A top 30 finish in the Glasgow Commonwealth Games men's road race would be considered a high achievement for national cyclists Muhammad I'maadi Abd Aziz.

Brunei's sole representative at the Games in Scotland will be taking on the 172km Glasgow City Road Course against some tough competition today. I'maadi told The Brunei Times that finishing in the top-30 would be considered a "gold medal" to him.

"The course is a really hard one, with five climb sections for every lap (riders will have to complete twelve 14.4km laps)," noted I'maadi. "The race could be dangerous with the climb and corners, so I need to be well positioned to stay away from it. "I'm excited to race with the professional riders as it will be good experience for me," said I'maadi.

Prior to the Games, I'maadi was given the opportunity to train at the Under-23 Road Training Camp at the Union Cycliste Internationale World Cycling Centre in Geneva, Switzerland, in March for three months. National cycling coach Yafiz Jamaludin hopes his rider will be able to produce good results after gaining experience in the road race event from the training camp.

Yafiz said that there are a lot of professionals taking part and some of them just finished their Tour De France campaign. "I'maadi has been training on his own with the Malaysian riders... There are too many traffic lights here, so it wasn't possible for me to escort him during training," said Yafiz.

"He has done some effort training to increase his performance since he has to make the transition from track to road," added Yafiz. I'maadi started off his campaign on the track in the men's 40km point race and men's 20km scratch race last weekend at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome.

He was unable to progress pass the qualification rounds, though he showed his best performance in the point race where he was one spot away from making it through after finishing in 13th out of 17 riders.

Courtesy from Brunei Times