Le Tua Cycling Team aims
high in LTdL 2008
24/1/2008
Malaysia's first and most successful UCI
Continental team Le Tua will be making their second appearance
in Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) with an eye on making a bigger impact
than they did a year ago.
Starting Asia's biggest cycling event from
February 9 to 17 will be a team that comes fresh from a highly
successful campaign in the Jelajah Malaysia, which saw their veteran
Indonesian climber Tonton Susanto win the overall individual title,
while sprinter Anuar Manan took the points classification.
The 35-year old Tonton, who hails from Jakarta,
claimed his first ever overall victory in the Jelajah Malaysia
thanks to a disciplined overall performance by his Malaysian team.
"With time running out for me, that victory was a sweet one
because after so many years of trying, I finally have an overall
victory to savour," said Tonton, who two weeks prior to Jelajah
Malaysia had finished second overall in the Tour of Thailand behind
Iran's Ahad Kazemi Sarai.
"We have a strong team which worked
really well together so we hope to keep it all together for LTdL.
Obviously, LTdL is a different level of cycling, but if we keep
our discipline and be a bit brave, we can deliver some good results."
Tonton will be Le Tua's best bet for a shot
at the Asian riders' jersey in LTdL, being among the top Asian
climbers in the field this time around.
In the Jelajah Malaysia young sprinter Anuar
made headlines with a record three stage wins as the Le Tua team
controlled proceedings dominantly despite a field that included
some of the biggest names in Asian cycling.
Anuar had also secured his second successive
overall points classification win in Jelajah Malaysia, which confirmed
his status as one of Asia's top young sprinters.
In his train he has the seasoned former
national rider Sayuti Zahit, Ahmad Haidar Anuawar and Nor Rizuan
Zainal, along with Sea Games gold medallist Rian Ariehaan of Indonesia.
"We have a stronger team than we had
last year with Sayutithe key addition.
On top of that, our experience in LTdL last
year gave us some knowledge of what we have to do to achieve results
in a big race like this," said Anuar, who is 21-years old
and hails from Kuala Ibai in the East Coast state of Terengganu.
"The problem we had when lining up
for the sprint finishes last year was getting to the front. We
really were outclassed by the stronger European teams then. But
now we know better and we can try to match them."
Even so, it wasn't entirely a dismal showing
by Le Tua in last year's LTdL as in all 12 years of the race's
history prior to that, there had been just two fifth placed finished
in stages registered - first by Nor Effandy Rosli in 2000 and
then Suhardi Hassan in 2005.
Last year, Ahmad Haidar registered two fifth
placed finishes.
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