UAE riders made a clean sweep on the first day of the 19th GCC Road Cycling Championship by winning all the three team time trial titles at the Losail International Circuit yesterday.
The UAE team comprising Badr Neerzra al-Hamadi, Muhamed Hasan al-Marwi, Jabir al -Mansuri and Ahmed al-Mansuri won the 46km Elite class team time trial title, the feature event of the day, in 58:46 seconds as they accelerated with a speed of 47.21km per hour.
Bahrain team riders – Syed Ahmed Khalil Ibrahim, Mansur Muhamed Mansur, Ali Hasan Jawad and Saad Talal Saad – finished runners-up after completing the race in 1:1.23 seconds with a speed of 45.23km per hour. Kuwait came third followed by hosts Qatar.
Qatar riders have been preparing well for this event as they had an extensive summer training camp in Europe last year. After that they also featured in numerous events at the regional and Asian level in the winter.
Earlier in the day, UAE won their first title when Umar Abdurrazzaq, Umar Salim, Rashid Ahmed and Khalil Essa won the 23km cadet class race. They took 33 minutes 49 seconds with a speed of 41.20km per hour to reach the milestone. The Saudi Arabian team comprising Abdur Rehman, Al-Hasan Momin, Nasir al-Hamd and Mehdi al-Safaar finished second with a time of 34:40s. Oman and Bahrain finished third and fourth respectively.
UAE also won the 34.5km junior class race as Rashid Abdullah, Abdullah Abdul Karim, Mohamed Farooq and Hamd Abdullah who took 46:12s to finish the job. The Saudi team of Yusuf al-Yusuf, Hasan Ibrahim, Hasan al-Habib and Ahmed al-Hasan secured second position with a time of 48 minutes and 58 seconds. Bahrain and Oman completed the race in third and fourth positions, respectively.
Earlier the four-day competition was kicked off with an impressive opening ceremony. Today 69km junior road race will be held at Losail and on Thursday individual time trial races for cadet, junior and elite will be held.
The event ends on Friday when the cadets and elite classes have separate road race around Losail Circuit and Katara. The elite class will complete 101kms, the longest race this week, while cadet will have a 34.5km race.
Team UAE won the 46km Elite class team time trial title during the 19th GCC Road Cycling Championship at the Losail International Circuit yesterday. Bahrain finished second, while Kuwait was third.
