Le
Tua conquers the podium
12/02/2009
BANGI: At the fourth stage today,
the continental team Le Tua conquered the podium as they took
three wins at the longest route of Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL)
2009 from Malacca to Bandar Baru Bangi.
At the route of a total distance of 221km
today, LeTua’s rider Samai who hails from Indonesia sprint
swiftly to the finishing line ahead of the winner of the previous
three stages, Mattia Gavazzi of Diquigiovanni-Androni who is also
the holder of the yellow jersey.
Samai who just recently joined the training
with Le Tua for a month in Malaysia recorded 5hours 15minutes
and 9 second ahead of Gavazzi and Nolan Hoffman of the South African
national team who were second and third respectively.
“Today’s win is a prove that
I’m the best rider in Asia. Even though the route today
is not suitable for a sprinter as myself, I take it as a challenge
for me to improve myself and also prove my worth to Le Tua,”
he said.
Today’s win put Samai as the fifth
Asian rider who had won for the past 14 years LTdL being organized.
Other Asian riders who had won stages of LTdL were Wong Kam Po,
Koji Fukushima, Shinichi Fukushima and LeeWon Jae.
As for the fifth stage tomorrow, Samai said
that it’s up to Jeremy Yates, Tonton Susanto and Ng Yong
Li who are the climb expert.
The win of the 29-year old rider had also
placed him as the best Asian rider and he kept the blue jersey
sponsored by Volkswagen.
“This jersey that I get to keep (blue
jersey) hopefully will be Tonton’s tomorrow and no one else
as the stage in Genting is not my forte and I pretty much prefer
the sixth stage,” he said.
Another rider of LeTua, Yates who was the
fourth overall winner in the previous LTdL 2008 managed to keep
the King of Mountain jersey as the rider from New Zealand led
in both climb zone today in Bukit Tangga and Genting Peres with
16 points.
Up until now, Gavazzi held his grip onto
the yellow jersey as the best overall rider and the green jersey
sponsored by MILO as the sprint king with 64 points.
“Today’s race is quite difficult
and I had mechanical problem as my cable wire snapped and I had
to swap bicycle. Apart from that I also had a puncture today,”
he said.
Apart from that, the rider of MNCF Cycling
Team Suhardi Hassan excelled in today’s race as he managed
to the third best in the Asian classification compared to 26th
placing yesterday.
The 27-year old rider who is better known
as a climb expert still has the chance to get the blue jersey
tomorrow with a difference of 0:09 second behind Samai.
MNCF Cycling Team today secured the ninth
stage overall whilst the Malaysian national team ran out of luck
in the last place.
The fifth stage tomorrow will be the most
important race to all riders to prove their skills at the climb
towards Genting at 1,679.2meters.
The race from Petaling Jaya to Genting Highlands
tomorrow covers a total distance of 102km through sprint zones
in Paya Jaras, Rawang and Gombak before the climb towards Genting.
<< BACK
|
