Battle of the sprinters
2/2/2008

PETALING JAYA – With the first climb only on Stage 6, the Sprint Jersey, sponsored by Milo, is likely to get even more attention than usual in this year’s Le Tour de Langkawi from Feb 9 to 17. The Le Tour de Langkawi has made its trademark on being suitable for the sprinters in the past and with the climb coming in late, there will be a massive battle for the green right from the start.

Defending champion Alberto Loddo from Italy, who won five stages last year, will be back in action. He now rides for Tinkoff and is already a winner in 2008. On Jan 30, he won Stage 4 in the Tour of Qatar, outsprinting former world champion Tom Boonen who won the points competition at the Tour de France last year.

Loddo will undoubtedly have the same sensational form he had in 2007. However, he’ll face stronger opposition in the sprints at LTdL this time. The level of sprinters will be the highest ever seen in Malaysia with the return of Germany’s Danilo Hondo, who is a new signing for Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni-Androni Giocattoli, following a two-year ban.

Hondo, a former stage winner at the Tour of Italy and the Tour of Spain, said: “I want to show that I’m still one of the best sprinters in the world.” The 34 years-old, who finished 2nd to Alessandro Petacchi in the 2005 Milan-San Remo and 2nd in the 2004 Paris-Tours, comes with an impressive 51 pro wins under his belt.

Watching a Loddo-Hondo duel sounds great but there will be more sprinters than the two of them on the start line in Alor Setar. CSF Group-Navigare had planned to line up their top sprinter Paride Grillo but he’s recovering from a car accident on New Year’s Eve and was replaced by Ruben Bongiorno from Argentina who is no stranger to LTdL, having won the final criterium of Dataran Merdeka twice already.

The other European teams coming with top sprinters are Crédit Agricole, with British veteran Jeremy Hunt, Bouygues Telecom with Aurélien Clerc of Switzerland and Rony Martias who is from the hot and humid Carribean island of Guadeloupe, Ag2r-La Mondiale with Belarus’ Alexandre Usov who got two 3rd placings in bunch sprints at the Tour of Spain last year.

With the globalization of cycling, sprinters now come from all over the world. Seoul’s Park Sung Baek ran 5th in the points competition of LTdL last year thanks to many regular finishes which included a 4th placing in stage 2 in Kulim.

Japan’s Takahashi Miyazawa with Meitan Hompo-GDR will have to be watched closely again as well as Russia’s Sergey Kudentsov from Trek-Marco Polo and Australian U-23 champion Simon Clarke from Southaustralia.com. South Africa has huge hopes in Nolan Hoffman, a sprinter from Cape Town who hasn’t lost many sprints in his country and knows what European cycling is about.

But the expectations for Malaysia are built around Anuar Manan, who rides for the LeTua Cycling Team. The 21-year-old from Kuala Terengganu has showed consistent progress since he made the top-10 in bunch sprints for his first participation at LTdL in 2007. In November, he has won a stage at the UCI 2.1 Tour of Hainan in China.

In January this year, he won three stages and the points competition overall in the UCI 2.2 Jelajah Malaysia where he actually never lost a single sprint, whether it was a hot spot sprint or a sprint for stage win. Not only him but the way his LeTua team led him out has impressed the foreign participants. “They rode just like a European team!”, said Irishman Paul Griffin from Giant-Asia.

Is Anuar able to beat the likes of Hondo? “I’ll give a try for sure”, he said. He’s still confident despite the accident he had on Jan 21 at training when a car hit him. He sustained a few broken teeth and a broken bike that was quickly replaced by a Time frame similar to what Tom Boonen was using when he became the world champion and the winner of the Tour of Flanders two year ago.

Because of Anuar’s sprinting and positioning abilities and his current form, Malaysia is probably the closest to a stage win at LTdL. And with support from other sprinters like Ahmad Haidar Anuwar and Sayuti Zahit, Malaysian cycling enthusiasts certainly have something to look forward to when the LTdL starts next week.

Meanwhile, LTdL COO, Datuk Naim Mohamad received the Milo-sponsored green jersey from Mr Ng Ping Loong from Nestle Products Sdn Bhd at a Press Conference held here today.

Milo will be sponsoring the Milo Bike Challenge at the start and finish venues. The bike challenge will comprise of several events like the Junior Sprint Challenge, Street Bike Challenge and the Bicycle Stunt Act.

This year, a total of 25 teams will grace the 13th edition of the prestigious LTdL. With the increased participation and the return of the Pro Tour teams, combined with the support of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, who are the main organizers for the event next year, the LTdL 2008 is set to be the best ever since its inception in 1996.

The Tour is also sanctioned by the Malaysian National Cycling Federation (MNCF), the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) and the Asian Cycling Confederation.

One of the major differences in the Tour is the idea of taking it closer to the people. To achieve this, more events will be organised on the ground which means more carnival-like activities at all start and finish venues. One of the side events to be included will be cycling clinics.

One of the priorities for the Tour is to promote cycling at the grass root level. This will be done via the Rukun Tetangga and Kampung Baru programmes. One of the other key messages will be to encourage more Malaysians to take up cycling as a means to a healthier lifestyle.

Winners of the points competition in the past 10 LTdL:
2007: Alberto Loddo (Italy)
2006: Steffen Radochla (Germany)
2005: Graeme Brown (Australia)
2004: Gordon Fraser (Canada)
2003: Graeme Brown (Australia)
2002: Robert Hunter (South Africa)
2001: Roberto Bettini (Italy)
2000: Gordon Fraser (Canada)
1999: Graeme Miller (New Zealand)
1998: Fred Rodriguez (USA)

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