Serpa Aims at First Overall Win at Le Tour de Langkawi
05/02/2009

SHAH ALAM, 5th February - Le Tour de Langkawi will be held this year with no former overall winner on the start list. A new name will for sure appear in the history of the race when the Proton Yellow Jersey (Jersi Kuning) will be awarded at Dataran Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur on February 15.

Having switched from road racing to mountain biking, last year’s winner Ruslan Ivanov from Moldova will not come back. He’s no longer part of the roster of the Diquigiovanni-Androni team. Interestingly, another Moldovan will line up and this is the young Alexandre Pliushin, 21, from Ag2r-La Mondiale. He’s a champion in the making. After warming up at the Tour Down Under in Australia, he’s set to collect his first big result as a professional in Malaysia next week.

However, the hot favourites remain the members of the Venezuelan-registered Diquigiovanni-Androni team. Their six riders have already raced and performed together at the Tour of San Luis in Argentina while Le Tour de Langkawi will be the first race of the year for most of the participants. Twice a winner of the Genting stage (in 2006 and 2007), José Serpa from Colombia naturally takes place on top of the list of the potential winners of the 2009 LTdL.

“But we have a major problem”, team manager Gianni Savio explained. “As defending champions, we have the first numbers on the starting list and that means everybody will watch us. The question for us is: how to control the race? With a 6-men team, it’s not an easy task and many of our rivals are highly motivated to beat us. It will be very difficult. Even though the Genting stage suits the characteristics of our riders, before that there will be breakaways, counter attacks, etc.”

Happy with the return to Genting Highlands, Savio also welcomed the initiative of the organisers to adopt a 7-days format for the race. “As an early season race, it’s a very positive move to go for 7 days”, the Italian tactician explained. “It’s enough for setting a proper hierarchy into the field. In seven days, there’s no room for improvisation. The real best riders will have the opportunity to emerge.”

Diquigiovanni will face a strong opposition from the other Grand Tour teams. The new born Cervélo Test Team is coming with a strong contingent of climbers including José Angel Gomez Marchante who got a top-5 overall in the 2006 Tour of Spain and Irish sensation Philip Deignan who is no stranger to Malaysia but now returns with the experience of a 25 year old professional. After their train camp in Portugal, the members of the Swiss-based team are rumoured to be all in a very good shape.

Fuji-Servetto also brings an interesting duo likely to claim the overall win with climbers Juan José Cobo who is no less than the winner of the queen stage of the Pyrénées at Hautacam in last year’s Tour de France and mountain bike star Frederik Kessiakoff from Sweden. Bbox Bouygues Telecom is determined to bring their Swiss light man Johann Tschopp in the best position for the Genting stage after his first experience in Malaysia last year. He was on his way to winning at the top of Fraser’s Hill but was victim of a flat tyre in the front group with 2km to go. His directeur sportif Philippe Mauduit is adamant that Genting Highlands suits him even better than Fraser’s Hill.

At Le Tour de Langkawi, there’s always room for a surprise coming from young riders. Shouldn’t it be Pliushin, the revelation might well be South Africa’s Jacques Janse van Rensburg who has even used a marathon mountain bike race as a warm-up for LTdL. After his 4th place overall last year, New-Zealander Jeremy Yates aims at an even better result as he’ll be boosted by the immense support surrounding Le Tua, the Malaysian continental team he joined especially for this race. The Australian trio formed of Jai Crawford, Richie Porte and Cameron Wurf is also likely to disturb the dominance of the Grand Tour teams while Iran’s Ghader Mizbani hasn’t given up his hope to become the first Asian to win the overall classification of LTdL.

The 13 first overall winners of Le Tour de Langkawi:

1996: Damian McDonald (Aus/Giant-Australia)
1997: Luca Scinto (Ita/MG-Technogym)
1998: Gabriele Missaglia (Ita/Mapei)
1999: Paolo Lanfranchi (Ita/Mapei)
2000: Chris Horner (USA/Mercury)
2001: Paolo Lanfranchi (Ita/Mapei)
2002: Hernan Dario Munoz (Col/Colombia-Selle Italia)
2003: Tom Danielson (USA/Saturn)
2004: Freddy Gonzalez (Col/Colombia-Selle Italia)
2005: Ryan Cox (RSA/Barloworld)
2006: David George (RSA/South Africa national team)
2007: Anthony Charteau (Fra/Crédit Agricole)
2008: Ruslan Ivanov (Mda/Diquigiovanni)

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