Celis takes second stage win

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Vidal Celis of Le Tua Cycling team picked up his second stage win of the 2011 Jelajah Malaysia, a long 221km from Pekan to Bentong. He also took over the leader's yellow jersey in commanding fashion.

Celis, who had previous stints with Footon-Servetto and Orbea and who is a familiar face in Le Tour de Langkawi, once again proved his sprinting prowess to cross the line first ahead of the bunch which included last year's champion David McCann (Giant Kenda) and previous stage winners Mehdi Sohrabi (Tabriz Petrochemical) and Ioannis Tamouridis (SP Tableware).

"I went all out today even though it was the longest stage in the Jelajah Malaysia this year," said Celis, who had several second-placed finishes in several stages of last year's Le Tour de Langkawi.

"I saw the opportunity at the end and I just went for it."

With the race being flagged off by Malaysian Prime Minister Dato' Sri Najib Tun Razak, the race was a little quiet at the start up until after Ubai Secondary School when three riders made the breakaway.

The three riders were Paul Samuel (Le Tua Cycling team), Mohd Zamri Salleh (Malaysian Army) and Priya Prasetyo (Indonesia) who at one time carved out a lead of well over six minutes.

The three lads worked hand in hand to push forward for Samuel to take the first sprint at Gambang as Mohd Zamri then picked up the points at the first Cat. 4 KOM at Maran.

The second sprint at Maran - almost to the first 100km of the race - was picked up by Priya as the peloton seems to be content to sit back and wait for things to unfold.

Suddenly a burst of activity sprang up in the midst of another downpour and the three riders were eventually caught by the main group in Tualang, just prior to the third sprint in Karak which was picked up by Amir Mustafa (Police).

Immediately after, a big group of around 35 riders went into the attack and they succeded in breaking away and leaving behind the yellow jersey of Anuar Manan as well as Mohd Hariff Salleh (Terengganu Cycling team).

With less than 50km to go, the breakaway group had little difficulty in carving out a sizeable lead where just after reaching the edge of the town of Bentong, it had more than three minutes advantage.

"We made a lot of mistakes today. Perhaps, we worked a little too hard in the first few days and that was the reason we could not keep up," said an obviously disappointed Hariff after the race.

While Hariff still maintained his hold of the sprinters' green jersey, the white jersey for the best ranked Malaysian rider is now in the hands of Amir Mustafa.

"I did not expect to take this at all. There are a lot of riders in the fray so we will see what happens tomorrow," said Amir.

The blue jersey for the best ranked Asian rider moved to Mehdi who said, "It was a good race today and I'm not at all surprised with what happened today. There are a lot of riders who can win the yellow jersey."

With two climbs on the day in Maran and Lanchang, Kenichi Suzuki (Aisan) maintained his red jersey going into the final day of the Jelajah Malaysia tomorrow - a 175km ride from Batu Caves to Nilai.

"It is tough to ride with the news of the tsunami and the earthquake back in Japan but we try hard to make sure that there is at least some positive news this week to bring home," Suzuki said.

In the meantime Datuk Naim Mohamad, the Chief Operating Officer of Jelajah 1 Malaysia 2011, expresses his condolences to the victims of a devastating tsunami that swept over Sendai city in the North Eastern Japan caused by a massive 8.9 magnitude earthquake.

"I'm saddened to learn that such devastating earthquake and tsunami had struck today. I would like to express my sincere sympathy and condolence to those lost lives and victims. I also urge all international sport organisations to offer necessary humanitarian aid to help Japan recover soonest from this disaster," said Datuk Naim.

The Jelajah 1 Malaysia carnivals in Pekan, Pahang and Nilai, Negeri Sembilan will open a special booth for Malaysians to contribute assistance in monetary terms or in kind which will be forwarded to the Japanese Cycling Federation or a fund established by the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"We hope Malaysians will contribute to all efforts undertaken by the Malaysian Government to help the People of Japan and the Japanese Government to go through this challenging period," said Datuk Naim.

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