T&T's Teniel Campbell was targeting a first-place finish on the final day of the Tour of Thailand, which was scheduled to take place last night.
Yesterday the lanky 21-year old T&T rider, representing the World Cycling Centre team (WCC) from Switzerland, won the second stage, a 67km road race event in a time of one hour, 30 minutes and 19 seconds (1:30:19) for a total of 16 UCI points which puts her comfortably in second position.
With 29 points going into the final leg last night, a win would enable her a total of 16 points that would push her to a total of 45 points.
Yesterday Campbell was followed in the second position by her teammate Marlen Reusser of Switzerland, gaining 11 points. Teniel's manager Desmond Roberts said he was backing her to come away with the victory, but her team needed to strategize properly.
Roberts, the owner and manager of cycle club Perfection Services Limited (PSL) said "I knew she would have had a strong chance of winning the race. When I saw her pause on the jump at the end of the opening day race in which she placed third, I told myself she had what it takes to claim the win. What is needed now is for her team members to have a good plan in tonight's final leg and they would win both the team event and individual events."
According to Roberts- "The focus is to qualify for the Olympic Games next year. She will next go to the Pan American Championship next month in Mexico where a top 10 finish will ensure that she qualifies."
In the first stage on Monday, which was a gruelling 97km road race grind in Chiang Mai, 66 participants took the start, but hometown favourite Jutatip Maneephan of Thailand claimed the win in a time of 2.18:354 with an average speed of 41.90km/h. Yumi Kajihara of Japan was second and Campbell was third.