Ivan Rybarik continued his domination of the Crocodile Trophy with victory on stage four – the Czech rider’s third of the 2012 race so far.

The Rubena Rocky Trail Racing rider won the 106km stage in Irvinebank, Australia, ahead of Michiel Van Aelbroeck (O2 Bikers-WMTB.be-Schwalbe) and Ondrej Fojtik (X-sports.cz).

Rybarik now leads the overall classification by more than 15 minutes from Fojtik, while Wolfgang Krenn (Zwillingscraft Steven/Sc Knauf Liezen) is third, nearly 40 minutes adrift.

“I didn’t want to take any risks today and kept pushing hard,” said Rybarik. “I still feel very strong and that I have some reserves left for the coming stages.”

Van Aelbroeck, second on the stage, added: “I came to this race with no particular interest in the general classification, but I wanted to do really well in at least one stage. So today, I tried to attack early on and had Mike Mulkens with me, but Rybarik doesn’t hand out any presents – his counter-attack came fast and we didn’t get away.

“As long as Rybarik rides that strong, all we can do is watch, so I’m actually quite happy with my second placing today.”