The Singha Tour of Phuket begins with a Prologue Individual Time Trial on 8 March 2019. Covering a distance of about 4.6km, riders will be racing against the clock on a smooth road with a couple of technical turns. Under the sweltering sun, cyclists are forced to contort to a smaller frontal area while pushing against the wind to reduce the aerodynamic drag.
ITT route profile
Distance: 4.6km, Elevation: 20m
With just 200 metres to go, the riders experienced a tailwind after pushing through the punishing headwinds.
Results
Elite Open
Thomas Thrall from matadorRACING clinches the first place with a timing of 5 minutes and 36 seconds, averaging over 49 km/h across the harsh wind conditions around Phuket Gateway.
The Canadian now holds the record for the fastest timing amongst the peloton, putting him in the leader’s jersey. He also holds the record for the fastest timing clocked in the Prologue.
Just 4 seconds behind, we have Yeo Boon Kiak from CyclingTraining.CC as the first runner up. Just 1 second after, Jambaljamts Sainbayar from Roojai.com cycling team finished third. As the top three in the General Classifications, we would be expecting an exciting and close fight amongst the Elite Open category for the following days.
Masters
Also from matadorRACING, Romain Barbier takes first place with a timing of 5 minutes and 43 seconds, averaging over 48 km/h.
Coming neck to neck, David Lloyd from Velo Vietnam takes the second place with just 2 seconds behind. Finishing third we have Marc (Dexter) Tzivelekas from 4T2 finishing just a mere 3 seconds later.
Supermasters
From the Supermasters category, we have Tim Carter from Virgin Active, finishing first with a timing of 5 minutes and 58 seconds, averaging over 46 km/h over the course.
In the second place was Michael Boesiger from DT Swiss Asia finishing 11 seconds behind. Alexander Liauw came very close, finishing third with just 1 second later.
Veterans
Over to the Veterans, Kjell Olsen from Boras CA took the first place with a timing of 6 minutes and 14 seconds. He averaged over 44 km/h throughout the duration.
Coming second, Peter Williamson from ANZA Cycling completed the time trial 5 seconds behind. Another 9 seconds behind him, we have David Best from Velo Vietnam coming in third.
Women’s Open
In the Women’s Open category, Sarah Schneider from matadorRACING took the first place, coming in with a timing of 6 minutes and 36 seconds. She proved her prowess, averaging over 41 km/h in the time trial.
Coming in very close, we have Lucy Richardson from Thanyapura finishing second, just 4 seconds behind. We can feel pressure amongst the leaderboard as Chelsie Tan from Bikelabz Racing finishes third, only 3 seconds later. The competition is extremely close.
With three of the leader’s jersey going to matadorRACING, they certainly are showing their readiness in this three-day stage race. Having such close timings across the leaderboard, it is hard to say which team has true dominance.
The Prologue alone can’t reveal who the strongest riders are in the peloton. Let us stay tuned and watch Tour Of Phuket as the rest of the race unfolds, as the riders manifest in Stage One and Two.
Click this link to see the full results of the ITT.
He is currently an undergraduate of Sports Science and Management in NTU.
"Life is too short to stay comfortable at home. Get on your bike and live life to the fullest!"