Willier Triestina-Sella Italia’s Jakub Mareczko won the 151.5km stage two road race of the Sharjah Tour, which finished in Mleiha in the United Arab Emirates today.
The Italian won the final dash for the line to complete the race in 3:32:33. He was closely followed by Vital Concept Cycling’s Bryan Coquard (France) and Terengganu Cycling’s Mohd Harrif Saleh (Malaysia) in second and third respectively.
Ryan Harris, pictured here setting off for the time trial yesterday, was the fastest South African South African rider to cross the finishing line in stage two in the Sharjah Tour today. Photo: twitter.com/officeguru23s
Ryan Harris was the first South African rider to cross the finishing line, coming in 10th overall.
Harris’ teammate Reynard Butler crossed the line in 16th. Bradley Potgieter, who was prepared to take on a leadership role, said the team’s main goal for the stage was to save Harris and Butler for the sprint finish.
“Ryan deserves so much credit for a spectacular result today,” Potgieter told In the Bunch this afternoon.
“Now we want to save Eddie [van Heerden] for tomorrow (stage three), as we believe it will be the decisive stage on the GC (general classification),” he said, adding that the stage contains “quite a lot of climbs.”
Potgieter commended the contributions Jan Montshioa and Thokozani Mahlangu made in today’s stage as well.
“They did an excellent job looking after the team,” he said. “They supported the team well on the fast and flat sections.”
Potgieter went into a break to make sure he could also help, but he was caught with less than 10km to go, he said.
“I was in a breakaway with four other riders with about 20km to go, but then the Sharjah team caught up and ‘absorbed’ us with about eight kilometres left. That’s when I fell behind,” he added.
Eddie van Heerden finished in 74th, Jan Montshioa 75th, Thokozani Mahlangu 90th and Bradley Potgieter 98th.
View more results below.
Stage two
Road race
1. Jakub Mareczko (Willier Triestina-Sella Italia, Italy) 3:32:33
2. Bryan Coquard (Vital Concept Cycling, France)
3. Mohd Harrif Saleh (Terengganu Cycling, Malaysia)
4. Luca Pacioni (Willier Triestina-Sella Italia, Italy)
5. Robin Stenuit (Sovac-Natura4ever, Belgium)
6. Jeremy Leveau (Delko Marseille Provence, France)
7. Tatsuki Amagoi (Kinan Cycling, Japan)
8. Michael Goolaerts (Veranda’s Willems-Crelan)
9. Nakajima Yasuharu (Kinan Cycling, Japan)
10. Ryan Harris (South Africa)
General classification
1. Julien Morice (Vital Concept Cycling, France) 3:45:21
2. Gaetan Bille (Sovac-Natura4ever, Belgium) 3:45:23
3. Kris Boeckmans (Vital Concept Cycling, Belgium) 3:45:25
4. Elias van Breussegem (Verandas Willems-Crelan, Belgium) 3:45:25
5. Marco Coledan (Wilier Triestina-Sella, Italy) 3:45:26
6. Michael Goolaerts (Verandas Willems-Crelan, Belgium) 3:45:27
7. Nikolay Mihaylov (Delko Marseille Provence, Bulgaria) 3:45:33
8. Bryan Coquard (Vital Concept Cycling, France) 3:45:35
9. Javier Moreno Bazan (Delko Marseille Provence, Spain) 3:45:39
10. Oleksandr Holovash (Sharjah Pro Cycling, Ukraine) 3:45:40
