KUNDASANG - NATHAN Earle of the Genesys Wealth Advisers team bagged victory in the Tour of Borneo's longest stage from Sepilok to Kundasang today. It was Earle's second stage win in the inaugural edition of the Tour of Borneo after he won the second stage from Tawau to Lahad Datu on Saturday, but it wasn't enough to shed time and wrest the yellow jersey from a highly impressive Michael Torckler of the Pure Black Racing Team.

Earle crossed the finish line with overall leader Torckler right behind him as the duo jostled for the victory after breaking free from a group of 13 breakaway riders that started the final climb of the grueling 214.8km stage together.

Aussie Nathan Earle (Genesys Wealth Advisers) wins his second stage of the inaugural Tour of Borneo.

With three kilometres to go, it was Earle, Torckler and Polygon-Sweet Nice's Bambang Suryadi, who was dropped as the leading duo raced up the final two kilometres. At the finish, and realizing that he had retained the yellow jersey, Torckler just cruised over the finish line behind Earle, who added the red jersey for the king of the mountains classification to his stage win.

"It was a tough, long stage, but I like the climbs so I'm happy to have won here. The plan was to go for the yellow jersey, but Michael was amazingly strong today. There was nothing we could do to break him," said Earle. Heading into the final stage, Torckler holds a six seconds lead over Earle in the general classification and hopes everything goes well in the stage from Kundasang to Kota Kinabalu tomorrow.

"I've not rode in such a long stage for a long time, so I'm happy that my body kept up with it. It's such a great feeling to be able to ride like this after being out of the sport for a year as I recovered from a broken knee cap," said Torckler. "Tomorrow, I hope all of my teammates are in good shape for the final stage. We need to control the race and bring the yellow jersey to the finish."

The competition jersey leaders in the Tour of Borneo.

Malaysia's Shahrul Mat Amin of the Terengganu Cycling Team produced an impressive performance in the stage, finishing fourth behind Earle, Torckler and Bambang to take over the Malaysian riders white jersey. "My coach's instructions were for me to stay in the front group and try to climb. So I tried to stay with the riders in the front and managed to do so until the final climb, then the leaders just went away and I was running out of steam. All I could do was watch," said Shahrul.

"I am happy to have taken the Malaysian riders jersey, but quite disappointed that I couldn't do enough to take the Asian riders' jersey." Kazakhstan's Sergey Kuzmin finished seventh in the stage and took charge of the Asian riders classification lead by the skin of his teeth, being tied on time with Tonton Susanto of Indonesia's Putra Perjuangan team, while Shahrul is third, just three seconds adrift.

The Tour of Borneo ends with a 112.4km final stage from Kundasang to Kota Kinabalu tomorrow.

Words and Photos: 2012 Tour of Borneo.