Rujano wins it
08/03/2010, NST

PINT-sized Venezuelan Jose Rujano (right) was confirmed as the 15th overall winner of Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) after a final stage without much incident in which Stuart Shaw beat a bunch sprint to register the final victory of the race.

Anuar Manan, 24, again grabbed most of the attention as he, too, was confirmed as the points classification winner, effectively the best sprinter in the race. The Guemsan Ginseng Asia rider is the first ever Asian to bag the points classification win in LTdL. After winning Stage Five on Friday, Anuar is also the first ever Malaysian to bag a stage win in LTdL.

Promising 24-year-old Gong Hyo-suk of the Seoul Cycling Team became the first South Korean rider to win the Asian riders' classification and emerged the best placed Asian ever in the general classification (GC), finishing second overall behind 28-year old ISD-Neri rider Rujano.

Drapac-Porsche's Peter McDonald surged ahead of the peloton to win the first "King of the Mountains" (KOM) sprint yesterday to put a three-point cushion between Rujano and himself, which was not challenged at the second KOM point for the Australian to bag the mountains classification victory.

Iran's Tabriz Petrochemical team, the defending UCI Asia Tour overall champions from the 2008-2009 season, underlined their status as the most powerful team in this part of the world. They completed what was only the second teams classification victory in LTdL by an Asian team, after Taiwan's Giant Asia Racing Team did it in 2007.

This was an edition which had a start list comprising the poorest ranked teams since 1997, but pre-race favourite Rujano wasn't overly bothered with that, taking his victory as one he had been planning for to complement his build-up to the Giro d'Italia in May.

"The rhythm of the race was quite high and many riders here were on good form. Generally, the level of Asian riders has improved," said Rujano, who has the best result in four starts at LTdL and was second overall in 2005 behind the late Ryan Cox.

"This is a win that boosts my confidence as I'm back racing in Europe with ISD and it is a good sign as I prepare for the Giro d'Italia," added Rujano, who is the fourth South American winner of LTdL after the Colombian trio of Hernan Dario Munoz in 2002, Freddy Gonzalez in 2004 and Jose Serpa last year.

It could have been a double sweep of jerseys for Rujano as he was tied on 25 points with McDonald with the polka dot jersey also in his grasp at the start of yesterday's stage.

"I tried to sprint at the first KOM, but it was just a short one-kilometre climb which didn't suit me. So, I just didn't think much of challenging for the second KOM of the day as my main target was the overall win and my team had worked all week for me to get this. We have already achieved that."

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