After nine stages through rain forest and steppe, through rivers and over bone-dry tracks, Sören Nissen finished second on his STEVENS Sonora SL at the 21. Crocodile Trophy. The Danish Champion rode very constantly among the first five of the field over those nine days and finished five times on the podium in the daily classification.

Only on the last stage, a time trial covering 30 kilometers and 350 vertical meters, he slightly reduced speed and secured his second place overall without losing too much time when finishing tenth. All in all, the riders collected 700 kilometers and 17,000 vertical meters on their mountainbikes in the nine race stages.

But none of the 50 participants stood a chance against overall-winner Urs Huber from Switzerland. He won seven stages and finally was 21:26 minutes ahead of Nissen and 40:49 minutes ahead of local hero Brendan Johnston. Nicholas Pettina who was still ahead of Nissen halfway through the race, but then lost a lot of time due to a puncture among other things, finished fourth overall.

The first part of Crocodile Trophy led the riders over mountainbike courses similar to rain forest with lots of muddy single trails, some river crossings and many steep climbs through the Great Divide, the mountain range dividing the rather humid coast region from the dry steppe of the Outback. When the field reached the inland the former mine region around Irvineback therefore presented itself dry, hot and dusty – so hot that the UCI commissioners set up an additional aid station on stage six. Sören Nissen changed podium sides on this stage finishing second and climbing to second place overall. Stage seven was a little more subtropical again. The longest stage of the Trophy covering 127 kilometers was dominated by the Skybury coffee estate.

On eighth stage Nissen crashed in a downhill section and had to let go Huber. But Nissen finished only 50 seconds behind him on second place at Wetherby Cattle Station near the coast.
Due to his lead on third-placed Brendan Johnston, Nissen could take a careful and safe approacht to the final time trial. He had been riding a lot of marathons and stage races this year, Nissen said at the beach of Port Douglas. This had finally paid. He hoped, however, that he would get his revenge on Huber at the Austrian four-day race Alpen Tour-Trophy in June 2016.