BEST ASIAN. Nichol Pareja receives the Best Asian Rider honors in Stage 7 of the Le Tour de Langkawi in Langkawi, Malaysia on Monday (Oct. 17, 2022). Pareja also towed the Nationals to the Best Asian Team category in the stage. (Contributed photo)
MANILA – Philippine national team rider Nichol Pareja stole the show among the Asian cyclists competing in the Petronas Tour De Langkawi and posted the best finish among the Asians in the seventh of eight races in this season's cycling tournament in Malaysia on Monday.
Pareja finished in a four-way for 14th place with Kane Richards, Etienne Van Empel, and Torstei Traeen, completing the 90.8-kilometer course from Kuah to Gunung Raya at two hours, 21 minutes, and 31 seconds.
Following the photo-finish tiebreaker, Pareja settled for 16th place, but that was still enough to beat Kazakhstan's Andray Zeits and Mongolia's Jambaljamts Sainbayar for the Best Asian Rider honors.
Sainbayar and Zeits ended up in the peloton group that finished about 70 seconds slower than Stage 7 winner Sjoerd Bax of Holland.
Zeits eventually got the better of Sainbayar in the photo-finish, but Sainbayar still holds the white jacket, given to the current Asian leader in the tour, as he leads Zeits by a single second in the general classification standings with one stage remaining, a 115.9-kilometer circuit race on Tuesday which will start and end in Kuah.
The Philippine team, which also consists of Marcelo Felipe, Rench Bondoc, Marco Lumanog, John Salazar, and Junreck Carcueva remains the top performing national team in the event, leading host country Malaysia by a little more than an hour in total finishing time. (PNA)
