MELAKA - Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia (UPNM) rider Mohamad Afi Danial Ramli Abu Bakar continued his dominance in the second stage of the Le Tour de IPT (LTdIPT) 2023 today, when he retained all three jerseys that he won in the first stage yesterday in the 60km criterium race today.
The 19-year-old clocked a time of 1 hour 31 minutes and 44 seconds, leaving his nearest competitor from Kolej Kemahiran Tinggi MARA Ledang (KKTML) Muhammad Nazirul Aniq Abd Rahman behind by a difference of three seconds while third place went to KKTML's Muhammad Hariz Md Hazri.
In the criterium race involving 30 laps at the Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM), the rider from Kota Tinggi, Johor also bagged the White Jersey (best under-21 rider) and the Green Jersey (Sprint King) besides holidng on to the Yellow Jersey.
"Today's race I think was very dangerous actually because there are quite a lot of sharp corners and two or three U-turns. I just told my teammates to try to be at the front to avoid the risk of an accident at the start.
"I felt very energetic in today's race because I know where I have my abilities, today it has been proven but I can't be too calm because many will change their strategy to grab the jerseys and tomorrow I will pedal even more," he told reporters.
Commenting on the next stage tomorrow, Afi said he is determined to win the Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountain).
Meanwhile, UPNM also maintained their excellence in today's second stage by defending the King of the Mountain title won in yesterday's race through their rider Ahmad Irfan Abdul Hamid who won the Polka Dot Jersey.
"The criterium course it is quite difficult because it is not a straight road race but has many turns in addition to hilly stretches and requires tactics," said the rider from Kota Tinggi, Johor.
Irfan said he was grateful to be able to win the jersey today and for tomorrow's stage he will correct all his mistakes especially from the aspect of communication with his teammates to defend the jersey.
Tomorrow's competition will continue with the third stage starting at Politeknik Port Dickson to Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) Serdang involving a distance of 92.8km while the final race on Tuesday starts at Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN) and ends at the Higher Education Ministry (KPT) Putrajaya (83.5km).
LTdIPT 2023 is the first edition of the higher education institutions cycling race tour with the participation of 78 riders from various public and private institutions of higher education (IPT) involving 16 teams with four stages of competition covering a total distance of 332.7km. - BERNAMA