Van Rensburg sees no mountain too high
11/02/2009, NST Online

THE ideal result for the romantics would be a 21-year-old contracted to an Asian team, winning Le Tour de Langkawi's (LTdL) overall title riding for his national team, and Jacques Janse Van Rensburg (pic) began confirming that he could go for it by taking the lead in the mountains classification yesterday.

A powerful jump in the final metres leading to the only categorised climb on offer yesterday at Bukit Inas (category three) left the rest of the pack trailing in his wake and upon pulling on the Genting polka dot jersey which he swept off the back of teammate Jaco Venter, described the lead as an opening for more options to go for.

"We have a little bit more strength in the team than we had in this race last year. But we're going to be a little bit more conservative over the next few days, as we're looking at the Genting stage, trying to keep the jersey and maintaining a good position in the general classification," said Van Rensburg, who is enlisted with the China-registered Trek-Marco Polo team for this season.

If he felt he could be among the contenders before the start of the race, the feeling grew stronger after yesterday's race.

"We have good climbers in the race, but today (yesterday) I climbed with riders from Ag2r, Fuji-Servetto and the rest, and got to have a look at them. So, we will maybe be looking at some breakaways before Genting and our climbers can also be in these breakaways to get some time on the rest before Genting," added Van Rensburg.

In particular, South Africa's eyes will be on tomorrow's 222km Stage Four from Malacca to Bandar Baru Bangi which could prove to shake up the general classification before the peloton prepares for the decisive Genting stage the next day. The stage includes a category three climb up Bukit Tangga and a category two climb up Genting Perez before the finish.

Stage Four would be an ideal one for the first non-bunch sprint finish of this year's LTdL. Nevertheless, today's Stage Three offers a simple category four climb at Kesang, dumped in the middle of the race which could prove tricky for Van Rensburg to defend his slim lead in the mountains classification.

He holds a two point advantage from Venter and ISD's Bartosz Huzarski. Australia's climber Jai Crawford is another good climber in the running, four points adrift of Van Rensburg.

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