JELEBU, Oct 12 — The national cycling squad had to re-strategise after Muhammad Ameer Ahmad Kamal had to drop out from the remaining stages of the Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) 2022.

National cycling squad head coach Mohd Yusof Nasir said Muhammad Ameer, 27, suffered from food poisoning which caused him to fail to finish within the set time limit after a 15-minute gap with the peloton in the Stage One race from Kuala Pilah to Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

"He had to endure the situation (food poisoning) throughout the race. It is true that any rider who does not finish the race cannot continue to the next stages,” he told Bernama.

Mohd Yusof said that Muhammad Ameer’s "sprint architect” role in the team has now shifted to Mohamad Izzat Hilmi Abdul Halil starting in the second stage (Kuala Klawang-Raub) today.

"The team’s focus will now also be on the other five riders to do their best,” he said.

Muhammad Ameer, a gold medallist at the 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games, when met, said he himself did not know the cause of the food poisoning.

"I experienced it the day before the race. I didn’t expect it to continue because I really wanted to finish the race but at kilometre 70 I had to stop for a whille.

"Thereafter I continued until the 130th kilometer and from there I could no longer continue the race because I had exceeded the set time limit,” he said.

The other riders in the team are Nik Mohd Azwan Zulkiflie, Sofian Nabil Omar Bakri, Muhammad Ameen Ahmad Kamal and Kee Zhe Yie.

Today’s Stage Two covers a distance of 178.9 kilometres, the longest in the eight-stage LTdL this year.

It has two climb zones, in Petaseh and Bukit Damar, and three sprint zones, in Simpang Durian, Karak and Mempaga. — Bernama