Hollands wins battle; Dahlberg set to win war
Hollands wins battle; Dahlberg set to win war
Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Banyuwangi/East Java
Edmund Hollands continued his winning run in the penultimate stage of the nine-stage Dji Sam Soe Tour d'Indonesia, but Nathan Dahlberg's cruise to the overall championship looks unstoppable.
After Monday's stage win, Hollands maintained the pace on Tuesday to eventually win a mass sprint at the finish in a time 2 hours 26 minutes in the eighth stage, which covered 102.7 kilometers from Jember to Banyuwangi, on the eastern tip of Java Island.
The Giant Asia Racing Team rider led a group of 21 riders across the line. He was closely followed by Yevgeny Yakovlev of Polygon Sweet Nice Pro Team and Wong Ngai-Cing of the Hong Kong National Team.
The tour will continue with the final stage from Gilimanuk on Bali to Denpasar on Wednesday. The overall championship looks to be safely in the hands of Dahlberg of the Greenfields Fresh Milk team.
Dahlberg, who finished safely in the lead pack on the stage, had his overall lead at the top trimmed by a mere three seconds. He tops the standings with 33:01:02, which is 2 minutes 11 seconds ahead of Amin Suryana of Sinar Sentosa Purwakarta, who finished in 13th place compared to Dahlberg's 19th.
Dahlberg did not worry about his position. "That's nothing," he said, while adding that he was eager to finish safely.
"Anything can happen. Who knows.. so stay out of trouble," he said about the next and final stage.
"Crash or tire puncture," he added when asked about what kind of trouble that might spoil his ride. "And you have to watch out for other rivals. If not, they can break away."
The eighth stage also saw the last climbing section, which was won by Ghader Mizbani of Giant. But the overall winner was Yakovlev. The Polygon rider, who took second place, amassed 13 points, a point ahead of Mizbani in the overall standings.
Amin, who followed in fourth place behind teammate Mumuh Muksin on the day's climb, had to be content with third place and eight points.
Suwandra of the Indonesian National Team has already clinched the award as the best sprinter, ahead of Sansoko Reno Yudo of Kencana Bike Team and Rochmat Nugraha of the national team.
The Indonesian sweep in the sprint points race and Amin's third place in the climbing category should have been enough to console disappointed local fans who saw their heroes swept aside during Tuesday's stage.
Local riders found it hard to make it to the top places with only Reza Palevi of Lampung and Ali Usman of Kencana Bike Time in the top ten.
On the other hand, Dahlberg acknowledged it was the easiest stage for his so far as their rivals were busy with other pursuits. "At first, Polygon and Giant raced against each other. After that, the Filipino riders worked hard to move up," said the 39- year-old New Zealander, who said he was pondering retirement after the tour.
In the general team classification, Greenfields stayed at the top with a massive gap of 12 minutes over Polygon. Pagcor Casino of the Philippines was in third, eight minutes behind Polygon.
On Tuesday, the race officials released a list of eight cheating riders who were disqualified and eliminated from the race for drafting off of public vehicles during the seventh stage.
Pre-race contenders Suhardi Hasan of Malaysia and Ferinanto of Indonesia were also eliminated with the Malaysian failing to finish the seventh stage and the Ferinanto failing to start due to illness.
The officials also announced that Hintao Youtaporn's penalty was canceled after they confirmed that his absence from the podium ceremony in the sixth stage was because the Thai rider had been sent to the hospital.
The riders will be ferried over to Bali for the final stage of the Tour d'Indonesia, which will cover 135 kilometers from Gilimanuk to Denpasar.
Winners from Stage 1 to Stage 8:
Stage 1 (Jakarta - Lembang) Amin Suryana SSP/Ina
Stage 2 (Bandung - Tasikmalaya) Yevgeny Yakovlev PSN/Kaz
Stage 3 (Tasikmalaya - Purwokerto) Bernardo Luzon PCP/Phi
Stage 4 (Semarang - Yogyakarta) Ghader Mizbani GNT/Iri
Stage 5 (Yogyakarta - Madiun) Wong Kam-Po HKG/Hkg
Stage 6 (Madiun - Surabaya) Ryan Ariehan INA/Ina
Stage 7 (Surabaya - Jember) Edmund Hollands GNT/Aus
Stage 8 (Jember - Banyuwangi) Edmund Hollands GNT/Aus
General individual classification
1. Nathan Dahlberg GFM/Nzl
2. Amin Suryana SSP/Ina
3. Wong Ngai-Cing HKG/Hkg