Stars align for Singapore cyclist Riyadh Hakim at MTB Eliminator World Cup series in Indonesia

SINGAPORE – It has been a roller-coaster season for Singapore mountain biker Riyadh Hakim as an early season podium finish was overshadowed by injury and illnesses.

However, the stars aligned for him on May 19, as he clinched silver at the MTB Eliminator (XCE) World Cup in Palangkaraya, Indonesia, after capitalising on his rivals’ crashes.

The 25-year-old clocked 1min 42.06sec to finish second behind New Zealand’s Lochlan Brown (1:35.71). Austria’s Theo Hauser (2:17.76) was third.

Riyadh said: “It really means a lot to me, especially this year, it has been quite a roller-coaster half a year, been through lots of ups and downs.

“I had a really great start to the season in Thailand with a podium finish (bronze at the Thailand Mountain Bike Cup Cross Country Olympic or XCO) but then I had an injury and I had to stay out of training for like almost two weeks and then I fell sick with dengue, so it was really like going down, down, down.”

He had competed in the first and second legs of the World Cup series in Paris and Barcelona respectively, but had returned to Asia with a flu which kept him out of training.

He then recovered in time for the Asian Mountain Bike Championships in Malaysia from May 8-12, but finished 20th in the XCO and ninth in the XCE.

Riyadh expressed delight with the silver as the Indonesian leg was supposed to be his “reset race”.

“I really wanted to use this World Cup as a resetting race, to take things step by step and wanted to have fun, to pick up again after last weekend,” he added.

In the third of the eight-part series, the Singaporean won his quarter-final and semi-final and wanted to “carry the momentum” to the final.

He had capitalised on two crashes during the final as Barcelona leg winner Lorenzo Serres had to deal with a broken pedal right out of the gate. The Frenchman lost control of his bike and crashed.

A couple of turns later, race leader Hauser had a punctured tyre after going through the rock garden and Riyadh tried to overtake the Austrian on the inside turn.

Both were blindsided, however, as Brown overtook them. Hauser subsequently lost control of his bike and also crashed.

Riyadh said: “It was a really hectic final, even at the first start straight, there was a crash already and it became a three-horse race after that.

“In this type of high-adrenaline, short-sprint races, any mistake can cost anyone their race and when you see that, you take it to your advantage and try to go for the win.

“With one guy essentially eliminated already, the three of us really went full gas to create a gap so that he can never come back and everything sort of aligned for me yesterday.”

While Riyadh capitalised on the crashes, Singapore Cycling Federation’s high-performance coach Junaidi Hashim believes that his silver medal – which made him the first Singaporean to secure a podium spot in this series – was not all down to luck.

He said: “This is part and parcel of racing because it has happened to him (Riyadh) also in the last few years when he had the opportunity to win medals.

“It has been a very tough year for him because of sickness and injury, it was very painful because preparations were all in place. This year, we will be focusing on building up towards next year’s SEA Games and the following Asian Games.”

The other Singaporeans who competed in Indonesia were Tan Hong Chun (19th), Arief Hardy Lukman (21st) and Mas Ridzwan Mohamad Ali (24th).

Riyadh will miss the next three legs of the World Cup in Turkey, Belgium and Brazil due to the travel distance and his training commitments. But he will compete again in Bengaluru, India, before heading to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for the final leg.

He will next travel to Japan for a training camp before competing in the MTB Yawatahama International on May 25 and 26. He will then compete in the world championships and national championships in the second half of the year.