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Stage 10 - October 28: Moya - Laura, 158 km
Stage 11 - October 29: Laura - Cooktown, 142 km
Busted asses and controversy
By Christi Valentine-Anderson
How many Austrians does it take to change a tyre on a ute? Well in this instance it took four. The Austrian quartet flew into action when the Dream Team's Nissan Ute rolled into the first feed with a flat rear wheel. With unbridled chivalry the outback pit crew jacked up the ute and changed the wheel in the 50 degree temperatures. It was a little gift from heaven for the Dream Team women who were clearly not looking forward to the heavy truck repair. And so the day began with the sun already radiating down on the dusty tired peloton.
Dream Team Leader Elli was firing on all 8 cylinders today as he motored along the sandy track to Laura. The Italian is clearly getting stronger with the passing of each Hellish stage. He jumped Adam Hansen and the pesky Czech rider with one kilometer to go and finished with a victory punch in the air as he rolled over the line for his fourth stage win in this Croc Trophy. Elli is rapidly losing weight despite the copious amounts of food that he is consuming. The power to weight ratio is ever improving as his morale... but that could be because we are nearing the end of this race.
"Large" Johnson, the Dream Team's American did it hard through the deep sand, however by the time he neared Laura over the whopping big corrugations into a raging hot head wind, he was coming good. Johnson's sole complaint was that his backside was killing him. The man from Ketchum has torn shards off of his bottom and may never sit properly again. He is certainly not alone out there, the entire peloton is moving with marked tenderness.
Perry Moerman - who is now riding on a gel saddle - has really found new form with the ability to sit down. Moerman rolled every feed and finished amazingly strong after the 150 km day. With very little preparation for the 2004 Crocodile Trophy the Belgian is clearly riding into his form.
Marzio Deho, who was officially allowed to restart the light program finished in the front with Elli and jumped to third position in the Lite Crocodile Trophy competition. He should win that competition.
The evening was spent listening to country music and playing pool at the Laura pub. It was a very welcome slice of civilization after two days hard racing and wild camping.
Stage 11
The road from Laura to Cooktown is the longest, most severely corrugated and hilly parcours thus far in the Crocodile Trophy. With its deep washboard surface rattling the men and the bikes to pieces this was easily the most testing stage of the event. Its technical challenges were completely outweighed by the bone-jarring nature of the course.
The Dream Team's Elli handled the corrugations well. He appeared to be floating over the deep relentless bumps. He came second on the stage to Hansen. Elli will be looking to have a spectacular finish in the Daintree and did not seem to mind the second place behind the young powerful Australian.
Alberto commented, "I am really not too tired," - amazing after this ripper stage finishing with a 1 km wall-like climb to the Cooktown lookout.
It was entirely a different tale for Large, the Dream Team's American. Johnson had been working effectively with the front group of Elli in the first 60 km of the stage, basically chasing down attacks and trying to shake the Czech rider loose from the group. After the second feed the strapping big fella dropped off the front runners and began the solo assault on the washboard surface. Large arrived at the finish line, then dropped to the deck in a trembling heap. He went really deep and needed to "be still" for a few minutes and collect himself. He recovered and was able to stand after approximately 20 minutes whereupon he was handed a coldy, a typical Australian remedy for anything that ails you. Not one to knock back a gift, he downed the XXXX, mentioning something about liquid analgesic... he was okay.
Moerman was the next to complete the arduous stage for the Dream Team. He rocked and rolled in into Cooktown, happy to be nearly finished with this death march. Perry has actually recovered to some level through the use of the gel saddle, but the forsaken corrugations still managed to pummel his backside further. By the time he hit the bitumen and raging head wind he simply had no snap in his legs. He couldn't really plant himself hard on the saddle so he tried to keep the legs turning over a small gear. Alas it was a stage for the Belgian to finish with an objective of harm management. He was also looking a bit like a cowboy with no pony at dinner, walking with bowed legs and never sitting.
The Dream Team's only pure mountain biker, Deho had major dramas in this stage. Deho was pulled out of the race for assisting Elli. He did not. The Dream Team has been consistently harassed by the Crocodile Trophy management throughout this Croc Trophy and this stage was no different. It seems that the powers that be are still upset by the conflict with Elli early on. Anderson once again protested this penalty with the organization and the withdrawl from the race was overturned. Deho will start the final stage through the Daintree and he may win it. He took a one hour time penalty which will see him possibly in second place for the Crocodile Trophy Lite program.
Elli's strength and results hard steadily improving yet they seemed to over shadowed by the bias against us here. Next year the pro outfit may have an entry for a different epic length event.
