UCI Asia Tour: Iranian dominance in Indonesia

12.07.2010

Iran's Mehdi Sohrabi maintained his stranglehold on the 2009-2010 UCI Asia Tour individual rankings after opening the month of June with another successful outing: in the Tour de Singkarak (June 1 – 6) which began the series of three races in Indonesia.

Sohrabi (Tabriz Petrochemical Cycling Team) looks to be in a good position to become the third Iranian to win the UCI Asia Tour, following in the footsteps of two of his teammates, Ghader Mizbani (winner in 2009) and Hossein Askari (in 2008).

However it was 35-year old Mizbani who took overall victory in the six-stage Tour de Singkarak, which saw a domination of the Tabriz Petrochemical Cycling Team, winner of the teams classification.

Mizbani took the lead after the opening individual time trial and only handed it over briefly to teammate Askari on the second stage, before taking it back and holding on all the way to the final stage from Bukit Tinggi to Singkarak Lake. As for Sohrabi, he won the final stage’s bunch sprint, edging out South Korean star Park Sung Baek for the victory.

The host country Indonesia celebrated the success of one of its own with Ali Usman (United Bike-Kencana), who fended off some of Asia's top climbers to win the overall mountains classification.

The points classification was won by Germany's Sascha Damrow (CCN-Colossi team).

One week later, the peloton headed to Indonesia’s capital city for the one-day Polygon Tour de Jakarta (June 13).

The victor was riding for the team that was sponsored by the race's title sponsors: Indonesian veteran Matnur of the Polygon Sweet Nice team edged out seven other breakaway partners in the final sprint to take to the top step of the podium. His compatriot Nunung Burhanuddin finished second and Projo Waseso third.

The UCI Asia Tour peloton remained in Indonesia for a week's rest before heading to the Tour de East Java (June 18 to 20), which saw the return to dominance of the Tabriz Petrochemical Team.

This time it was promising 22-year old Hossein Alizadeh who led the charge for the powerful Iranian team. Alizadeh took victory in the opening stage and remained in the lead for the two remaining stages, both of which finished in bunch sprints, won by Malaysia's Anuar Manan, (Geumsan Ginseng Asia) and Indonesia's Projo Waseso.

Mehdi Sohrabi is comfortably in the lead of the UCI Asia Tour rankings with 315.66 points, in front of Ireland’s David McCann (261.66) and Mizbani (248.33).