Anuar creates history
NST, 12/2/2008
IT was a narrow miss that Anuar
Manan rued, but several new chapters in the history of Asian cycling
were so sweetly written in Stage Three, the longest stage of Le
Tour de Langkawi (LTdL), from Sitiawan to Banting yesterday.
The 22-year-old Anuar stepped up on the
podium to don the Milo green jersey as the leading sprinter in
LTdL, a historic first for Asian cycling after the Le Tua rider
registered the best ever finish by a Malaysian rider, coming home
second behind Seoul City’s Lee Won Jae.
Won Jae ditched his four breakaway partners
in the final kilometre to emerge as the first South Korean LTdL
stage winner and only the fourth Asian to do so.
“I had thought about attacking and
did so, but I had never dreamed of winning a stage in this race.
But when I saw the chance to do it, I took it and being the first
ever winner from my country is a special thing, so I absolutely
happy,” said Won Jae, 22.
The five-man break that went away about
50km into and lasted to the end of the 209.4 km stage also included
national rider Fauzan Ahmad Lutfi, Meitan Hompo-GDR’s Koji
Fukushima and Trek-Marco Polo’s Chinese rider Xing Yandong
for an all-Asian show that has caused the biggest sensation in
the Tour thus far.
Anuar, despite missing out on the historic
stage win for Malaysia that the Le Tua team had set out to deliver
right from the start, was the biggest winner having swept the
maximum 15 points on offer in the three intermediate sprints yesterday.
“I am quite disappointed as I knew
the other four riders in the break and I was confident that if
it came down to a sprint, the stage would be mine.
“But after almost 150km of the break,
and with one kilometre to go, Won Jae made an attack which I could
do nothing about. He’d gone too far and I still started
to sprint to chase him down but in the end it was too far,”
said Anuar, who led the rest in five seconds behind Won Jae, while
compatriot Fauzan settled for fifth.
Today’s fourth stage features another
predominantly flat route with slight undulations over it’s
169km route from Port Dickson to Batu Pahat.
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