Impressive outing by 88 Bikers Cycling Team
KOTA KINABALU: Local club side 88 Bikers’ Cycling Team impressed with medals won in their recent outing at the UCI Asia Mountain Bike (MTB) Series in Tambunan.
The top placing may have eluded them but it did not stop the 88 Bikers riders from giving their utmost best against some of the region’s top cyclists.
Niklos Minol led with a silver from the National Men’s Elite MTB Cross Country Olympics (XCO) event, losing to Abdul Rahim Muaz of SBS Giant Racing Team.
In the overall standings, Niklos finished sixth in the International men’s Elite MTB XCO race after covering a distance of 25.2km which was won by Kirill Kazantsev of Kazakhstan National team.
Jali Lukas won a bronze in the National Men’s Master A MTB Downhill behind winner Jr Stanly Jalip of Suzuka Oil Cycling Team/Gravity Brotherhood and Mohammed Fadzlee Ariff of Polygon Ion/AGS team.
Jali settled for fourth placing overall in the same event for International category which was won by Wendell Barba of Taokas Racing Team won.
Vandee Lanjim, on the other hand, finished in a creditable fourth placing while Jali in seventh place of the International Men’s Master A MTB XCO behind Sharin Amir of Evanda XDS, Stanly and Kusnadi of Indonesia.
Patrick Wong, the 88 Bikers shop owner at 88 Market Place in Kepayan near here, was happy with his team.
“Our Team 88 cyclists efforts and performance are good considering the challenges posed by serious seasoned riders from Kazakhstan, Thailand and other international riders,” he texted yesterday.
Wong went on to say that training will continue as they look forward to another two events before the end of the year.
The races are the CAKK 3rd MTB XC Challenge at SK Bantayan, Tamparuli on August 27 and the 5th KK Century Cycling Race at the Kota Kinabalu Sports Complex in Likas on November 19.
“Our team will resume our training programmes and will be focusing on the 3rd CAKK MTB XC Challenge.
“We will also try and gauge our team performance for the 5th KK Century Cycling Race,” said Wong while welcoming cyclists to join their club and participate in the training programmes.
Team 88 Bikers’ two other athletes are Laurence Julian and Hafizal Ag Abdullah at the recent International Cycling Union (UCI)-sanctioned Asian Mountain Bike Series, which was organised by Sabah Cycling Association and supported by the Youth and Sports Ministry and Malaysia National Cycling Federation.