THREE MUSKETEERS: Terengganu’s UCI pro outfit TSG riders after winning the Sarawak GP last Sunday at the FAC course. They are (from left) Nor Umardi Rosdi, GP champ Saiful Anuar Aziz and Shobry Abdullah.
KUCHING: The Sarawak leg of the Malaysian GP circuit over the weekend at the Kuching Politeknik’s FAC course saw peninsular racers sweep all the titles.
Team Corbusier put forward a strong case as the top Sarawak team with top 20 placing’s in the elite events.
As expected, Terengganu’s UCI pro outfit TSG dominated the men’s 184km race. Saiful Anuar Aziz took the race with a last lap solo effort with teammates Nor Umardi Rosdi and Shobry Abdullah second and sixth respectively.
TSG also showed why they have been the top Asian team in the UCI rankings for three months now with a dominating performance in the 35.7km individual time trial.
Averaging 46.82kph, Umardi blazed the course in 45mins 23secs to triumph while Saiful and Shobry finished fifth and seventh respectively.
Corbusier was the top-placing Sarawak team in the road race when SEA Games rider Ng Yong Li crossed the line in fifth place.
Bolstering their case as the top Sarawak team, Corbusier had five riders in the top 20. UITM student Laurel Lauridsen finished 14th ahead of SEA Games rider Razif Salleh in 15th spot. Shafari Abdul Malik and Adrian Chua gave Corbusier the 17th and 18th places.
Ng was third in the time trial with Lauridsen finishing sixth fastest.
MasWings’ Syamsul Ali Hamdan, one of Sarawak’s best racers, was the top Sarawakian in the road race.
Despite their strong performance, Corbusier will not start next season with the Sarawak Closed title as rookie team 3GX won in an upset.
None of Corbusier’s top five riders qualified for the event as they are not Sarawakians with Laurel being Sabahan.
In their first road event, 3GX set up two juniors to breakaway with 16-year-old Garry Tay becoming Sarawak champion when he outsprinted 17-year-old Andy Kueh. To show his win was no fluke, Tay also placed 10th in the GP’s 92km junior race.
The Kuching Town student is enjoying a superb rookie season which saw him win the February race at the FAC course and put up a strong showing in the Lundu Mountain Bike Challenge.
Meanwhile, Team Viking manager Mohd Affendy Kadri was quite pleased with how his junior squad performed.
“This is their first big national-level race, so I am quite happy with how they raced,” he said.
St Joseph Secondary’s third former Muhd Fitri Hassan was their top rider.
Viking had high hopes that 16-year-old Norismira Azeman would do well in the women’s events but a pre-race injury scuppered the Kuching High student’s chances and she was also forced to abandon the road race.
“I told her it was better to stop as we don’t want to aggravate the injury further,” Affendy said.
Viking is the oldest name in the Kuching peloton, being formed in 1981 and has been racing every season since.
Interesting times
These are interesting times for bicycle racing in Sarawak with the sport undergoing a renaissance. Even former state riders like Liu Sim Fook and Stephen Tsai from 1980’s Team Elite are making a comeback. The Elite name may even appear in next season’s races.
For Liu, the difference in bike technology is like night and day.
“The bikes today are so much lighter. Back then, they were around 24lbs but today, they are lighter by seven lbs or more,” he noted.
“You can go so much faster with a lot less effort.”
Liu started out with pure passion for the sport.
“I remember we used to go to Robinson’s to buy those RM8 football shoes, modify them and screw in the cleats. A puncture means you double up on your friend’s bike and ride back with your hand guiding the other bike,” he recalled.
For Tsai, joining Elite was a day to remember. He trained with the team for a year before their captain Mohd Asmara made a jersey for him. It’s time for the relevant organisations like event organisers to recognise the rising popularity of the sport. Sarawak have done quite well, notably in mountain biking.
Teenager Jong Chin Kieng, with sponsorship from WG Cycles, was a much-feared name in Malaysian mountain-biking in 2004. Back then, Sarawak also had Ghazali Hakiki, a nationally-ranked downhiller.
Junaidah Juss, a top Malaysian women mountain biker, is a member of the Sarawak team as well.
In this year’s SUKMA, Addy Ammin Shahriman Othman and Rosnina Minggu won their XC events. However, road racing has never been kind to Sarawak with the Sarawak GP showing the disparity compared to the other states.
Hopefully, an upcoming statewide talent scouting campaign would help Sarawak do better in road races while maintaining their performance in the dirt.
The news that Nurazimah Abdul Rashid and Junaidah Juss have been named to the Malaysian women’s road team will hopefully give Sarawak road racers a boost.
Cycling also needs more sponsors like the Kadri Group, longtime sponsors of Viking.
Corbusier’s is fortunate to have team principal Safri Mohammed sponsoring them through his PU Architect firm. The architect is a big cycling booster and has a world class collection of racing machines. He is hopeful he can sponsor more gifted cyclists.
“We need to keep those talented riders from leaving. They left because they don’t have a job that allows them to train and work at the same time,” Safri noted.
He sees Corbusier as a transition point for top cyclists where they can continue their training until they are picked up by bigger teams.