No sweet home finish for Harrif in Kuala Terengganu

KUALA TERENGGANU: Mohd Harrif Salleh could not hide his disappointment after failing to make the podium in the 114.8km final stage of the Le Tour de Langkawi (LTDL) from Tasik Kenyir to Kuala Terengganu yesterday.

The Terengganu Pro-asia sprinter could only manage fourth place in the race, which was won by Italian Andrea Guardini.

Harrif could not have the support of his team-mates in the final 5km of the race as Farnese Vini and Europcar were controlling the pace to set up a bunch finish.

“They were leading the pack at a blinding speed and I was isolated from my team-mates at the front. Fighting for position alone amongst the sprinters was not an easy thing. I am sad to miss out on a podium finish,” said Harrif, who lives a kilometre away from the finish line at the Dataran Shahbandar.

In the final 5km, the peloton was left to chase Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) who went ahead alone after the breakaway pack of Loh Sea Keong (OCBC Singapore), Seo Joonyong (Seoul Cycling), Shinichi Fukushima (Terengganu) and Mohd Rauf Nur Misbah (Malaysia) was caught.

As Vinokourov was caught, Harrif, who was on Guardini’s wheels for most part of the race, was then muscled out from his position by Matteo Pelucchi (Europcar) towards the end.

“Guardini spoke to me before the start, asking me to follow his wheels if I was to get a win today. But he (Pelucchi) is a big rider and we were going at a speed of up to 70kph ... so I had to give way to avoid crashing.

“Maybe it would be a different story if I had the support of my team-mates close to the finish line,” lamented Harrif.