Anuar Manan takes stage and Jelajah lead

Malaysian sprint king Anuar Manan (Terengganu Cycling Team) won his first stage in the 2011 Jelajah Malaysia, fending off the driving rain throughout the 86km route from Kuala Rompin to Pekan to also take over the leader's yellow jersey from teammate Mohd Hariff Salleh.

Manan said afterwards that the plan had always been to go for the stage win and today, alongside his teammates and also the helping hands from several other teams, they finally managed to take a stage.

"We targeted the stage today as we knew that it was short and that we had the chance to win it," said the 25-year-old Manan, who also took the 100PLUS white jersey for the best-ranked Malaysian rider.

"Actually, I was determined to let Hariff take it but when he was in front, he had some little difficulty, so I just went for it. It was better that the yellow stayed with the team than with someone else.

"The stage maybe was short but it was tiring as everyone was gunning for us as our team had four jerseys in hand. They were pretty determined, but we had the good work from some of the other Malaysian teams and that made the difference. Tomorrow will be a different strategy."

In addition to winning the stage, taking the leader's yellow jersey and also the 100PLUS white jersey for the best Malaysians, Anuar also earned the sprinter's green jersey.

The fourth stage was marked by aggressive racing from start to finish, despite the driving rain which pelted the peloton throughout the day.

Just 11km into the race after Jalan Tebu Hitam, five riders attacked but were caught not too long afterwards as 10 riders counterattacked to form a breakaway just after the Merchang Secondary School.

Included in the breakaway group were Hossein Askari (Tabriz Petrochemical team), Seyed Moezeedin (Valli Asr), Christoph Springer (SP Tableware), Lo Sea Keong (Kuala Lumpur), Ahmad Fakhrullah (Malaysia) and Kenichi Suzuki (Aisan).

The escapees built up a lead of several minutes but was eventually caught just before the second sprint at Air Tawar which Anuar picked up following his win of the first sprint at Nenasi.

And while a second breakaway group tried in vain to make it all the way to the finish, the hard work shown by several Malaysian-based teams in the chasing group made sure of another bunch finish into Pekan as Anuar proved his prowess.

For Hariff, he was a little relieved not to be under the spotlight.

"I'm relieved actually. I was feeling the pressure of wearing four jerseys yesterday and to allow someone else with more experience like Anuar to take over is fine with me," said Hariff.

"I was stuck coming into the finish, but I was glad to see Anuar winning the stage to make sure that the jerseys still stay with the team. That is important."

With no climbs on the day, Japan's Kenichi Suzuki (Aisan Racing Team) remained in the lead for the mountains classification.

"We are glad that a Malaysian team is doing well but I hope that tomorrow they will also help the Aisan team for the king of the mountain jersey," Suzuki quipped.

Stage five will see another long stage as the peloton will race 221.2km from Pekan to Bentong on the penultimate day which could well decide the eventual champion of this year's race.

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