EVERS TAKES EARLY LEAD AT TOUR OF BORNEO

Labuan ITT Stage winners 

Muhammad Fauzan Ahmad Lufti of PDRM leads the Asian Rider classification

Craig Evers of Data#3 Symatec Racing Team leads the overall classification 

LABUAN, 31 October 2015 : Hot and windy conditions on the Labuan Island gave riders a challenging welcome to the Tour of Borneo but Australian Craig Evers and local hero Muhammad Fauzan Ahmad Lutfi both rose to the occasion to take the yellow and white jersey on the opening day.

Evers, who rides for Data #3 Symantec Racing Team, is known to be a time trial specialist and lived up to his billing as he took the 27.2km stage one time trial comfortably after clocking 36 minutes and 35.304 seconds.

Latvians Krists Neilands and Armands Becis (Rietmu-Delfin Continental Cycling Team) came in second and third on 37:37.576s and 37:42.262s respectively.

Evers, who competed in the Tour of Poyang Lake (China) in September, said it was a physically challenging stage from the onset.

"It is very, very hot here compared to Canberra (where he is from), even during the warm up I was sweating buckets," said the 25-year-old.

"I started well, however, I was struggling with the wind towards the end of the race. Obviously everyone faced the same thing, this is the nature of the individual time trial.

"I have been preparing for this stage for some time and I just stuck to my plan and it paid off in the end.

"We have the yellow jersey now and it would be good to defend that. I will discuss with the team how to go about tomorrow (stage two) and give it the respect that it deserves.

"I am going to give it (stage two) a good crack and we will see how it goes."

Fauzan, who is competing for the Polis Diraja Malaysia Team, emerged the best Asian rider after clocking 37:56.592s for fourth and will wear the white jersey in stage two.

The 29-year-old said he was happy to achieve his target of placing in the top five in stage one.

"I did pretty well in the first 10km but went off my target pace from then on due to the wind," said Fauzan.

"It was a bit tricky as there were both crosswinds and headwinds, if I was able to maintain my pace I would have been good for a spot on the podium.

"But I am still happy with the result and hopefully I can keep the white jersey tomorrow (stage two)."

Riders will cover 138.9km in stage two which will see them doing three laps of 46.3km around the Labuan Island.

Tour of Borneo is organized by Borneo International Cycling, held from 31^st October to 4^th November 2015. The 2.2 category Tour is sanctioned by the International Cycling Union (UCI) and is listed in UCI Asian Tour calendar, it is hoped to promote Sabah as the ultimate sports tourism destination in Malaysia, and promote cycling in the state.