BALING, Sept 25 — Bolton Equities Black Spoke team rider George Jackson produced a scintillating final sprint to win Stage Three of the Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) 2023 from Jeli to Baling today.
The New Zealander turned on the power in the final 200 metres (m) to cross the finish line of the 183.1-kilometre (km) race ahead of Enrico Zanoncello (Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizane) and Carlos Blanco Canal (Euskaltel-Euskadi).
The race commissaries credited the same time of four hours, 14 minutes 13 seconds to 56 of the top 121 riders who completed the race in a group.
“I am very happy to get it done after my team did so much work for me today. I had (teammate) Matt Bostock lead me out and I was fourth in the last corner, I just ran at the wheel a bit then... went as hard as I could.
“It was super hilly and I’m a big guy so I had to surf the wheels a lot and just look for cover. But then, it rained and then it was hot, we had everything thrown at us. We will fight for another stage and we also have our guys competing for the general classification (GC),” said the 23-year-old finished 20th in Stage One and 19th in Stage Two.
Meanwhile, national team rider Nur Aiman Muhammad Rosli rode an excellent race to seize the white jersey (Best Asian Rider) after crossing the finish line in sixth place today.
Nur Aiman has the same time of 12:55.15s as the second-best Asian rider Thanakhan Chaiyasombat of Thailand Cycling Team and Masaki Yamamoto of JCL Team Ukyo in the race for the jersey.
“I am speechless as this is an achievement for me and the Malaysian team. I did not do this for myself but for the people of Malaysia and my whole team.
“It was not planned but I hung in there and tried to do the best I could as today’s race was over a hilly terrain. So, I just stayed with the peloton,” he said.
Tomorrow’s 140.2km Stage Four from Bukit Mertajam to Meru Raya, Perak will have three sprint zones in Bagan Serai, Talang and Sungai Siput and one category three climb in Kuala Kangsar. — Bernama
