KUCHING: He may be the old man of Sarawak cycling but Supian Nor showed that he is still a force to be reckoned with.
Supian, in his 40s, topped 19 others on the time sheet when he clocked 20mins 55secs on the 13km course at Sunday’s FAC time trial. Supian, who is coach of Team Corbusier’s junior development squad, was eight seconds faster than his young charge Garry Tay.
Team Sonamu’s in-form Mohd. Azhar Bujang was third fastest at 21mins 29secs on the demanding course. Azhar has shown good form in the second half of the cycling season.
He had won the Singai round of the Kuching Mountain Bike Series Challenge a week ago after also finishing seventh in the KK Open mountain bike road race recently. Noted Kuching time trialist Chris Heng was seventh with 22mins 38secs, a credible result against the well-trained Corbusier and Sonamu riders.
Organisers of the time trail’s organisers were pleased with the response to the event.
“We had 20 participants for this event. We are quite happy with the turnout,” one of them said.
Team Corbusier was well represented on Sunday with Sonamu also sending a good number for the small club event.
Kuching Cycle Hub’s Tay Kok Fook designed the course which featured a demanding climb up the Politeknik hill.
“Everything ran smoothly as we had the help of Bike Connection Team whose members helped us marshal the event.”
“We thank BCT leader Kenny Tham and his crew for their help.”
One participant was former top triathlete Ahmad Joyo whose daughter Nor Faizaltul, 17 and son Mohd. Faisal, 12, also tested themselves on the course.
Faizaltul, the only female in the event, timed 31mins 35secs while Faisal, the event’s youngest rider, clocked a very credible 33mins 9secs. BCT members Edward Si and Jaccy Lee’s 14 year-old son, Nelson, was also in the event.
“He really wanted to participate so we had to let him,” said mom Jaccy. “This will let him experience what bike racing is like. It is safer compared to road racing with so many riders so close together,” said Jaccy.
The Kuching High student clocked 27mins 27secs to finish 17th out of 20.
“It was an exciting experience,” said Nelson, who despite cycling for just a year, has already done rides of 100km with his parents.
With youngsters showing such interest, it seems possible that the time trial might have a future in Kuching cycling.
Organisers are hopeful they can do this on a regular basis.
“Some participants said that it would be good to do this regularly. It is good to have such support.”