Terengganu and Viking show the way

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KUCHING: The Sarawak Health Road Challenge got underway Friday with MSN Terengganu taking the team time trial event in rather emphatic fashion.

Racing in wet and windy conditions, the highly fancied East Coast team lived up to their reputation when their five-men squad crossed the line in 19mins 1.9secs to take the win.

Their nearest challenger was Kuching’s Team Viking who surprised local rival Team Corbusier when they posted the day’s second fastest time at 19mins 31.06secs.

The final podium placing went to Team Proucell Cycling who clocked 19mins 49.03secs for the 15km distance.

Team Corbusier, Sarawak’s only UCI team, was tipped to be the best local challenger but fell just short with 19mins 59.63secs for fourth place.

The rules stipulated that the five-rider teams must have at least two riders who are either juniors, women or masters.

Corbusier fielded their Indonesian junior Yudhi Sugiharto and top masters competitor Supian Nor to complement captain Laurel Lauridsen Adrian, Fito Prilanji and Team Malaysia’s Amirul Anwar Jafri.

Unfortunately, Supian could not maintain the hot pace set by the leading trio and was forced to drop out of the squad.

“Terengganu was just too strong and we did not expect to have Supian blow up so early,” Corbusier coach Shaiful Helmi conceded.

Fifth fastest was Kuching’s Team Saxon Racing at 20mins 24.78secs while another Kuching team Sonamu finished eighth out of 11 teams with a time of 22mins 28.37secs.

Brunei was seventh with a time of 22mins 3.45secs.

In the inter-agency category, the Unimas quartet took the title with a time of 23mins 36.97secs to edge JPJ Sarawak by a mere 0.77sec.

DBKU City Cycling Team was third out of 13 teams when they posted 23mins 47.75secs.

The junior men compete in the 64km road race on Saturday followed by the masters and women’s Open on Saturday.

Viking’s Reza Nuralhman is the defending junior men’s champion.

Meanwhile, the blue ribbon men’s Open title race on Sunday has been lengthened from 104km to 114km.