads delivered a bit of relief from the relentless off-road tracks. The headwind that had dominated yesterday's stage continued blowing today, too.
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