Team captain Laurel wins 20km time trial, finishes fourth in points race in Pontianak
KUCHING: Sarawak’s Team Corbusier found success in the 50th Bank Kalbar Criterium Championship in Pontianak last weekend.
In their first foreign foray, team captain Laurel Lauridsen Adrian won the 20km time trial and was fourth in the points race.
The event was an eye-opener for the development squad as it was their first top level race.
The course for the points race was more akin to a drag race with two 500m straights and a hairpin turn at each end.
Every third lap of the 21-lap race had a points sprint.
Fito and Laurel attacked early but was chased down by Team Kalbar riders. They finally join a breakaway in the sixth lap.
However, they could not challenge for the big points as Kalbar riders in the break controlled the sprints.
Team Kalbar swept the podium with Laurel and Yudhi taking fourth and fifth place respectively.
It was a hard race for Charles Diking, Afiq Harun and Mohd Zahin who was dropped with four laps left.
“It was a great race but difficult due to the road conditions. I have never raced on narrow roads with sharp turns and high speed,” said Laurel.
The juniors found their 18-lap race eventful.
Seventeen-year-old Indon Yudi Sugiharto gave Corbusier a sixth-place finish with Mohd Faiz in seventh.
Azka Nabil, also 17, crashed after hitting a pothole while Wan Fahim cramped chasing the pack after getting caught behind the crash.
In the time trial, Laurel added to his reputation as a time trialist when he blazed the 20km course at an average speed of 44kph to win with Fito second.
Afiq and Zahin, on bikes with no time trial gears, would finish sixth and seventh with Charles in eight place, just ahead of Yudhi.
In the junior time trial, Yudi finished sixth with Ahmad Adzfar in seventh, making up for dropping out of the points race with stomach pains.
The hard luck story of the day belonged to 15-year-old Danial Syafiq who almost cracked the top 10 each time but was denied despite attacking hard in the points race and laying it on the line in the time trial.
Team Corbusier principal Safri Mohammed was pleased with how the team responded in their first race in unfamiliar conditions.
“They had no coach and no support crew. We really wanted to see how the juniors would perform in this situation,” said Safri.
“They also had to sort out the logistics,” said Safri.
He was grateful for Pontianak’s Team Panther in helping them with the logistics.
The race was a teaching moment as they failed to bring enough aero bars.
In the Open time trial, all their riders finished in the top 10.
Despite these, Safri conceded that they have a lot of work to do.
“The weekend’s results are basically an acknowledgement that we are far behind the national standard,” said Safri.
“We need another year before we can be competitive.”
“That is on the optimistic side,” added Safri.
Safri felt that the juniors were “quite competitive” in their first race in a “foreign land”.
“The results indicates how to bring the riders up another notch,”said Safri.
He hoped that the race will help Laurel prepare for the national championships and races like Jelajah Malaysia.
“Laurel is better than he was at last year’s Jelajah, even coach Shaiful Helmi agrees,” said Safri.