Stage 4 – Iliomar to Com – 14 September

Rapid Cycling pulls in the stage, van der Ploeg loses yellow jersey

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.

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