Tour de Bintan proves its quality label as Asia's premier cycling challenge

The magnificent island of Bintan, just one hour by ferry from Singapore hosted the only event in the series in South East Asia

Three days of racing with the first two as official qualifier events over undulating roads with start and finish in different locations brought smiles on the participants' faces but also to local residents and kids when cheering for the different age groups passing by.

Russian Konstantin Fast was the fastest men in the 17km time trial on Friday in Plaza Lagoi, a new development resort on the island. He beated Swiss Pierre-Alain Scherwey and his compatriot Dmitry Murashko by respectively 1 and 10 seconds.

The female win was for South African Sarah Schneider who beated reigning British World Champion Jessica Rhodes-Jones by 7 seconds while Australian Alison Dyson took third spot with a time 10 seconds slower than the winner.

The 144km Granfondo on Saturday showed all the best the island could offer with some undulating roads in the first and last section of the race while the middle part was mostly flat going towards the turning point in the south.

Singaporean Gabriel Tan rode the overall fastest time winning his age 35-39 group who all started with a 10-minute interval. He bridged the gap to the 19-34 age group with Czech Petr Lukosz and British Benjamin Farnsworth who took two and three in the sprint.

The females started all together in front. Amanda Nabi from Australia outsprinted South African time trial winner Sarah Schneider and Philippine Monica Torres.

The final day of the stage race didn't count as qualifier event for the UCI Gran Fondo World Championships but was taken into account to award the general classification per age group.