KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia riders endured tough conditions in the 179-kilometre second stage of the Tour of Thailand, which played out in hot and hazy weather today.
St George Continental Cycling Team's Dylan Sunderland, who was part of a five-man breakaway group, launched a solo attack late on and was rewarded with a comfortable stage win (3:52:08s).
Indonesia national team's Terry Kusuma and JCL Team UKYO's Raymond Kreder came in second and third in the chasing pack (+1:47s).
Terengganu Polygon Cycling Team's (TSG) Jambaljamts Sainbayar and Malaysia national team's Nur Aiman Rosli crossed the line ninth and 15th in the same group. Aiman had taken maximum points at the first intermediate sprint of the day at Bo Phloi Sao.
The stage had started in Kanchanaburi and ended in Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya.
Aiman and his Team Sapura Cycling teammates are competing in national team colours as part of their preparations for the Phnom Penh Sea Games (May 7-17).
Sapura team principal Sayuti Zahit is hoping his riders can make an impact in the third stage from Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya to Khao Yai (195km) tomorrow which features a category two climb at the end.
The first two stages of the UCI 2.1 tour were relatively flat.
"Our goal today was to get our young rider Yusri Shaari in the sprint finish, unfortunately he was involved in a crash with 500m to go," said Sayuti.
"The conditions were tough today with the temperatures hovering between 37 and 40 degrees Celcius.
"There was no team really strong enough to control the peloton.
"We will have a summit finish tomorrow and are hoping our climbers Zawawi Azman, Shaiful Adlan Shukri and Muhsin Al Redha Misbah will be able to excel.
"It will also be interesting to see whether Aiman will be able to take control of the Asean riders classification (purple jersey).
"From what we see here, the Indonesian riders are strong and we expect them to be our rivals at the Sea Games."
Aiman is second in the purple jersey competition, eight seconds adrift of Terry. Aiman is also fourth (+46s) in the general classification (yellow jersey).
Roojai Online Insurance's Tegsh-bayar Batsaikhan leads the race overall on 6:29:32s. Terry (+38s) is second and JCL Team Ukyo's Yuma Koishi (+43s) is third.
TSG's Jambaljamts, Metkel Eyob and Aiman Cahyadi, are also expected to have a shot at the podium tomorrow.
ENDS.