Sprited: Nur Aisyah Zubir competing in the road race event.
THE race may have ended early for national road cyclist Nur Aisyah Zubir but she will fight on.
The 26-year-old Olympic debutant, who was the first Malaysian woman to compete in the road race event at the Olympics, was forced to end the 158km race early due to cramps in both legs.
Aisyah suffered the misfortune as she was trying to catch up with the peloton about 90km into the race that started and ended at the Pont d’lena bridge in Paris.
But the rider from Terengganu’s spirit remains intact as she has vowed to come back stronger from her maiden Olympics appearance.
“I’m disappointed that I did not get to finish the race, I was aiming to complete the event,” said Aisyah.
“But this is not my final fight, I will be back after this.”
During the race, Aisyah’s pace was affected when she had to dodge an accident that occurred next to her.
“There was a crash next to me when I was around 90km, right before the steepest part of the route.
“I lost pace there because I had to brake hard to avoid the crash, and the other riders were in their attacking mode.
“This made it hard for me to catch up with the rest of the pack,” she said.
The race route featured cobbled sections, roughly 1,700m of elevation, as well as tight and technical sections towards the finish.
Aisyah said her efforts to push hard and get close to tailing the peloton failed as both her legs began to cramp up.
“When I was trying to catch up, I started to get cramps in my left leg, followed by the right leg and there was nothing I could do at that point in the race,” she said.
American rider Kristen Faulkner, who is a former rower, finished first with a time of 3’59:23s to win the gold. Holland’s former Olympic champion Marianne Vos took silver and Belgium’s Lotte Kopecky claimed the bronze medal.
