Cycling

Nguyễn Thị Thu Mai celebrates her stage win at the Bình Dương International Women's Cycling Tournament on March 7. Photos of Cycling News

BÌNH DƯƠNG — Nguyễn Thị Thu Mai won the second stage and took the leading position of the Bình Dương International Women's Cycling Tournament on March 7.

Mai, a member of Lộc Trời Group, completed the 143km stage from Thủ Dầu Một City to Bình Phước and back in a time of 3hr 31.36min.

Mai was among the cyclists in the lead pack and her strong sprint 5km from the finish helped her successfully leave behind strong opponents such as Natalia Frolova (Biwase Bình Dương), Khairunnisa Aleeya Saifulnizam (Malaysia national team), Maneephan Jutatip (Thailand national team) and Urara Kawaguchi (Gerbera) to take the stage win.

Frolova came second followed by Saifulnizam.

After two stages, Mai is at the top of the overall ranking with a time of 5:54.00 and will wear the yellow jersey, taken from Jutatip, who won the first stage, to start the next stage.

The 14th Bình Dương International Women's Cycling Tournament lured the highest number of participants in its history.

Although she failed to keep the yellow jersey, Jutatip, in second place overall, still held the blue jersey as the rider with the most points on classified climbs over the race. The Thai was the first to reach the two out of three intermediate sprints of this stage.

In the team's ranking, Lộc Trời Group are No 1, Malaysia is in second place and Biwase Bình Dương third.

The third stage will be 109km from Định Quán District of Đồng Nai Province to Bảo Lộc  City of Lâm Đồng Province.

The 9.5km Bảo Lộc Hill will be a tough challenge for the cyclists but it seems to be a favourite stage of Russian Frolova, who is really good at hill climbing.

The annual Biwase Cup is being held from March 6-15 and gathers the strongest riders of 11 local clubs along with those from nine international teams.

Cyclists will race in 10 stages covering 1,158km starting from Bình Dương, past Đồng Nai, Lâm Đồng, Khánh Hòa, Ninh Thuận, Bình Thuận and Bà Rịa Vũng Tàu, before returning to Bình Dương. VNS