2012 Tour de Brunei | Stage 2: Bandar Seri Begawan – Tutong

How does it feel to take a lukewarm two and a half hour bath? Most of the 106 pro cyclists that lined up for today’s 117.4km second stage on the flooded streets of Brunei’s capital city were able to finish knowing the answer, with Tabriz Petrochemical Team’s Hossein Askari the first to towel off.

Images: Mike Murano
Video: PTV Network Philippines

It was not long ago, in the 2012 Tour de Korea, that a stage of similarly epic rainfall was called off. Tour de Brunei’s race director had no such qualms about the conditions, dispatching teams onto the sodden parcours. The wet weather did nothing to take the heat out of the pace though, with the first finishers averaging close to 46kph for the stage. A keen eye might comb through the past year of UCI AsiaTour races and spot a pattern – whenever Tabriz Petrochemical Team participates in a race, a high pace is guaranteed.

Of course, there were casualties. Sodden roads and on-road surprises – funnelling a large clump of riders onto a one lane bridge at high speeds is guaranteed to cause challenges – created constant opportunities for mechanicals, crashes and ensured splits in the peloton were frequent. Nine riders finished outside the time limit, with another five dropping out.

Race leader Mohd Nor Umardi Rosdi was one of those affected, losing 2’16″ to stage winner Askari, but his Terengganu Cycling team was still able to rake up points in the green jersey classification, due to Harrif Saleh owning both of the intermediate sprints. In similarly dominant fashion, Maxime Martine (OCBC Singapore Cycling Team) snaffled both KOM’s – it could have been three, but the third (scheduled at 89.1km) was cancelled – to build a sizeable buffer over second-placed Muhamad Rauf Nur Misbah (Malaysian National Team) in the climber’s competition.

Over half of the day’s starters were still clustered together as the stage entered the final few kilometres, setting expectations of a mass sprint; but Askari clearly wasn’t reading from the same script. Pouncing from the field, he startled everyone but the very switched-on Duc Tam Trinh (Vietnam National Team) who hung on for dear life as the Iranian ploughed his way towards the finish. Askari’s sustained speed eventually blew Trinh off his wheel and he continued to mock the 55-strong bunch behind; building a gap of 39″ by the time he stormed over the finish line alone.

LEADERBOARD
Individual General Classification (Yellow jersey): Hossein Askari (Tabriz Petrochemical Team)
Points Classification (Green jersey): Muradjan Halmuratov (China 361 Cycling Team)
King of the Mountains Classification (Red jersey): Maxime Martine (OCBC Singapore Cycling Team)
Best Young Rider Classification (White jersey): Duc Tam Trinh (Vietnam National Team)
Best team: Tabriz Petrochemical Team

STAGE TWO RESULTS

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE TWO