Men’s Cycling road 18th Asian Games Jakarta Palembang 2018

18th  Asian Games Jakarta

Palembang 2018

Kazakhstan’s Win gold In 

Men’s Cycling road

In

Asian Games 2018

Antara/Palembang/ Jakarta

Kazakhstan cyclist Alexey Lutsenko was too strong for the competition in the final of the men’s 40 kilometer individual time trial (ITT) in Subang, West Java, on Friday.

With the win, Lutsenko earns his second gold medal in cycling road at this year’s Asian Games, after coming out on top in the men’s 150km individual road race on Thursday.

Starting last in the order of athletes, Lutsenko beat 17 other cyclists by finishing the race in 55:37.13.

Uzbekistan’s Muradjan Khalmuratov won the silver medal with a time of 57:10.52, a difference of one minute and 33.39 seconds.

The bronze medal went to Japan cyclist Fumiyuki Beppu, who finished one minute and 42.07 seconds behind the champion.

“I’m very happy to have won two matches and two gold medals. It’s incredible,” said Lutsenko, who showed his world-class abilities in individual time trial events that require stamina and strength.

“Today’s contest was very fast and hot, also with strong winds and a tough ascent,” added Lutsenko, who claimed to have lost his water bottle 4 km from the start, meaning he won the 43-km race without water for most of it, as rules allow for only one bottle per race.

Uzbekistan cyclist Muradjan Khalmuratov, finishing second, said he was pleased with the result as he finished without medals in the previous two Games. “Only in the Indonesian Asian Games have I got one [medal]. Even though it’s a silver, I’m very happy,” he said.

Fumiyuki said he was unaware of his racing time because his bike’s time recorder was not working properly. “When Lutsenko overtook me, he was quite fast and I just kept pedaling. On reaching the finish line, it turned out that I got a bronze medal,” he said.

Indonesia men’s team head coach Dadang Haris Purnomo previously said the cyclists from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan were the favorites in the men’s individual time trial events.

“In the ITT discipline, I can see the opponents’ strengths, capabilities and skills. Everything can be calculated to gauge who will be the toughest competitors,” Dadang said.

Indonesia’s Aiman Cahyadi finished seventh with a time of 59:36.32. “I still need more training because this was my first experience in an Asian Games ITT event,” he said.

Despite falling short of a medal, Aiman expressed gratitude toward the Subang people and Indonesian fans for supporting the national team throughout all cycling events in Subang.