Morning mist still covered the hills near Lake Singkarak in Solok regency, West Sumatra, on Tuesday when 95 cyclists participating in the 2018 Tour de Singkarak began preparing their bikes for the third stage of the tournament.

Hundreds of locals gathered at Lake Singkarak’s dock, which was used as the starting line of the third stage. They were cheering on their favorite cyclists, who will embark on a 150.4-kilometer journey that will take them around West Sumatra’s biggest lake before reaching the finish line at the Istano Basa Pagaruyung cultural site in Tanah Datar regency.

The lake has long been associated with the race, which started in 2009. There are eight stages in this year’s edition, spanning a total of 1,267 km across 16 regencies and cities. The entire event kicked off on Nov. 4 and will take eight days to complete.

Besides offering tough challenges for cyclist, the race aims to promote West Sumatra’s tourism.

Of the 107 cyclists competing in the tournament, which is classified as 2.2 race by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), 95 have made it to the second and longest stage in the entire competition. The 204.1 km track from the city of Sawahlunto to Dharmasraya regency had forced several participants to quit.

Oleksandr Polivoda from China’s Ningxia Sports Lottery-Livall Cycling (NLC) topped the podium by completing the second stage with a time of 4:47:30. Germany’s Robert Muller of Laos’ Nex CCN Cycling and Ariya Phounsavath from Thailand’s Continental Cycling team trailed in second and third place, respectively.

Indonesia’s cyclists failed to repeat their success in the 140.5-km first stage, which started at Bukittinggi and ended in Sijunjung regency and was dominated by Jamalidin Novardianto from the PGN Cycling team. He clocked a time of 3:25:24 to secure first place, making him Indonesia’s second cyclist to win the first stage of the tournament, after Ferinanto in 2011.

When asked what prompted participating cyclists to return to the race every year, many conceded that West Sumatra’s stunning natural vistas always lured them back.

Robert Muller, who won the sprint category (green jersey) last year, said the entire race was different from any other competition he had experienced.

“The whole race was so nice; the people, the landscape — everything. [West Sumatra] is so different from Europe. I was successful last year [by winning the green jersey], so I wanted to make a comeback [this year],” the 32-year-old said before the start of third stage.

“The level [difficulty] is good. We [face] mountains every day. I like the spectators on the side. There are so many people cheering for us. I will try to win [at least] one stage this year.”

The eight-day race has not been easy for cyclists as they must travel long distances from their hotel to the starting line of each phase, which are located in different parts of the province.

Despite the challenges, Netherland’s Lex Nederlof, who is the oldest competitor of the tournament, said the challenge was what made the tournament more interesting.

“Our team [Nex CNN Cycling] is doing OK so far. But it’s going to be hard for the rest of the competition. We have a lot of traveling [to do], so it makes it double hard. But still, I am really happy to be back in the tour,” the 52-year-old said, adding that this year was the seventh time he had participated in the Tour de Singkarak.

The tournament is joined by racers of various ages. Nineteen-year-old South Korean Kim Euro of LX Cycling is the youngest of all the competitors. He just started competing in the elite class this year.

Australian Jesse Ewart of Sapura Cyling Malaysia won the third stage of the tournament. He had also earned the green, polka dot and yellow jerseys for being the king of sprint and mountain respectively.

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