On Form Diquigiovanni Salutes the Return to Genting Highlands
03/02/2009

Kuala Lumpur – The 14th edition of Le Tour de Langkawi returns to the gruelling climb of Genting Highlands after only one year of absence. Road works and Chinese New Year celebrations had forced the organisers to switch to Bukit Fraser in 2008. The experience left many fans of LTdL frustrated. “The race didn’t look as challenging as in the past and Genting is the real trademark of our event”, chief operating officer Datuk Naim Mohamad admitted. “As soon as last year’s Tour was over, although it had been a great race with a lot of suspense till the end, we were determined to go back to the top of Genting.”

It will happen on February 13 for stage 5 with a previously unseen start at the shopping mall The Curve in Damansara.

Gianni Savio’s team Diquigiovanni previously known as Colombia-Selle Italia is almost unbeaten at the City of Entertainment. Only in 2005, their Venezuelan climber José Rujano missed out on the stage win for very few centimetres over the late Ryan Cox from South Africa. Colombians Hernan Dario Munoz, Ruber Marin and José Serpa have captured five trophies out of the six latest Genting Highlands uphill finishes. The climb has also helped their compatriot Freddy Gonzalez to claim the overall win in 2004.

“Of course, for us, the return to Genting is something positive”, Savio commented. “This is the queen-stage of Le Tour de Langkawi. The race is identified world wide because of this high altitude stage finish. We like Genting but not only for technical reasons. It’s obvious that it suits our South American climbers but we have won the race last year on both team and individual overall classifications (with Ruslan Ivanov from Moldova, ed.) without Genting on the course. And we have lost the race two years ago (to Frenchman Anthony Charteau, ed.) with Genting on the course.”

“Every race is different from the previous one”, Savio continued. “We must have the capacity to adapt ourselves and our tactic to any terrain. That’s why cycling is a fascinating sport. There are constant changes in strategies. It’s very similar to football – the sport I come from originally. It’s up to the teams to read the game or the race and put the right actors at the right place.”

The Venezuelan-registered Diquigiovanni-Androni team is again taking Serpa to this year’s race. The Colombian has never lost the Genting stage so far in his three participations to LTdL. He’s on form again as he just won stage 4 last week in the 7-day Tour of San Luis in Argentina where he placed third on GC ahead of Tour de France stars Andriy Grivko (4th) and Ivan Basso (5th). Savio enjoyed seeing his two Venezuelans Carlos Ochoa and Jackson Rodriguez finishing in top 10 as well, respectively 7th and 10th. The same South American trio will combine forces at LTdL.

The other contenders for the prestigious stage win in Genting Highlands and the Genting-City of Entertainment polka dot jersey will be Tour de France stage winner Juan José Cobo and mountain bike star Frederik Kessiakoff of Fuji-Servetto, Bbox Bouygues Telecom’s Swiss climber Johann Tschopp, Spain’s José Angel Gomez Marchante and Ireland’s Philip Deignan from the Cervélo Test Team, French climbing hope Guillaume Bonnafond of Ag2r-La Mondiale, ever green Fortunato Baliani from CSF, Vorarlberg’s Daniel Musiol who was the king of the mountains at the Tour of Germany last year, Australia’s Jai Crawford and South Africa’s Jacques Janse van Rensburg. Ghader Mizbani from Iran should be up there again aiming at the best Asian rider position but he might be given a hard time by LeTua’s Ng Yong Li and Tonton Susanto.

The 12 giant winners of the Genting Highlands cycling history:

1996: Damian McDonald (Aus/Giant Australia)
1997: Luca Scinto (Ita/MG-Technogym)
1998: Giuliano Figueras (Ita/Mapei)
1999: Marcus Ljunqvist (Swe/Cantina Tollo)
2000: Julio Alberto Perez Cuapio (Mex/Panaria)
2001: Paolo Lanfranchi (Ita/Mapei)
2002: Hernan Dario Munoz (Col/Colombia-Selle Italia)
2003: Hernan Dario Munoz (Col/Colombia-Selle Italia)
2004: Ruber Marin (Col/Colombia-Selle Italia)
2005: Ryan Cox (RSA/Barloworld)
2006: José Serpa (Col/Selle Italia-Diquigiovanni)
2007: José Serpa (Col/Diquigiovanni)

The 2009 Le Tour de Langkawi will feature 20 teams from February 9 to 15, starting in Putrajaya, the home of Malaysian government, and finishing in the country’s capital Kuala Lumpur with the traditional criterium at Dataran Merdeka.

The Tour is organized by the Malaysian National Cycling Federation (MNCF) with the support of the Malaysian Government via the Ministry of Youth and Sports and sanctioned by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) and Asian Cycling Confederation (ACC).

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