Skip to main content

Jelajah Malaysia: Team Medscheme Riders Rule Third Stage After 1-2 Finish

BUTTERWORTH, April 29 (Bernama) -- South African rider Lange Malcom powered his way to win the third stage of 2010 Jelajah Malaysia (JM2010) from Taiping to Auto City Juru, near here, Thursday.

Malcom, 36, of Team Medscheme clocked two hours, 59 minutes and two seconds to edge his team-mate Arran Brown who also clocked an identical time at the finishing line.

In third position was Malaysia's Mohd Zamri Salleh of the Armed Forces team, who was given the same time.

"The teamwork was really good today especially in this shorter stage compared with yesterday's race. However, the deciding stage will be this Saturday and it will be another long distance race.

"It was a good finish although it was not an easy one. To have two riders of the team in front was excellent," said Malcom.

Malcom said after yesterday's race, the team knew it would be difficult to win the yellow jersey and so concentrated on the race to win the stage.

"We did it again today which is fabulous. I really love coming to Malaysia where the first time I came here was back in 1997 with the South African national team for Le Tour de Langkawi. So far, it has been a great experience," Malcom added.

Besides winning the stage, Malcom also picked up the green jersey as leader of the overall individual points classification after accumulating 32 points although Armed Forces' Mohd Zamri Salleh and Malaysian national team's Amir Mustafa Rusli have identical points.

As in the previous stages, Giant Asia Racing Team and the Aisan Racing team were controlling the pace and rhythm of the main group to make sure that race leader David McCann retained the yellow jersey.

"The race was short and we controlled the race well. The break away did not really bothered us as we knew that it was going to be a bunch finish today," said McCann.

Indonesia's Matnur of the Polygon Sweet Nice team also retained the red jersey for king of the mountain (KOM) with eight points - just a point ahead of Johann Rabie (Team Medscheme), while Federal Territory's Suhardi Hasan is third with four points.

"I was not worried even though I did not win the KOM today. There are still some stages to go yet and I should be able to win some points," said Matnur.

National cyclist Amir Mustafa Rusli is comfortable in the white jersey of the individual Asean classification and also the blue jersey for the individual Malaysian classification.

Malaysia's continental team, Le Tua Racing Team continues to dominate the team classification.

They currently lead the overall team classification, Asean team classification and Malaysian team classification after accumulating 36 hours 37 minutes 40 seconds after three stages.

The fourth stage with a distance of 93.1km from Auto City, Juru to Sungai Petani, Kedah does not have any KOM zone but there will be one sprint zone at Padang Serai.

-- BERNAMA

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ex-coach's jail sentence cut to a year

PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal yesterday sentenced former athletics coach C. Ramanathan to 12 months' jail for molesting two junior athletes 19 years ago. A three-man bench led by Datuk Mohd Hishamudin Mohd Yunus unanimously dismissed Ramanathan's appeal against conviction, but varied the jail sentence of four years to a year, which was to run concurrently. Following yesterday's ruling, Ramanathan, 75, a former teacher, walked out a free man as he had served 10 months in Kajang Prison. Convicts get one-third remission for good behaviour while in prison. However, he will lose his pension. Hishamudin, who sat with Datuk Abdul Wahab Patail and Datuk Linton Albert, said the court found no merit to overturn the conviction. "However, in reducing the sentence, we considered Ramanathan's age and the long years the appeal has taken." Deputy public prosecutor Awang Armadajaya Awang Mahmud submitted that then High Court judge Tan Sri Abdull Hamid E...

Govt Always Gives Emphasis To Sporting Culture, Says PM

KUALA TERENGGANU, May 29 (Bernama) -- Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badaw i said the government always gives emphasis on cultivating a strong sporting culture in achieving excellence at the international level. As such, the Prime Minister said, it was important to scout for young talents in sports. "I observe that the Malaysia Games (Sukma) has become one of the important platforms to do so. "In this arena, the potentials and skills of the youngsters can be identified for development so that they can achieve greater success in sports," he said in his message in the souvenir book of the 12th Sukma from May 31 until June 9. Abdullah said he was aware that competition in sports was very keen and challenging but this did not mean that Malaysian athletes were incapable of competing at the international level. "The fact is that we have all the characteristics required to be excellent. We must inculcate a strong fighting spirit so that we don't easily surrender,...

Chance to catch Messi and company

  FAM deputy president Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah and vice president Datuk Hamidin Mohd Amin with FC Barcelona chief executive officer Antoni Rossich yesterday. Pic by Osman Adnan LIONEL Messi's presence alone could sell half the tickets despite reigning world club champions FC Barcelona's date with a Malaysian XI at the National Stadium on Aug 10 falling on the third day of Hari Raya. The much anticipated visit of the four-time European champions comes with expectations from fans who want a full star-studded line-up. "The summer will be a busy period with a lot of uncertainty with players moving away and coming in. "But yes, our plans are to bring our full team here," said FC Barcelona chief executive officer Antoni Rossich yesterday. Rossich was speaking at the announcement of the friendly match, which is part of the three-match FC Barcelona Asia Tour 2013, which sees the giants also visiting China and Thailand. Also pre...