DAVIDS PERFECT
South African emerges as overall winner
FADHLI ISHAK AND AZLAN MUHAMMAD ZAIN nstsport@nst.com.my race.
“Today was a difficult day to control but the boys did a good job not to let any of our rivals go up the road,” said the 24-yearold.
“This is the first time I’ve had a leadership role in the team as usually I am the backup for our main GC rider. To actually pull it off is a big deal for myself.
“It has been an incredible week, I could not have asked for more. We won a stage, took charge of grey and yellow and retained them to the end.
“I couldn’t have been happier to give Oliver’s their first UCI win. Hopefully it has a bit of a snowball effect for the team and myself.”
Davids’ teammate Ryan Thomas of Australia secured the overall win in the young riders classification (grey jersey).
Harrif said he was relieved to secure a stage win in Jelajah Malaysia this year. “It was quite tough for me in the earlier stages as there were a number of succesful breakaways which left no chance for me,”
“There was also a break from a small group (yesterday) but my teammates worked hard to reel them in and set me up for the bunch sprint.
“I have just started coming back into rhythm after a short break after the Sea Games. It feels great to finish the tour with a win.
“We (TSG) had expected to win stages but to win three out of five here is beyond expectation.”
Harrif ’s teammate, Amirul, had no difficulty securing victory in the points classification (green jersey) while Sapura’s Zawawi Azman capped a positive outing for his team with the red jersey (best Malaysian.