Asian Competition Tougher Than Ever
04/02/2009

KUALA LUMPUR- In the sport of cycling, Asia has not yet achieved as much as the four other continents, being still behind Europe, America, Oceania and even Africa in terms of results since South Africa scored their first ever stage win at the Tour de France in 2007 after claiming two overall titles at Le Tour de Langkawi in 2005 and 2006 – with the late Ryan Cox and David George. But the Asian competition at LTdL is a sign of constant improvement from Asian riders. While they were quite far down on GC in the first years of the race, Japan’s Shinichi Fukushima was close to the top 10 (11th) last year. In 2007, three Asians made the final top 10: Iran’s Ghader Mizbani (6th), Japan’s Yokihiro Doi (8th) and Hossein Askari, also from Iran (10th).

For almost ten editions of Le Tour de Langkawi, Hong-Kong’s Wong Kam Po was seen as an exception having won the stage to the Cameron Highlands in 2000. Asia’s second stage win only occurred in 2005 with Koji Fukushima being finally awarded in Tanah Merah for all his efforts. He was known for attacking almost every day at kilometre 1 into the race. The super friendly Japanese rider will not be back at LTdL this year because he just called it a career at the age of 35. But his elder brother Shinichi Fukushima will again take part in the event. Aged 37, he’ll be the oldest participant this year. He also won a stage in Karak in 2007.

Lee Won Jae from Korea became the 4th Asian stage winner last year when a fully Asian 5-men breakaway made it through to Banting with Malaysia’s Anuar Manan and Fauzan Ahmad Lutfi coming 2nd and 5th respectively. That day Anuar went on stage to receive the green jersey, a first in Malaysian cycling.

Therefore, Asians in general and Malaysians in particular have now the right to believe in their capacities to compete against the giants at Le Tour de Langkawi. Lee will not return this year since he’s busy in Korea with his compulsory duties at the national military service.

After missing out last year, Iran’s Ghader Mizbani will be again the hot favourite for the Asian overall classification. Never before has Iran send to Malaysia such a competitive team with the likes of Hossein Askari, Mehdi Sohrabi, Amir Zargari and their sprinter Hossein Nateghi who will enable them to score on all terrains.

China had not participated to LTdL as a national team since 2004. They’ll be led by the overall winner of the 2008 Tour of South China Sea Xu Gang who will make its debut in Malaysia. It might be even more interesting to see the return of the national team of Kazakhstan like in the early times of the race when Alexandre Vinokourov and Andreï Kivilev got noticed by the big pro teams and used Malaysia as the starting point of their career. The U23 national champion for road race and time trial Dmitriy Gruzdev is the main figure of the group featuring only young riders – all under 23. Vadim Izotov, 19, will be the youngest participant in the 2009 Le Tour de Langkawi.

The other big attraction of the 14th edition will be the first participation of the Doha Team whose captains Tunisian Aymen Ben Hassine and Algeria’s Abdelbaset Hannachi currently occupy the two top spots of the Asia Tour. A cosmopolitan team featuring also a Qatari and a Syrian, the Doha Team will arrive with good form after warming up at their home race Tour of Qatar.

Seven of the riders currently occupying the top 10 spots in the Asia Tour rankings are on the start list of Le Tour de Langkawi. Malaysia will count on sprinters Anuar Manan and Ahmad Haidar Anuwar from the national team, ever motivated Loh Sea Keong and pure climber Ng Yong Li now back in a local team with Le Tua for shining and why not winning on home soil.

Another major Asian focus this year is the debut of Japan’s Yukiya Arashiro with the big French Pro Tour outfit Bbox Bouygues Telecom. Japanese media including national TV channel NHK have made of Le Tour de Langkawi an event not be missed after his transfer from Meitan-Hompo where he has been replaced by top Korean sprinter Park Sung Baek.

Best Asian rider at Le Tour de Langkawi in the past ten years:

1998: Tonton Susanto (Indonesia national team)
1999: Hideto Yukinari (Japan national team)
2000: Wong Kam Po (HK, Telekom Malaysia)
2001: Wong Kam Po (HK, Telekom Malaysia)
2002: Tonton Susanto (Ina, Telekom Malaysia)
2003: Tomoya Kano (Japan national team)
2004: Ghader Mizbani (Iran national team)
2005: Koji Fukushima (Jap, Bridgestone Anchor)
2006: Hossein Askari (Ira, Giant-Asia)
2007: Ghader Mizbani (Ira, Giant-Asia)
2008: Shinichi Fukushima (Jap, Meitan-Hompo)

The 9 Asian teams for the 2009 LTdL: Meitan-Hompo (Japan), Seoul Cycling (Korea), Doha Team (Qatar), Le Tua (Malaysia), MNCF Cycling Team (Malaysia) and the national teams of Malaysia, Iran, Kazakhstan and China.

<< BACK