Mohd Harrif Salleh snatched his 2nd win of the season after securing a win in 132.6 kilometer Stage – 3 of Tour of Borneo from Penampang on Tuesday. The stage – 3 was made for sprinters, with a Category Four climb at halfway mark as well as the Terengganu Cycling rider traversed the line in 3:20:39 in a bunch sprint.
Anuar Manan (Synergy Baku Cycling), the Points classification leader, took 2nd spot to hang on to green jersey when Harrif’s brother as well as teammate Mohd Zamri was 3rd in the race. It was a real close call for Harrif Salleh as overall leader Mehdi Sohrabi took off early, with two kilometers to go, in order to repeat his success on Monday when he became victorious solo with a thin margin.
Mehdi ended 4th with the same time to keep the lead. Harrif, luckily, got his calculation absolutely right as he sent out Saiful Anuar together with Mehdi. This year, Harrif’s maiden win was at the Jelajah Malaysia that took place earlier in June. He told that it was a gamble. If Mehdi had not stalled behind Saiful, he might have won it. But they managed to close the gap fast and it was left to them to sprint for the win.
Endra leads the mountain classification with 4 points in hand. He told that they thought of going all the way till the end, but when Chang’s tyre punctured, that left only the 2 of them. It was a bit difficult. Mehdi told that he tried to repeat what he did yesterday, when he attacked close to the finish and won the stage. But he made a mistake of waiting behind Saiful.