Foreign teams hope to race Tour d'Indonesia again
Foreign teams hope to race Tour d'Indonesia again
Musthofid, The Jakarta Post/Denpasar, Bali
"We are coming back next year," Qiu Jijin, team manager of
Taiwan-based Giant Asia Racing Team, said.
Giant managed to take three stages thanks to their top riders
Iranian Ghader Mizbani and Australian Edmund Hollands, but with
only three healthy riders for most of the stages, the Taiwan-
based trade team finished in just fifth place in the team
classification of the Dji Sam Soe Tour d'Indonesia.
Giant had been jolted early when two riders withdrew. It
resorted to local cyclists but they had little impact on the team
as both crashed out of the tour early. However, the team hopes to
be better prepared next year. "We will make better preparations
for the tour next year," Jijin said.
The Malaysian contingent arrived with two teams, but in the
end it was only its senior team - Malaysia A - that survived
through to the final stage and finished a mediocre 14th of 17
teams in the final standings.
Given its challenging route, the next Tour d'Indonesia, should
it be held, will likely lure the Malaysian teams to return.
"It's a very challenging tour. It's even a bit harder to
tackle than (Malaysia's) Tour de Langkawi," Arsyad Firdaus,
Malaysia's team manager, said.
While pushing the more experienced riders to rise to the
challenge for the top places, Arsyad was keen on giving his
younger riders a chance to develop their cycling toughness. "It
is good for our development plan for the juniors," he said.
The Philippines, which was represented by its pro team Pagcor
Casino Filipino, also hailed the tour's competitiveness, however
they filed complaints about partiality in the judging.
"This (complaint) is not about winning or losing. This is
about consistency in imposing the rules," Carslos Luis, a Pagcor
official, said.
After seeing Bernardo Luzon win the third stage, the team had
to compete with just four riders following the disqualification
of Albert Primero from the tour because he was caught drafting
(riding in the slipstream) behind public vehicles in the fourth
stage.
While conceding to the disqualification, the team complained
about late notification, which was announced only at the start of
fifth stage which was held after the riders had a one-day break.
Pagcor was still able to show its mettle by finishing in third
place behind Greenfields Fresh Milk of the Netherlands and Plygon
Sweet Nice of Indonesia.
Greenfields had a double victory with its ace Nathan Dahlberg
winning the individual category ahead of local rider Amin Suryana
and Wong Ngai-Cing of Hong Kong.
Dahlberg and his team's cruise to victory -- practically
sealed as early as the third stage -- has also raised concern
about the need to change the sequence of the stages in the tour.
Although he failed to win a stage, Dahlberg kept his pace to
victory, benefiting partly from the fact that the tour offered
the first two stages with big climbs.
The 1,503-kilometer Tour d'Indonesia from Jakarta to Bali,
which encompassed routes in West Java, Central Java, Yogyakarta,
East Java and Bali drew a lot of spectators during its 10-day
race featuring 84 riders form eight local and seven foreign
teams.
Amin's ride to second place behind Dahlberg appeared to
attract Giant to hire the Subang-based rider.
Despite failure to win the individual and team titles,
Indonesia's riders had something to cheer about with Suwandra,
Sansoko Reno Yudo and Rochmat Nugraha emerging as the best three
sprinters.
While the enthusiasm of local cycling fans received a thumbs-
up, traffic marshaling and media facilities will need more
attention from the organizers.