KUCHING: When there is no racing to be had on one’s home turf, a race team must travel to where there is racing to be had.
And so for Sarawak’s Team Corbusier, that meant travelling to the peninsula for a weekend of racing. It proved to be a profitable two days as they won in the Harian Metro 1Malaysia MTB Terengganu GP on Saturday.
They also scored several top 10 finishes in the Sapaura-Kencana SIC Criterium Series at Sepang on Sunday.
In the Harian Metro event at Marang, Terengganu they competed as Corbusier-PowerBar to win the U-23 Men’s XC event and Men’s Masters event.
Team captain Laurel Lauridsen Adrian and highly regarded junior Garry Tay were first and second to cross the finish line in the U-23 race to help the team start their weekend with a bang.
Evergreen Supian Nor, who is also the team’s coach, won the Masters event.
With this latest win, Supian is now the series’ points leader in the Masters’ category.
They also had national triathlete Wong Ah Thiam racing for them and he responded with a eighth placing in the Men’s Open
Laurel also finished eighth in the Men’s Elite XC race.
On Sunday, the team had the services of Belgian pro Mehdi Tigrine and Indonesian Fito Prilanji for the Sepang Criterium Series.
The event was held at the Sepang International Circuit, home of the Malaysian F1 GP.
In the U-19 race, Tay found himself in a tough field which included a squad of national juniors but he managed to hold his own.
The seven-lap 38km race saw only 28 of the 79 starters finishing the race which was won by Low Jun Ming of the Juniors in 59mins 8secs with an average speed of 38.5kph.
Low’s teammates Aele Shafri Rusli was second with the same time and Afiq Huznie Othman finished third with the main bunch 24secs down. Tay finished eighth as part of the 11-strong bunch which were all awarded the same finishing time.
Showing his strong conditioning, Tay would also feature in the afternoon’s 38km Men’s Open.
Johor’s Khairul Adha Rosul won in 59mins 4secs and Tay was only two secs off the pace in sixth.
Teammate Zaid Hanif Ismail, in his first big race for Corbusier, justified his selection with a ninth placing just one sec. behind Tay.
In the Men’s Elite race, PDRM’s duo of Fauzan Ahmad Lutfi and Nik Mohd Azwan Zulkifle broke away with Fauzan finishing in front as both riders were timed at 1hr 26mins 1sec.
The 61km race saw Terengganu’s Team TSG sprinter Harrif Saleh beat Fito for the last podium spot finishing 1min 25secs down.
Belgian Tigrine was ninth, a further nine secs. down while Laurel was 12th.
Corbusier got a podium finish in the 38km Masters race when Wong Ah Thiam placed third behind former national rider Nor Effandi Rosli and Aussie Michael Duane. Wong was two secs. off Effandi’s winning time of 25mins 45secs.
Supian was fourth, just one sec. behind Wong.
Participating in these races are part of the team’s plans to equip Laurel, Tay, Zaid and company with the necessary experience as Corbusier strives to get them considered for a future Malaysian team.
“One of our objectives is to produce riders that can make the national team,” said Safri Mohammed, Corbusier’s team principal.
WIth the team’s positive results lately, it seems this goal might just be achievable.