|
 |   |
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Video Plus Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities 
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
|  |
Mercury flies American team fills top two places in Tour de Langkawi
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- U.S. team Mercury-Viatel made a strong start Tuesday in the Tour de Langkawi, taking the top two places on the first leg of the round-Malaysia race. Canadian Gordon Fraser, defending his King of the Sprints title, covered the 182-kilometer (113-mile) leg in 4 hours 49 minutes 49 seconds, followed closely by teammate Jans Koerts, Enrico Degano of Italy's Ceramiche Panaria Fiordo team and Ivan Quaranta, riding for Alexia Alluminio. Despite crossing the line first, Fraser will not start Wednesday's 226-kilometer (140-mile) second stage wearing the yellow jersey. Koerts will start in yellow after scoring an extra 10 points for winning two sprints Tuesday which gave him time bonuses totaling 12 seconds. Koerts posted an overall time of 4 hours 49 minutes 37 seconds, while Fraser got a 10-second bonus for winning Tuesday's race to register his time. Degano crossed the line third and finished with a time of 4 hours 49 minutes and 45 seconds after receiving a four-second bonus. Mercury leads the overall team standings ahead of Italy's Mapei Quickstep and Gerolsteiner of Germany. Koerts leads on points for the King of the Sprint. "We stuck to the plan and did a perfect job," Koerts was quoted by the national news agency Bernama as saying after the race. "It is never easy to win at this level but my Mercury teammates did the job very well to make it as easy as possible." The leader of the Asian category was Japan's Makoto Iijima who clocked 4 hours 49 minutes and 54 seconds to finish ninth.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
