Tabriz Petrochemical rider Ghader Mizbani sealed the overall victory in the Tour of Borneo with a supreme attacking display in the final stage from Kundasang to Penampang. - Bernama
KOTA KINABALU: Tabriz Petrochemical rider Ghader Mizbani sealed the overall victory in the Tour of Borneo with a supreme attacking display in the final stage from Kundasang to Penampang, which saw his team-mate Mehdi Sohrabi take the stage victory after a seven-man breakaway.
Mehdi outsprinted Uzbekistan national rider Ruslan Kadimov down the finish line to win the 98km Stage Five in 2’14:48. Joseph Cooper (Huon Salmon Genesys) was third place.
Ghader initiated the attack after 32km of racing from Kundasang, with team-mates Hossein Askari and Mirsamad Pourseyedi as well as Cooper, who was looking to consolidate his third placing in the overall standings, and John Ebsen (Synergy Baku Cycling) joining in.
It was not long before Mehdi and Ruslan joined in to make it a seven-man breakaway until the finish.
“The plan today was to get a stage win ... that’s why we attacked despite holding the overall lead,” said Ghader.
Ghader thus wins the overall title in 17’31:09 – with a huge 6:28 lead over third-placed Cooper.
Poursayedi grabbed second overall just eight seconds behind his team-mate.
Tabriz’s show of strength on the penultimate stage on Wednesday – where they rode up two Category One climbs to rack up a one-two finish (Ghader and Mirsamad) – also earned them the mountain classification and Best Asian Rider jersey for Ghader.
The one that got away was the points classification green jersey. That went to Anuar Manan (Synergy Baku), despite him losing the stage yesterday to Mehdi, who finished second in the points classification.
Anuar, who did not a single stage, accumulated 44 points – one more than Mehdi. Paul van der Ploeg (Team Corbusier) was third with 35 points.
“I’m happy with my performance here although I’ve yet to regain my form after my back problem in May. I hope to get back into shape for the coming races,” said Anuar, who will compete in the Tour of East Java (Sept 4-7) and Tour of China I and II (Sept 14-21 and Sept 24-30).
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