Iranians regain lead in Tour d'Indonesia

Suherdjoko ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Semarang   |  Thu, 11/27/2008 9:48 PM  |  Sports

Iranian cyclists regained their winning form by overcoming steep climbs along the 143.8 kilometer route from Semarang to Yogyakarta to dominate the podium in the fifth stage of the Tour d'Indonesia on Thursday.

The top three spots went to Ghader Mizbai Iranagh, Mehdi Faridi and Amir Zargari, all from Trabriz Petrochemical Team of Iran.

Iranagh pedaled through the tough climbs in Selo, Boyolali regency, to finish first at Denggung, in Sleman, Yogyakarta in 4 hours, 1 minute and 45 seconds.

This result gave him the best total time of 19 hours, 29 minutes, 58 seconds and entitled him to take the yellow jersey from teammate Hossain Jahanbanian.

Only four seconds behind was teammate Amir Zargari, while Jahanbanian slumped to third place with a 59-second gap after finishing seventh in Thursday's stage.

"I think this is a tough stage for most cyclists. But we are happy that we can win this stage and the overall standing. This is a good result," Iranagh said, as quoted by Antara news agency.

"We have good teamwork, too," he added.

Amir Zargari said he hoped his team could maintain their lead in the remaining seven stages.

Zargari said that as Iranian riders are specialists in climb tracks, the flat routes in the next stages would favor the non-Iranian riders.

"They could win the flat tracks. But we will keep fighting to stay atop the leaderboard," Zargari said.

In the race on Thursday, Indonesian cyclist Endra Wijaya of the Customs Cycling Club stole the show from the Iranians by winning the King-of-the-Mountain race at the 83.6 kilometer mark
at the Selo climb, leaving the overall climb leader Zargari in second place in the contest and Mehdi Faridi third.

"I know the Selo climb very well because I trained a lot there," Endra said.

Endra also took the red-and-white jersey after recording the fastest time among the local cyclists, with 4 hours, 3 minutes and 3 seconds.

Second place and third place went to Ari Pratama and Hari Fitrianto, respectively.

The cyclists will rest in Yogyakarta for a day before resuming the 170.9 kilometer sixth stage from Yogyakarta to Madiun, East Java, on Saturday.
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