Stage three – Beacu to Iliomar
The third stage of the Tour de Timor saw Luke Fetch and Paul van der Ploeg extend their lead. Van der Ploeg took out the stage in 2h33:34 alongside team mate Fetch. The Rapid Cycling team of Adrian Jackson, Tinker Juarez and Ben Mather came third to fifth respectively, with Jackson 2 minutes 27 seconds behind van der Ploeg.
“It was a pretty good stage for us, the Search 2 Retain team was just controlling the bunch for the first 45km along the flat roads” said yellow jersey holder van der Ploeg “The hard packed section along the beach was awesome” “then when we got into the hills it was loose and rocky and it was every man for himself.”
Jackson was again just off the top position and now is further behind on the yellow jersey “Luke and Paul broke away at the bottom of the last steep climb, I was struggling in the rough stuff, my light frame bounces off all of the rocks, the other bigger guys just power through them”.
“At the moment they’re looking pretty strong, I’m third place overall so definitely try to hold that, but you never know what happens still three days to go” said Jackson.
Juarez again showed his strength with another solid ride bringing him into fourth place. “Scenery was awesome, it definitely made me want to just pull over to the side, it was amazing to see so much beach with no one there” he said. “This stage is so far my favourite one”.
Muhammad Fauzan Ahmad Lutfi of Malaysia came in 13th in 2h45:41, after going down on the first decent. “I fell down because there were just too many loose rocks on the way down”, “from my teams point of view, we’re still targeting the top three, we’re going to go for second place because I think first place is just too far for our team to catch”. “There are three more stages, I’ll at least try to win one stage if I can”. Shahrin came in 5 mins later in 16th.
Nelson da Silva was amongst the top again, the Portuguese trainer of the Timorese national team arrived in 15th with a time of 2h47:56.
Orlando da Costa again came in as the first Timorese rider at 25th, with a time of 2h56:55 “It was good because the uphill was the difficult part” the climbing specialist explained “I tried to keep up with the Australian riders, at the uphill I was able to break away.” “I am happy with today’s result as it is an improvement on the past two stages.” Jacinto da Costa came in 33rd with a time of 3h04:05 and Antonio martins was 38th with 3h10:13.
Amongst the women, team “Nothing Good Can Come of This” came out on top with Naomi Hansen, Katherine O’Shea and Peta Mullens arriving in the top three positions. Hansen came in 2h58:34. “Our team tactic today was pretty much hang with the front bunch as long as we could, we were kinda fortunate that all three of us were there at the bottom of the first climb” said Hansen, “I consider myself to be quite a good technical rider, but I think a lot of people will find it hard because it is loose.”
Ahmed Yani was the first Indonesian in, coming in at 31st with a time of 3h00:11, “today was really hard, the route was very rocky and it was really hard for me to ride because my hands were hurting from just trying to hold onto the bike. I’m feeling pain all over actually”. “Yesterday I fell down and injured my left knee, so I just wanted to finish today” “Timor-Leste is really beautiful to ride in and the people are beautiful too, just like in Indonesia, I’m definitely going to come back next year if I can get sponsors”. Yani’s team-mate Sugianto Binjai was not too far behind with a time of 3:11:39 in 43rd position. The 69km stage was a largely coastal route winding inland at time to pass by crops of rice and corn. Riders were treated to a near constant supply of villages and inhabitants cheering them on for the first 45km before the route took an inland turn onto a rough, loose road winding its way through forrest, over river and eventually up an ascent into Iliomar.
Iliomar is the capital of the sub-district, also named Iliomar, in the district of Lautem. Iliomar’s population at the 2004 census was approximately 7000. There has been some level of development since 2004, but the town has retained its charming village atmosphere. Word from riders is that Iliomar’s children have given the loudest welcome to finishers yet.
Stage four – Iliomar to Com
After flatting twice, Paul van der Ploeg has lost the yellow jersey to team-mate Luke Fetch. The fourth stage of the Tour de Timor was won by Ben Mather in 2h31:48. Fetch from Search 2 Retain was in second with 2h35:53 while Alex Denham of Fitzroy Revolution Orbea took 3rd in 2h35:54.
Ben Mather rode hard from the outset and his tactics payed off “I went away on the first hill and then I thought I’d just keep going and see how I’d fare”. Concerning the overall victory, Mather said “I’m riding with AJ, last years winner and unfortunately we had a bit of bad luck on the second stage, so we’re sort of out of the running for the overall, so we’ve decided to consolidate third place for AJ and allow me to take off and have a crack at some stage wins.”
“I come here to work for AJ to try to win the Tour again, bad luck has prevented us from doing that, so we’ll just take what we can from it now”. Jackson himself came in fourth today with 2h35:55. Jackson was part of the lead group behind Mather’s breakaway.
Van der Ploeg placed 9th, 10:06 behind Mather. “I got two flat tyres, Rohin Adams threw me my second tube and it went down pretty much immediately”. The upshot of all this as explained by van der Ploeg: “Luke will go into yellow, then I’ll be in second, it’s not all bad if my team mate goes into yellow and I slide into second”.
Tinker Juarez came in 5th with a time of 2h36:35 “The stage was a really good stage, for myself I just had another one of my bad days, my legs were really heavy”. Juarez was characteristically upbeat about the race, “I tell you one thing, whenever things are feeling bad in yourself, you always look around and there are positive things around you too. It’s definitely always a beautiful scene when you see all of these beautiful kids out there”.
Among the female contingent, Katherine O’Shea again took out the stage with a time of 3h10:40. “I settled into a good group with five girls to start with, did a lot of the work on the front, most of the boys were sitting on, don’t know if it was because they didn’t want to get involved in the boys race or were just taking it easy”. Melinda Jackson came in a close second, making sure the women’s competition will stay tight.
Muhammad Fauzan Ahmad Lutfi of Malaysia came in 7th with 2h38:09, continuing his run of strong form. “Today’s stage was really challenging, I got left behind at the start but eventually managed to catch up with the leading pack. I kept up with them until the last ten kilometres. I had targeted to win this stage, but my inexperience on this course I think has cost me. The next two stages will be good for us as they are mostly road-based. Hopefully we can win a stage”.
Indonesian, Sugianto Banji came in 25th with a time of 3h02:05. The first-timer in Timor-Leste continued to be impressed by the scenery and roads, “I was riding on my own, I didn’t have to think about any team mates or anyone, I knew the competition was really good so I just raced for myself today”.
Francelina ‘Anche’ Cabral came in again as top Timorese female and 9th woman overall with a time of 3h48:34. “It is good to finish, yesterday I was feeling pretty unwell, but am great today” she said. Speaking about her home town, Anche said “Los Palos has been fantastic because there is really good crowd support, it helps me keep going and gives me strength.”
Amongst the Timorese men, it was another victory for Orlando da Costa with 23rd 2h57:37. Meanwhile, his brother Jacinto da Costa again fell behind as his run of bad luck continued. On day one Jacinto came off his bike and injuring his knee, on day two Jacinto was without his shoes, day three his front brake had problems that continued into day four. Meanwhile their coach Nelson Silva came in 6th for his best stage result yet with 2h37:21.
The ride today was another easier stage as compared to days one and two. The day wasn’t without drama however, as many riders came off on the steep descents towards the North Coast. Fortunately there weren’t any critical injuries; unfortunately, there has been one hospital case, determined as non-critical, at the time of writing.
Riders arrived on the North Coast of Timor at the picturesque village of Com. Com is best known for the Com Beach Resort, a beautiful destination for many expats living in Timor, as well as increasingly foreign tourists coming especially for the Eastern tip of the island. The Resort will be the setting off point for the Com Fishing Festival from 7-12 November this year.