The UAE juggernaut kept on rolling as their riders finished one-two-three on the podium after the sixth stage of the GCC Cycling Tour at Losail yesterday.

Riders Tareq Obaid Murad, Ahmed al-Mansouri and Yousif Mirza yet again put up a dominating show to take the top three positions, respectively, by clocking 2:37.41s in the 108.8km stage around Losail and helped UAE remain atop the overall team classification, ahead of Bahrain and Qatar.

UAE’s Mohamed al-Murawwi retained the leaders’ yellow jersey, while Ahmed al-Mansouri retained the green jersey for maximum points. Their compatriot Talal Sudain also retained the white jersey for the best young rider. Qatar rider Moosa finished the nine-lap stage in fourth spot.

Qatar cyclist in action during the stage.

 

“It is fantastic to have yellow jersey for our home stages of the tour. We have clinched all the three jerseys here… it’s a superb feeling. We are a good team of riders and our strategies are working fine,” said a delighted al-Murawwi.

“It is a nice feeling that I have the yellow jersey and now it’s my and my teammates’ responsibility to finish the tour at the top,” added the No 1 sprinter of the UAE team.

Yousif Mirza, who is four seconds behind tour leader Mohamed al-Murawwi, sounded happy with his team’s performance: “It was a superb show by my team. It was a flat circuit so we planned it for our sprinters Tareq and Ahmed and they finished their job superbly.”

Talking about his own performance, the 24-year-old rider said: “I am just four seconds behind my friend Mohamed right now but as we are going to UAE for the next two stages where you will have climbs in Al Ain and the track will be slightly different and I am sure there will be some changes in the positions.”

Qatar’s best hope for the podium finish, Ahmed Elbourdainy, was disappointed but overall happy with his team’s effort.

“It was a good day for the race as the weather was also not very harsh. We had a good start as Ahmed was leading till the last one kilometre, but the UAE riders defeated him in the last sprint and he finished just outside the podium.

“We are a good team but we don’t have good sprinters and that cost us on plain courses like here. UAE riders are very good in sprint and they once again proved that by claiming all the three podium finishes today,” he added. “I am concentrating on individual time trials and endurance races. I am not a sprint specialist so it was difficult to win here against the strong UAE riders. Today I finished sixth. Hopefully, I will improve my performance during the coming stages in the UAE.”

Qatar coach Branko Fillip said he was happy with the way his boys performed. “It was a good race for us. Though I was expecting a podium spot, I am satisfied with our show today. I think we controlled the race as Ahmed was in the lead till the last one kilometre. It’s not something special but a satisfactory race for me.”

Fillip also admitted that sprint was his team’s weakness: “We were on the front and we know how to win. Technically too, we were good but our main problem is we don’t have good sprinters. Moosa is good, he is fast but not so fast to win against strong riders of UAE. We need more young riders but hopefully with Andre (technical director of QCF) with us we will get more races and eventually will have some good young riders.”

Talking about his Qatar’s overall position in team classification, he said: “We are still in second spot behind UAE and Bahrain. We can’t beat UAE as they are very strong. We lost some points during the Saudi Arabia stages but we made some points here and hopefully we will do better in the UAE.”

 

 

 

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