Tamouridis top in Kuala Rompin

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Ioannis Tamourdis (SP Tableware) sprinted to victory on stage three of the Jelajah Malaysia but he had to share the spotlight with local hero Mohd Harriff (Terengganu Cycling), who moved into the overall lead.

Harriff now holds four jerseys in this year’s race. As well as wearing the yellow jersey, the Malaysian leads the points, Malaysian rider and Asian rider classifications. He won the first bonus sprint, and then finished in second place on the stage to after he pick up enough bonus seconds to leapfrog Iran’s Mehdi Sohrabi (Tabriz Petrochemical Team) in the overall standings.

“In spite of the rain, I am of course satisfied with how things turned out– winning four jerseys on the day is very good indeed,” Harriff said after the stage. “The plan was to take the stage today but under the circumstances, we can’t complain. We hope that we can win a stage before the tour ends this year.”

For his part, Tamourdis was pleased with his day’s work in tricky conditions. He timed his sprint perfectly to beat Harriff and Anuar Manan in the mass finish. Although he is now in fourth overall, the Greek explained that his primary aim is the world track championships at the end of the month.

“The race here has been very good for me in preparation for the Track World Championship and I’m very happy to take my first stage win this year,” he said.

The day’s main break saw previous leader Mehdi Sohrabi join forces with David McCann (Giant Kenda), Mart Ojavee (Champion System), Luc Heganeurs (Team Eddy Merckx-Indelan), Shinpei Fukuda (Aisan) and Kenichi Suzuki (Aisan) but the group was swallowed up on the fast run-in to the line.

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