Photo courtesy of Chinese Taipei Cycling Association

Taipei, March 15 (CNA) Japanese cyclist Yukiya Arashiro emerged as the winner of the 2018 Tour de Taiwan Thursday as the tournament concluded, bagging up both the yellow and blue jerseys which are awarded to the overall leader and the leading Asian athlete, respectively.

Arashiro said his strategy was to stay with the main group while keeping the lead between the leading group and the main group within three minutes.

He thanked his teammates for helping him secure both the yellow and blue jerseys which were awarded to him after the fourth stage of the tournament, adding that he was very happy to have received the yellow jersey.

The last time he received the yellow jersey was in 2012 at the Tour du Limousin, he said.

He also thanked Taiwan for supporting Japan in the wake of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, Arashiro added.

The best-performing Taiwanese cyclist in the fifth stage was Chen Chien-chou (陳建州) of Taiwan's RTS Racing Team, who was ranked 44th.

The top three winners of the fifth stage were Italian cyclist Luca Pacioni, Lucas Sebastian Haedo of Unitedhealthcare Professional Cycling Team and Remond Kreder of Team Ukyo.

After the fifth stage, Edwin Avila Vanegas of Israel Cycling Academy was awarded the green jersey for leader of the general individual classification on points, while Jimmy Janssens of Belgium's Cibel-Cebon was awarded the Red Polka-dot Jersey for the leader of the mountain general classification.

And also after the last stage, the leader of the general team time classification was Belgium's Cibel- Cebon.

The fifth and last stage of the tournament, which covered a distance of 192.8 km, started in front of Pingtung County Hall and finished at Dapeng Bay Tourist Center.

The 2018 Tour de Taiwan was held March 11-15 around the country.

(By Lee Chin-wei and William Yen)
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