Crashes in Stage Two of Jelajah Malaysia has seen the end of
the tour for two of PureBlack Racing’s riders, Louis Crosby and Shem Rodger.
While Louis and Shem have been left battered and bruised, Michael Torckler, Roman
van Uden and James Williamson avoided trouble and finished the stage in the
peloton, three minutes behind the leaders.
Louis crash occurred 90km into the race after an object, possibly a water bottle, got
caught on his wheel.
“It was a strange crash, my hands lost the grip on the handle bars and I just went
down,” said Louis, “usually when that happens you can regain your balance, but this
time I couldn’t.”
After getting his bike checked out by the mechanic, Louis tried to get back onto the
bunch but after 10km he realized that he was just too sore and got into the race
ambulance.
15km further into the race, Louis heard over the ambulance radio that there had been
another crash; he hoped that it was not one of his team members but as they
approached he saw the mechanic preparing a new bike from PureBlack Racing team
car and realized it was Shem.
“Shem was on the side of the road, while Faizal [Mechanic] was getting a new bike
ready for him,” said Louis, “he tried to get back on the bike but was shaken up and
possibly had a knock to the head because he dis not remember going down.
Louis and Shem spent yesterday afternoon in the hospital getting examined to ensure
there was no major damage, Shem has a small hematoma on his hip but broken bones
have been avoided.
With only three riders left in the tour, the next four stages are going to be a big
challenge for PureBlack Racing - but as the team has proved they can perform with
limited riders, and with team captain Roman, James and Michael still with plenty of
gas in the tank, they will be pushing hard for results.
Stage Two race winner was Jai Crawford from RTS Racing Team with a time of
5:07:42 followed by Yasuharu Nakajima (Aisan Racing Team) and Tonton Susanto
(Putra Perjuangan).
The yellow jersey holder after day two is Yusup Abrekov from the Uzbekistan Suren
Team.
Michael is sitting in 7th overall in the Individual GC and PureBlack Racing is sitting
in 5th place in the Team GC.
Today’s Stage Three is 168.8km with three sprint premes and a Category Four climb,
from Kulim, Kedah to Felda Chuping, Perlis.