BALI, Indonesia, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian and Singaporean cyclists won their respective groups in 2018 Gran Fondo New York (GFNY) Bali Series on Sunday, qualifying for the GFNY World Championship round slated for May this year in New York, the United States.
The Singaporean Ernest Heng was the first to cross the finish line after going through Medio Fondo 80-kilometer route in two hours 56 minutes and 29 seconds.
His success was followed by his wife Colleen Ang who finished second by three minutes.
In the Gran Fondo group that applies longer route of 142 kilometer, Indonesian Juwanto won the race in four hours seven minutes and five seconds.
It took five minutes for the second cyclist, also an Indonesian Aryanto Nugroho, to cross the line after Juwanto.
After receiving the trophy in the afternoon, Juwanto said he underwent particular training program one month before taking part in the 2018 GFNY Bali, cycling across the hilly terrain around Central Java province's capital of Semarang.
"I cycled three hours before I went to my work place. To sum it up, I probably went through 600 kilometers of route every week with my training method," Juwanto said in a Sanur lavish hotel that hosted the trophy ceremony.
The 41-year-old said the 2018 GFNY Bali Series was his first time to compete in long-distance race with over 100 kilometers, as he used to take part in domestic races of 20 to 30 kilometers.
Bali kicked off the GFNY global cycling series this year, with other stops across countries including Germany, France, Portugal, Mexico, Uruguay, Costa Rica and Brazil.
The top 10 percent of the cyclists in all age groups would qualify for a front corral start at the GFNY World Championship slated on May 20, 2018 in New York.
Indonesia was scheduled to host another GFNY Series in September in North Sumatra province.
The 2018 GFNY Bali Series was participated by over 1,400 domestic and international cyclists from 32 countries and regions, including Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, Australia, the Philippines, China, Hong Kong, China, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Switzerland, Italy, France, South Africa, Mexico, Thailand and Britain.
With the latest series held in Bali, Indonesia has hosted the cycling race with international tag of "Be A Pro For A Day" three times so far, with the other two in Bali's neighboring island of Lombok in 2016 and 2017 respectively.
The 2016 race marked Indonesia as the first Asian country to host the GFNY series.
