CYCLING: Landmark rider

ON A ROLL: Fatehah breaks new ground in London

FATEHAH Mustapa is accustomed to creating history right from the beginning of her cycling career and the London Olympics provides just another test of how well her star has shone.

The Kuala Terengganu lass lines up for the women’s keirin at the London Velodrome as the first ever woman cyclist to qualify for the Olympics and she has achieved that four years ahead of schedule, as the Malaysian National Cycling Federation (MNCF) had initially targeted her for the 2016 Olympics.

It’s all been fast-tracked as the reigning Asian women’s keirin champion has gone through two of her best seasons yet, which has seen her rise to prominence on the world stage as well.

Fatehah has come a long way since she first exploded onto the scene in the 2004 Malaysia Games in Negri Sembilan when she stunned a field of mainly elite national riders to win the road race gold medal.

At just 15 then, she set the record as the youngest ever cyclist to win a gold medal in that Games which still stands.

There was never a doubt about Fatehah’s potential and since she went under the watchful eye of national head coach John Beasley at the elite squad’s base in Melbourne two years ago, it has been as if a fast forward button had been switched on.

Malaysia had waited 44 years before Noor Azian Alias won the country’s first medal in a women’s event at the Asian Cycling Championships, a silver medal in the road road in Bangkok in 2007.

But Fatehah had bettered that with multiple medals since she raced as an elite rider in 2008 and topped that with another piece of history for herself when she delivered the first gold medal in the keirin at the Asian meet in Kuala Lumpur in April.

By now, the country’s most famous woman cyclist, Fatehah will enter the Olympics, ranked 13th in the world and her chances of going beyond what she has achieved in the UCI World Cup legs and the World Championships have been heightened by the regulations limiting nations to just one rider for the keirin in London.

That means Russia, who have three riders in the top 13, France who have four and Britain who have two, will only be able to field one rider, roughly placing Fatehah as the seventh seed entering the Games.

“For sure I’m going to give it my all. My first target is to make the final. Everything will be towards that. When I make the final, then anything can happen.

WIth the right strategy and if everything goes my way, I may be in with a shot for a medal,” said Fatehah.

She is with the rest of the squad in a training camp in Ghent, Belgium ahead of the Olympics and yesterday, the squad headed for Cologne, Germany where they will go through their final preparation race.

• Name: Fatehah Mustapa
• Date of birth: March 11, 1989
• Place of birth: Kuala Terengganu
• Achievements: 2004 Malaysia Games - women’s road race gold medal
2011: Sea Games, Jakarta: gold medals in the 200m sprint, team sprint and 500m time trial.
2012: Asian Championships - keirin gold medal.
• London expectations: Hoping to reach the keirin final
• Competition date: Aug 3

Read more: CYCLING: Landmark rider - Racing - New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/sports/racing/cycling-landmark-rider-1.110230#ixzz21DanocpO

CYCLING: Taking The High Road

BIG MOMENT: Duo in the mood for a great ride

IT is going to be a historic day for Malaysian cycling. Adiq Husainie Othman and Amir Mustafa Rusli will line up alongside luminaries like Mark Cavendish, Bradley Wiggins, Sylvain Chavanel, Vincenzo Nibali and Samuel Sanchez on the startline of the famous Box Hill circuit for the Olympic road race on Aug 28. There will be big stars racing for the gold medal, but Malaysia's first ever Olympic road race qualifiers know they aren't in London just to make up the numbers but get a respectable result to prove the critics wrong.

Sure, Malaysians don't have a good record in this event and there are questions whether our riders could even arrive at the finish line of the 250km road race that covers nine laps on a circuit that includes a tough Box Hill climb.

The best that Malaysians have done before is qualifying for six out of the seven Under-23 World Championships road races with just one finisher — Ng Yong Li in Madrid in 2005.

AdiqHusainiecameclosetoimproving that record in Geelong, Australia last year and was set for a top 10 finish when he crashed.

A year has since passed, and Adiq Husainie's meteoric rise is evident when he signed with China's UCI ProfessionalContinentalteam, Champion System, after spending two years with Australia's Drapac Pro Cycling. He has begun making inroads towards establishing himself as a prominent rider in Europe, having achieved several top 10 finishes in pro races in the United States.

Adiq Husainie is touted by head coach John Beasley as Malaysia's best bet to be a Grand Tour rider and he has already set his sights on the Tour de France by 2015.

The same goes for 25-year-old Amir Mustafa, who is with Drapac Pro Cycling and is also the first ever Olympian from that team. He is determined for a good run in the Olympics, but is aware of the magnitude of the task that awaits at Box Hill.

But the possibility of not finishing the race has never crossedthemindsofthetwo riders. They only think about crossing the finish line.

"We'll prepare well and personally I have an idea of what I need to do. For sure it is going to be tough. My aim is to stay in the front of the race and then look to do something special," said Adiq Husainie.

"I think my fitness is up to the mark, but having raced in Europe, I now know that the key to finishing a tough long race like this is mental strength. That is my focus in the build-up.

"I'm entering races which are similarly tough if not tougher in Belgium, so that I can tune my mind for that task.

"At the same time, it is about staying out of trouble in the coming weeks. I don't want to take risks and injure myself before London," said Adiq Husainie.

If racing in Europe is what it takes to tune up well for London, then Amir Mustafahasalreadyspentfourmonths racing there when based in Belgium with the Drapac Cycling team before joining Adiq Husainie and the track squad for a month-long pre-Olympic camp there.

But Amir Mustafa has his feet firmly on the ground, realising what this Olympic qualification means, stating his pride in being part of a groundbreaking duo that will hopefully be signs of good things to come for road cycling in the country, which has long lived in the shadows of the successful track programme.

"I was so relieved to find out that I have made the squad. Now it is about doing the nation proud. I know it is going to be difficult, so my task there is to work with Adiq Husainie to get to the finish. To just finish the race would be an achievement for us," said Amir Mustafa.

"I've been studying the course, looking up everything on the Internet. We will have to stay with the front group and fight to stay with them when we climb Box Hill, then we can look at how we can finish the race." Though not much hope is placed on the duo to achieve a good result, their remarkable presence there already marks a step forward for the Malaysian National Cycling Federation, which is banking on this achievement to ignite road cycling in the country.

• Name: Amir Mustafa Rusli
• Date of birth: Feb 5, 1987
• Place of birth: Dungun, Terengganu
• Achievements: Team pursuit and individual pursuit gold medals in 2007 Korat Sea Games, third in general classification and winner of the Malaysian riders' classification in 2010 Jelajah Malaysia; Signed as a professional with Australia's Drapac Pro Cycling in 2011
• London expectations: Help Adiq Husainie get a good position and to finish the race
• Competition dates: July 28

• Name: Adiq Husainie Othman
• Date of birth: April 29, 1991
• Place of birth: Kemaman, Terengganu
• Achievements: Scratch race bronze medal in 2009 UCI Track Junior World Championships; Individual time trial bronze medal in 2008 Asian Junior Championships in Nara, Japan; Silver medal in road race in 2009 Asian Championships in Tanggerang, Indonesia; silver medal in 2012 Putrajaya Under-23 Championships
• London expectations: Finishing the race among the front group
Read more: CYCLING: Taking the high road - Racing - New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/sports/racing/cycling-taking-the-high-road-1.108718#ixzz20qSvDX3A