A history was made when more than 100 cyclists made their journey through Sabah picturesquare terrain in the Tour Of Borneo.
A journey that took them a total distance of 758.4 kilometres for 5 days (27 April to 1 May 2012) and 5 stages.
The 5 stages are from Semporna to Tawau, then to Lahad Datu, to Sandakan, Sepilok to Kundasang and lastly to Kota Kinabalu. Hence, the tour start from East Coast of Sabah and end at the capital city, Kota Kinabalu in the north West of Sabah.
This is Sabah first international cycling road race and featured a total of 19 teams from the national team, Clubs, and continental teams such as the Team Genesys Wealth Advisers (AUS) and OCBC Singapore Continental Cycling Team (SIN). The tour promised unpredictable challenges within the long distances route and Sabah mountainous terrain.
The first overall victory of The Tour Of Borneo goes to Michael Torckler, from New Zealand`s Pure Black Racing Team and was the winner of the first stage of the tour. Australia's Genesys Wealth Advisers' Nathan Earle come in second in the final general classification but he also the winner of the second stage and fourth, and winner of the mountains classification. While the third stage won by Anthony Giacoppo and the last stage won by Volodymyr Zagorodniy from Ukraine`s.
Tour of Borneo organising chairman, Dato` Fredie Sua said that this international race is at par with Malaysia other international race, which is the 'Jelajah Malaysia' Cycling and the annual 'Le Tour The Langkawi'.
This championship is rated 2.2 by the international cycling union (UCI) and now listed on UCI`s Asian Tour calender.
