Hsiao Mei Yu of Chinese Taipei shocked herself by snatching the gold medal ahead of the race favourites in the women's individual road race at Asian Games on Tuesday.

Another outsider, Santia Tri Kusuma of Indonesia, took silver while Zhao Na of China took bronze.

Hsiao started the final sprint twenty meters behind the favouites, but in the final 100 meters, she accelerated hard down the right side of the road, catching her rivals by suiprise.

Hsiao passed Zhao, who was looking at the rider to her left, and maintained her sprint to cross the line four bike-lengths ahead of second-place Tri Kusuma.

Hsiao's winning time was 2 hours 47 minutes 46.124 seconds for the 100km race. She added this gold to the bronze medal she won in the women's 500m time trial on Nov. 13.

Pre-race favourites Natalya Stefanskaya of Kazakhstan placed fourth, You Jina of South Korea was one place behind her in fifth and Mayuko Hagiwara of Japan disappointed in 14th.

"I am too excited to say anything. I did't expect to win a medal, I thought I would just be in the top 10," said Hsiao.

Hsiao, 25, has been cycling for 12 years.

"The training conditions in Taipei are hard. We don't have very good roads. We just have outdoor fields for training. Two months before the Asian Games, I trained about 100km every other day. I also trained for the track races," said Hsiao.

"The course was fairly flat and not very hilly, so it's not that difficult. But there was a small corner approaching the finish which may have caused a bit of trouble," said Tri Kusuma.

 (Xinhua News Agency November 23, 2010)