KUALA LUMPUR: National women's cycling coach Amir Mustafa Rusli expects his charge Nur Aisyah Zubir to face a tough and technical challenge in the women's road race event at the Paris Olympics tomorrow.
Amir said the 158 kilometre race, which starts and finishes at the Pont d'lena bridge in Paris, features cobbled sections, roughly 1,700 metres of climbing (combined) as well as tight and technical narrow sections towards the finish.
Aisyah will become the first-ever Malaysian woman to compete in the road cycling event at the Olympics when she rolls off the start line tomorrow.
"We have been allowed to ride on a section of the course closer towards the finish line over the past few days," said Amir when contacted in Paris yesterday.
"There will be three loops of roughly 18.4km before they head to the finish line. About one KM is a climb on cobbles which will be tough for all the riders, including Aisyah.
"It is similar to what you see in the spring classics, such as Paris-Roubaix.
"The last 5km will be a descent on a narrow road with sharp turns so it will be very technical.
"As the roads towards the finish are very narrow, I do not see this race ending in a bunch sprint. It will likely be won in a breakaway."
Aisyah, 26, is aiming to finish the race in the peloton.
Amir is confident she is capable of achieving this having spent the last two months training and racing in Belgium and the Netherlands.
"She looks ready to race," said Amir.
"She has competed in about 20 one-day races in Belgium and the Netherlands. We specifically looked for races which had cobbled sections so she could get used to it.
"She managed to finish second in two of the races at Zottegem-Strijpen (Belgium) and Wielerronde Riethoven (Netherlands). She also finished fourth in two other races at Wendy-Scheldewindeke and BW Women's Race (both belgium).
"This is outstanding as usually Malaysian riders are rarely able to finish races in Europe due to the conditions. She looks comfortable racing here (Europe)."
Amir disclosed that he will be sharing a team car with Lithuania and Namibia during the race while team manager Norazman Abu Samah will be on feed zone duty.
"As Malaysia only has one rider in the race, we will be sharing a team car with two other countries who also have one rider each," said Amir, who added that Aisyah has opted to use an S-Works Tarmac SL8 bike for the race.
Lithuania will be fielding Rasa Leleivyte while Vera Looser will represent Namibia.
Australia's Grace Brown, who won the individual time trial gold earlier this week, Chloe Dygert (United States), Lorena Wiebes (Netherlands) and Lotte Kopecky (Belgium) are among those expected to challenge for the podium in tomorrow's race.