KUALA LUMPUR: Terengganu Polygon Cycling Team's (TSG) Harrif Saleh was left rueing what could have been a good outing for him in the fourth stage of Petronas Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) yesterday,
Harrif was in a position to finish strongly but was forced to avoid a crash roughly 500m from the finish line at Meru Raya which took out his lead-out man Youcef Reguigui.
He was able to avoid making contact with other riders, but subsequently lost momentum.
"My speed was fast and I was in a good position within the top 10," said Harrif.
"I consider myself very lucky to avoid the crash but once I had lost momentum there was no way I could catch up so close to the finish.
"It is a shame because I was feeling good and know the finish pretty well because I had won here before. I guess it was just not to be.
"The competition this year is very stiff, you can see that we have a different winner in every stage."
Harrif added that he was hoping to follow the wheel of Alpecin Deceuninck's Jakub Mareczko before the incident happened.
Mareczko went on to win the fourth stage which saw riders covering 137.9km from Sabak Bernam to Meru Raya. Harrif won in Ipoh (Meru Raya) during the 2020 edition of LTdL.
National team's Kee Zhe Yie was the best Malaysian in the stage, crossing the line 19th in the same group as Mareczko.
The fifth stage today, which starts in Kuala Kangsar and ends in Kulim (172.0km), should offer Harrif another crack at the podium as it is also relatively flat with only one categorised climb (cat 2) at Sumpitan.
RESULTS
Stage 4 - Sabak Bernam to Meru Raya (137.9km)
Stage: 1. Jakub Mareczko (Alpecin Deceuninck) 3:15:37s 2. Rudiger Selig (Lotto Soudal) 3. Eduard-Micahel Grosu (Drone Hopper-Androni Giocattoli) 4. Juan Sebastian Molano (UAE Team Emirates) 5. Erlend Blikra (Uno-X Pro Cycling Team) - all same time.
General classification (yellow jersey): 1. Ivan Sosa (Movistar) 14:34:01s 2. Hugh Carthy (EF Education-EasyPost) +23s 3. Einer Rubio (Movistar) +2:02s
Asian riders classification (white jersey): 1. Andrey Zeits (Astana) 14:36:34s 2. Jambaljamts Sainbayar (Terengganu Polygon Cycling Team) +1s 3. Ariya Phounsavanth (Thailand Continental) +5:50s
Sprinters classification (green jersey): 1 Gleb Syritsa (Astana Qazaqstan) 27 points 2. Erlend Blikra (Uno-X Pro Cycling Team) 25pts 3. Jakub Mareczko (Alpecin Deceuninck) 24pts
Climbers classification (red jersey): 1. Nur Aiman Zariff (Terengganu Polygon Cycling Team) 29ts 2. Ivan Sosa (Movistar) 25pts 3. Hugh Carthy (EF Education-EasyPost) 24pts.