Contributed by Samantha See

Bintan, Saturday, October 16, 2010 — Singaporeans Adi Puttera Bin Yusoff and Serene Lee took the lead in Category 1 Men and Category 1 Women respectively on the first day of the inaugural Tour de Bintan at Bintan, Indonesia today.

Stage 1 (156km) of the Tour de Bintan started from Simpang Lagoi via the picturesque Trikora coast, Kijang and Tanjung Pinang back to Simpang Lagoi.

Adi Puttera Bin Yusoff from the OBCC Bank Singapore Cycling team beat 32 others to the Category 1 title, conquering 156km with a time of 4hrs 21min 1 sec at an average speed of 35.86km/h. When asked about his performance, Adi said: “I am extremely happy and the win was totally unexpected. The credit of the win is teamwork. My teammate Calvin and I made out two of the five in the final breakaway. This gave us an advantage as Calvin made a sprint to the finish, and peeled off towards the end to allow me to come through and win.”

Singaporean Serene Lee was decorated with the title of King of the Mountain and Overall Category jersey in the Women’s category, beating out 37 others with a time of 4hrs 46mins 30 secs, with an average speed of 32.67km/h.

Beaming with excitement, Serene said: “I was surprised to be leading at the 30km mark and that gave me the confidence to push on. But I was cramping towards the end, and could hardly push myself up to pedal but I’m glad I made it to the end to win.”

She also attributed her performance to her experience at international riding events, saying: “My experience at the world championships in Melbourne earlier this year really helped me. The standard of competition in Melbourne was really high and I learnt a lot there that helped me at the Tour de Bintan.”

Ending the first day with two jerseys was also Tim Wilkins of Cannasia-Cannondale, who took home the title of King of the Mountain and in the Sprint Ace.

Following the success of last year’s trial race, the Tour de Bintan is an endurance cycling event that takes place from 15 to 17 October 2010. Set in the backdrop of picturesque Bintan, the Tour de Bintan is set to test the mettle of participants with challenging routes over three gruelling stages in two days covering a total distance of 268km.

With the increased popularity in cycling over the past two to three years, the Tour de Bintan is especially popular amongst Singaporeans and Singapore-based expatriates giving them the opportunity to experience road racing in a multi-stage and multi-day format. As compared with other key cycling races of this nature in Asia, the Tour de Bintan has the unique characteristic of being a Tour for amateurs in a competitive format where the cyclists select their race category based on cycling skills and experience rather than age group.

One of the most hotly contested categories will be Category 1, which will see the most serious and experienced teams from Singapore and all around the region vying for the total prize purse of $10,000.

Tomorrow, cyclists will be travelling through the undulating hills and greenery of Nirwana Gardens and the town of Tanjung Uban on Stage 2 (74km), where the cyclists will face more stinging hills and energy-sapping sprint sections. On Stage 3 (38km), participants will race past Bintan Resort’s reservoir and golf courses before sprinting to the finish line.