HARRIF Saleh bagged his second stage win in two weeks, leading Terengganu Cycling Team (TSG) to their third one-two finish in the Jelajah Malaysia, after winning a bunch sprint in Stage Five in Kuala Klawang yesterday.
Skydive Dubai’s Rafa Chtioui secured his first UCI status race win after cruising to 10th place yesterday, his lead in the general classification unaffected, while Asian riders’ classification winner Burr Ho of Hong Kong and TSG’s Saiful Anuar Abdul Aziz both scored their first UCI race classification wins.
Pegasus Cycling’s Dani Lesmana of Indonesia took the red jersey as the points classification winner.
But Lesmana’s teammate Arin Iswana's departure from the race the night before to return to Indonesia to compete in the regional games in that country, gifted Harrif his second points classification win in the Jelajah Malaysia.
Yesterday’s stage saw a sprinkling of attacks from the start but none were effective, apart from one final push by Malaysia’s Mustazlee Mohd Ishak and Uzbekistan’s Sergey Medvedev in the final 70km. The pair were caught with seven kilometres in the 150.3 km stage remaining, setting up the bunch sprint.
That left a straight forward final sprint for Harrif to be led out this time by elder brother Zamri, who had earlier won Stages Two and Three.
There was simply no match as TSG lined up the brothers for the final sprint, with Harrif crossing the finish line just ahead of Zamri while Skydive Dubai's Sofiane Haddi was left trailing in third.
Harrif, who ended his winless drought that stretched over a year by winning the final stage of the Tour of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates two weeks ago, said: “Overall, I’m happy with my performance. We showed that we’re improving and with a lot of focus on our goals, we are starting to get the required results again.”
“Today was another good job by the team and it shows consistency. We are doing it all together and we’re united.”
Of his green jersey win, Harrif, 26, said he felt he deserved it after securing the points to take the lead officially in the first intermediate sprint yesterday in Kuala Pilah.
“I was just one point behind Arin and the plan was to take the win today. But I started the day needing to clear my conscience, so I took two points in the first intermediate sprint when I got third spot, so I was in the lead by then and distanced myself with the points for the stage win.”
TSG captain Zamri, 30, said the Jelajah Malaysia was the last race of the year for the team and they will now go into training mode with the main target of the Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) in March.
“We’ll have the Tour of the Philippines next month to prepare for LTdL and then hopefully we get into the Tour of Dubai. Right now, what’s important is that the confidence is back in the team and we’re all clicking together.”
Chtioui’s overall win was one that the 28-year old Tunisian himself didn't expect, but thanked his teammates for the hard work to secure the victory in the four stages that remained after he won the opening stage last Saturday.
“I really didn't expect to win. In the first stage, I was behind and my teammate Adil Jelloul was in the breakaway. In the final kilometres I managed to catch up and when I saw him, I thought I was going to lead him out for the sprint to take second spot. I didn’t expect to be in front.”