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IT was a reflection on history as Mehdi Sohrabi outsprinted Anuar Manan to bag victory in Stage Two of the Jelajah Malaysia, over 192.7 kilometres under scorching heat from Ipoh to Sungai Petani yesterday.
Iranian Tabriz Petrochemical rider Mehdi, overall winner of this race in 2007, pulled on the green jersey as the points classification leader after a sensational 28-man breakaway covered almost 100 kilometres by themselves to put a 14-minute cushion between them and the rest of the pack.
This bunch must prove decisive to the eventual outcome of the race, since it included all main protagonists -- Sohrabi, his two Tabriz teammates Hossein Askari and Ghader Mizbani, defending champion Tonton Susanto and his Le Tua teammate Ryan Ariehaan, Savings & Loans hot favourite Jai Crawford, Azad University's Eugen Wacker and Ride Sport's Irish climber David McCann.
Yesterday's result, which had Azad University's Anuar tied on 15 points in the battle for the points classification with Sohrabi, also gave the defending points classification winner a clear advantage over the rest of his rivals in the battle of the sprinters.
"I'm actually a little disappointed because I was outsprinted by Mehdi for the win and I still haven't won a stage this year. But we had a good understanding in the breakaway.
" I spoke to Mehdi early on and said since we had three each from both our teams, we should stop the others from attacking by getting two of our riders to make a strong pace ahead of the breakaway," said Anuar.
"This worked and it just left us both to fight out the points at the intermediate sprints and the group was kept together until the final sprint."
Anuar now leads the Malaysian riders' classification outright, after trailing Ahmad Haidar Anuawar in Stage One.
But he holds only a slim 10-second advantage over defending Malaysian riders' champion Suhardi Hassan, who was undoubtedly the best performer in yesterday's stage.
The 27-year old was in fiery mood as he attacked early and was part of the small group that initiated the 28-man breakaway.
The tone set by two days of breakaway wins is likely to continue today, when the bunch hit the 172.7km Stage Three from Grik to Tanah Merah, which after yesterday's outcome, now promises to be another stage won by a breakaway.
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Source from: http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Tuesday/Sport/2536743/Article/index_html
