Days before competing in the Tour ta’ Malta, Etienne Bonello, of Team Greens, was in top form as he won the Tour of Cyprus.

Together with his Team Greens team-mates, Bonello travelled to Cyprus after concluding the 850km six-stage Tour of Algeria.

He was off to a flying start in Cyprus with a second-place finish in the first stage, from Nicosia to Larnaca.

On the second day, Bonello prevailed in the nine-kilometre hill-top finish to Lefkara to claim the leader’s jersey.

In the final leg, from Limassol to Paphos, Bonello was strongly challenged by his close rivals, the riders from Israel, Dubai, Greece and Belgium, but the Greens riders showed great teamwork in protecting their leader.

The Maltese outfit fended off their opponents’ attempts as Bonello managed another second place in the final stage to secure the Tour of Cyprus title in an overall time of 3:41:45.

Gil Kivetz, of Team Bike Focus Israel, was second in 3:42:36 ahead of Steffen Streich (Team Spesialistes Chios-Lesvos, Greece) in 3:42:49.

Team Greens’ Christian Formosa was a creditable fourth despite racing in support of Bonello.

The hard work of the Maltese riders was rewarded as they topped the team classification.

They were followed by Ledig Erf, of Belgium, and Team Frenkies, of Dubai.

Marie Claire Aquilina rode to third place overall in the women’s category.

The Team Greens squad was composed of Bonello, Bernhard Azzopardi, James Mifsud, Aquilina and guest rider Formosa with the back-up support of Team Greens manager Charles Sammut.

Bonello is an athlete supported by the KMS 20/20 scheme.

The trip to Cyprus and parti-cipation in the tour was made possible through the assistance of Emirates Airlines, Greens Supermarket and BBB Bike Parts.