Published on January 19, 2005

[CYCLING] Japan’s Ouchi Kaoru narrowly edged out South Korean cyclist Park Sun Baek to win his first yellow jersey, while local favourite Prajak Mahawong maintained the top place in the Asean classification for the second time in a row after the second stage of the Tour of Siam yesterday.

Almost 100 riders took part in the 176.5km second leg of the country’s first professional cycling event which started from Prae and finished in Phitsanulok.

During the first 21.1km, the leading group including Suh Seok Kyu from South Korea and Ryan Connor from Ireland, who left the others around 2km behind. However, in the last 80km, Martin Hansen of Denmark out-paced the others to go in front, but with only 1km to the finish, the Dane dropped back. Kaoru of the Shimano Racing team and Park from the Seoul City team provided a spectacular finish as both raced shoulder to shoulder over the last 500m before the Japanese claimed the victory in four hours, 28.23 minutes.

The Korean finished second, and Michael Reihs of Denmark came in third. Despite finishing in 19th place, national cyclist Prajak from the Siam Bara team still claimed the Asean title for the second time.

“This stage was difficult as it had too many slopes. However, the coming one is harder as it has more hills. I will try my best to retain the lead,” said Prajak.

Hong Kong’s Wong Kam Po, who won the first stage, was still positioned number one in the overall competition. However, Japanese Koji Fukushima of the Bridgestone-Anchor team is breathing down his neck only 13 seconds behind the leader.

The Nation

Phitsanulok

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