Kuala Lumpur, 15 February 2009 – Gianni Savio’s Diquigiovanni-Androni Gioccatoli team completed what was effectively the most dominant team performance ever in Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) with multiple titles in their bag after the final stage of the race, the Kuala Lumpur Criterium today.

Venezuela-registered professional continental team Diquigiovanni completed the Tour with Jose Serpa, who won the Genting stage for the third time on Friday, bagging the overall title and the mountains classification, while quadruple stage winner Mattia Gavazzi took the points classification win. Diquigiovanni capped it all by taking the teams classification win with a seven minute and 13 seconds advantage over second placed Australia.

LTdL 2009 Winner

The only other jersey on offer, the VW blue jersey for the Asian riders’ classification winner, was taken by Le Tua Cycling Team’s veteran Indonesian rider Tonton Susanto, who bagged his third ever win in that classification after doing the same in 1999 and 2002.

Yesterday’s stage ended in another bunch sprint and the expectations, as ever, was another Gavazzi win, but the Italian got himself boxed in and lost out to Bbox-Bouygues Telecom’s 28-year old Johann Gene, who registered his first ever victory since turning pro in 2005.

Serementi Diquigiovanni

“I never started the race thinking that I could win. The first six days, I was leading out (Yukiya) Arashiro. But today, I was feeling good and I decided to have a go on my own. I’ve tried to win races before with breakaways, never in a bunch sprint. Today, inside the final 50 metres, I wasn’t in front yet, so I wasn’t even looking at the finish line but just kept going,” said Gene.

Gene broke what was Diquigiovanni’s stanglehold on stage wins in this edition of LTdL only for the second time. Le Tua Cycling Team’s Indonesian rider Samai Amari won stage Four of the Tour on Thursday to rob Diquigiovanni off the other win.

“This has been a great Tour for us. It was my fourth attempt and this time I made no mistakes as I did on previous occasions. We won the Genting stage and almost everything else, so we’ve started the season really well this time. I’m now looking at the Giro d’Italia, where we’ll be fielding a team many expect to be very potent,” said Serpa.

“My form here was good, but was at about 90 percent, so there’s still room for progress until the Giro, where we’ll have a team that includes the likes of Gilberto Simoni and Davide Rebellin.”

Team manager Gianni Savio said the team had always looked at LTdL with an intention to win, the same as each race they entered, but this dominant performance marked yet another historic note in the team’s history in this race, being the most successful team ever. They have won the overall individual title twice before through Hernan Dario Munoz in 2002 and Freddy Gonzalez in 2004.

“For us this has always been an important race early in our season and we’ve prepared very well for the race this time around, in the Tour de San Luis in Argentina. There, we won two stages through Gavazzi and Serpa, and here it is the same two winners, doing much more than that,” said Savio.[]

Stage 7 Race Log

Serpa is the overall winner of the 14th Le Tour de Langkawi.

Yohan Gene wins bunch sprint. 2nd Bongiorno. 3rd Gavazzi.

1 lap to go. All together. Yates leads the bunch.

Loh Sea Keong again in the lead with 2 Kazakhs. 2 laps to go.

Sprint 3 with 3 laps: 1. Bates, 2. Shushemoin, 3. Slonov, 4. Semple.

All together with 4 laps to go.

Pliuschin is the new leader.

Pujol alone away.

Sprint 2 with 6 laps to go: 1. Bates, 2. Sushemoin, 3. Loh, 4. Kostyuk.

All together after half way.

Bates rejoins the 2 leaders.

2 leaders: Loh Sea Keong and Shushemoin.

Hui and Vandervelde have 10 seconds lead.

Bates anticipated the sprint and it’s now all together again.

Sprint 1 with 9 laps to go: 1. Bates, 2. Celli, 3. Ochoa, 4. Mirenda.

All together after 1 lap. Diquigiovanni in command.

Start proper given to the last stage of le tour de langkawi in Kuala Lumpur.

Gavvazi, Winner @Stage 6

Shah Alam, February 14, 2009 – After a ‘two-day break’ Mattia Gavazzi got back to his winning ways, bagging his fourth stage victory in the 14th edition of Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL), a 146.8 kilometre Stage Six from Batang Kali to Shah Alam today.

The Italian sprinter registered his team Serramenti Diquigiovanni-Androni Giocatoli’s 20th ever stage win in LTdL after yet another bunch sprint, but this time it required a photo-finish to separate between three frontrunners, Ag2r La Mondiale’s Aurelian Clerc, Garmin-Slipstream’s Chris Sutton and Gavazzi, as the trio crossed the line side-by-side to end the stage.

Gavazzi, 26 said his team of workhorses, who were drained after almost total dominance in the first five days of the Tour, had initially planned to take the day easy and alow a harmless breakaway to go.

‘This race, for us, has been very successfull so far. We’ve won almost everything there is to win, so we decided to take it easy tosay and if there was a breakaway, we would let it go.’

‘But then there was a good breakaway of nine riders after the king of the mountains point (at 36.8km) and there was (Cervelo Test Team’s) Gomez Marchante. He was in 10th position in the general classification and had just about three minutes to catch Jose Serpa,’ said Gavazzi.

‘Luckily for us, the Australian nation team and ISD did a lot of work to keep the break under control and bring it back. When it came to the sprint, my teammates again did a good job of leading me out and all I had to do was go for the win, although this time it was much closer then previously.’

Gavazzi pipped Clerc to first, with Sutton having to settle for third this time around.

Serpa’s yellow jersey remained intact with just the final stage, the Kuala Lumpur Criterium remaining tomorrow.

Gianni Savio’s Diquigiovanni-Androni Team, one of the most popular in Le Tour de Langkawi, have hus far produced their most dominant performance, taking charge of three of the four leaders’ jerseys.

Gavazzi still leads the points classification with 84 points, from South Africa’s Nolan Hoffman, with last year’s green jersey winner Clerc in third on 50 points.

Diquigiovanni have the yellow jersey and polka dot jersey virtually confirmed by Serpa, who won his third ever Genting Highlands stage, the LTdL’s queen stage on Friday. They also lead the overall teams’ classification.

Malaysian team Le Tua are the only other jersey holders, with their Indonesian rider Tonton Susanto also virtually confirmed as the Asian riders’ jersey winner with just the showcase Kuala Lumpur Criterium remaining.[]

Stage 6 Race Log

Stage result: 1. Gavazzi, 2. Clerc, 3. Sutton, 4. Vigano, 5. Hoffman, 6. Haselbacher, 7. Abakoumov, 8. Arashiro, 9. Musiol, 10. Venter

Gavazzi wins again. Clerc and Sutton on the same line.

Meyer alone with 3km to go.

Attack by Pliuschin.

All together with 10km to go.

At km 111, the gap is 1.30. Still ISD at the head of the bunch.

Sprint 3 at km 105.8: 1. Clarke, 2. Baliani, 3. Meyer, 4. Fukushima.

Sprint 2 at km 87.5: 1. Baliani, 2. Fukushima, 3. Clarke, 4. Meyer.

ISD leads the bunch. Time gap: 1.25.

1.40 the gap at km 87.

Gomez Marchante is the highest ranked of the breakaway, 9th at 3.37. Diquigiovanni and Australia lead the bunch. Gap: 55 sec.

1.15 the gap at km 59.

Sprint 1 at km 40.9: 1. Matveyev, 2. Shimizu, 3. Vigano, 4. Sohrabi.

9 riders in the lead: Le Floc’h, Meyer, Bonnafond, Clarke, Gomez, Baliani, Hungerbuhler, Fukushima, Rabie. 1′ lead at km 51.

Kom at km 36.8: 1. Rodriguez, 2. Clerc, 3. Yates.

At km 35, all together.

Duggan again in the lead but with Pliuschin.

Duggan and Pujol break clear after 28km.

Serpa back in the bunch after puncture.

Many attacks but no breakaway developed in the first 20km.

116 starters today in Batang Kali.

Hose Serpa, Stage 5 Winner

Colombian Jose Serpa has won Le Tour de Langkawi’s queen stage, the climb up Genting Highlands for the second time to take charge of the overall lead in the general classification on a hectic day in the hills which served up Stage Five today.

It was an expected win for Serpa, the pre-race favourite, but what wasn’t expected was the stiff challenge posed by Australia’s Jai Crawford all the way up the climb, despite a three-pronged attack by the Colombian’s Diquigiovanni-Androni Gioccatoli team, with Venezuelans Jackson Rodriguez and Carlos Jose Ochoa forming his workforce as the stage went vertical with 17 kilometres to go at the end of the 102 kilometre route that started in Petaling Jaya.

Fuji-Servetto’s Frederik Kessiakoff also posed a threat in the latter stages after being with the Diquigiovanni trio and Crawford since they were part of the decisive attack that initially comprised 11 riders, but at the finish line it was Serpa at 24 seconds ahead of Crawford, Rodriguez third a further 19 seconds behind and Kessiakoff fourth, another three seconds adrift.

The win also meant Serpa took charge of the mountains classification lead from overnight leader Jeremy Yates of the LeTua Cycling Team, as the finish line offered a hors category points award of 25 for the winner, which firmly put Serpa in the lead ahead of Crawford, who got 22 points for second. Yates is third with 16 points.

“We have three jerseys and four stage wins, so this has turned out to be a great race for us so far,” said Serpa, whose teammate Mattia Gavazzi won the opening three stages and is still in the lead of the points classification.

“Our team is strong and I have the confidence that we will be able to defend these leads until the finish on Sunday. For me, I am grateful the way it turned out this time, as even after I won the Genting stage in 2007, I had made a mistake, being asleep in the opening stages and allowed a long breakaway to go in the early stages and never managed to make up the time,” said Serpa.

The only jersey not with the Diquigiovanni team is the Asian riders’ jersey, which went to Malaysia’s LeTua Cycling Team’s Indonesian climber Tonton Susanto. The lead put the 35-year old Tonton firmly in the running for his third ever Asian riders’ classification win after doing it in 1999 and 2002.

“I am really grateful for what the team has done for me. Just two years ago, I was thinking that my career was over. I thought I would never be able to achieve anything more than what I already had. Then I joined LeTua and they’ve inspired me to carry on. After I won the Jelajah Malaysia last year, I started to believe in the training and the methods that this team has put in place,” said Tonton.

LTDL moves into its penultimate stage tomorrow with 147.6 kilometres to take the peloton from Batang Kali to Petaling Jaya in the central state of Selangor.[]

Stage 5 Race Log

2nd Crawford 3rd Rodriguez 4th Kessiakoff 5th Tschopp 6th Ochoa 7th Van Rensburg 8th Susanto 9th Euser 10th Gomez 11th Porte 12th Deignan 13th Cobo

Serpa wins for the third time in Genting Highlands.

Last km.

28 seconds for Serpa.

2km to go.

20 sec between Serpa and Crawford.

Crawford attacks.

Serpa is 25 sec ahead of Rodriguez, Ochoa and Crawford. Tschopp and Kessiakoff at 1 minute.

Serpa goes solo.

Leaders at 5km to go. 21 to the 2 chasers.

Tschopp and Kessiakoff 15 seconds behind the 4 leaders.

4 leaders: Ochoa, Rodriguez, Serpa and Crawford.

Crawford chases alone.

Rodriguez and Serpa away.

11 in the lead.

Attack by Rodriguez.

Wurf does most of the work.

Leading group: Ochoa, Rodriguez, Serpa, Tschopp, Euser, Kessiakoff, Fleemann, Pozzovivo, Gong, Susanto, Crawford, Wurf, Van Rensburg.

15 riders coming accross strongly.

Correction: it’s Wyss in the front.

Nardello alone in the front.

Hard climbing now!

With 20km to go, the gap is 3 minutes.

Garmin shows up at the head of the peloton.

With 25km to go, the gap is 3.50.

Under the action of Ag2r, the reduced the deficit to Nardello and Wyss: 3.55 at km 73. Genting Highlands is close.

Ag2r leads the bunch. Latest time gap: 4.15 at km 70.

At km 64, the gap is 4.05.

Sprint 3 at km 57.7: 1. Nardello, 2. Wyss, 3. Euser, 4. Sutton.

3.50 is the gap at km 61.

Sprint 2 at km 37.5: 1. Wyss, 2. Nardello, 3. Hoffman, 4. Euser.

44 km covered in the first hour. 3 minutes gap.

2.30 at km 35.

Nardello and Wyss have broken clear at km 27. Their lead is 2.20 at km 32.5.

At km 30, the two riders in the lead have 2 minutes advantage.

The Fuji Servetto team is very active today. Attack at km 26 by Nardello followed by Wyss.

Sprint 1 at km 16: 1. Gavazzi, 2. Hoffman, 3. Suhardi, 4. Vigano.

Many attacks but regroupment before Sprint 1 at km 16.

Vigano is the first attacker of the day.

117 riders have started stage 5.

Very early start for stage 5 from The Curve to Genting Highlands.

Samai, Stage 4 Winner

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.[]

Stage 4 Race Log

Winner Samai from letua.

1km to go: 1. Cervelo rider away.

All together with 3km to go.

6km to go: 33 sec.

10km to go. 1.15 is the gag between the 4 leaders and the bunch. 4 leaders: Yates, Susanto, Weissinger and Rodriguez.

15km to go. 50 seconds behind the two leaders are Susanto and Rodriguez. The bunch is 2.05 behind Yates and Weissinger. 2 riders in the lead: Yates and Weissinger. Arashiro tries to go solo with 25km to go.

Arashiro tries to go solo with 25km to go.

With 30km to go, the bunch is 1 minute behind the 9 leaders. Yates and Van Heerden have been caught. After the downhill, Yates and Van Heerden are 50 sec ahead of their former companions and 2.20 ahead of the peloton.

2 leaders: Yates and Van Heerden. In the climb of Genting Peres, Loubet made it accross to the 8 leaders by himself.

At km 151, the gap is 3.35. At km 142, the deficit of the bunch is 3.05. The bunch has caught the 16 attackers.

Gap at km 140: 4 minutes. In the hilly part of the race, a group of 16 riders has gone clear from the bunch.

Kom at km 125.7: 1. Yates, 2. Van Heerden, 3. Weissinger, 4. Fukushima.

At km 143, the gap is 4.55.

At km 116, the gap has increased again: 6.05.

At km 116, the gap has increased again: 6.05. Cervélo and Kazakhstan lead the bunch.

The gap goes up again: 5.05. At km 106, the gap has increased to 4.10. Sprint 3 at km 103.4: 1. Rusli, 2. Yates, 3. Van Heerden, 4. Arashiro.

At km 100, the 8 leaders are 3 minutes ahead of the peloton.

Sprint 2 at km 69.2: 1. Van Heerden, 2. Weissinger, 3. Rusli, 4. Arashiro.

At km 93, the gap is 3.15. 90.4 km covered in 2 hours.

At km 68, chasers at 3.15, bunch at 5.05.

At km 60, the bunch is 4.30 behind the breakaway.

Hasanin and Ben Hassine from Doha team in between the breakaway and the bunch. 2.30 at km 57.

Advantage: 1.55 at km 55.8 leaders: Arashiro, Matveyev, Weisinger, Fukushima, Kim, Yates, Rusli, Van Heerden. 50km covered in the first hour.

Attack at km 45 by Arashiro, Fukushima and Venter.

Sprint 1 at km 37.7: 1. Gavazzi, 2. Hoffman, 3. Suhardi, 4. Sutton.

Attack by the yellow jersey! All together at km 32.

Arashiro and Abakoumov in the lead at km 30.

More than 25km covered in 30 minutes! All together at km 25.

11 riders in the lead at km 22, including Serpa and Cobo.

Many attacks in the first ten km but the peloton reacts all the time.

All 119 riders have taken the start of stage 4. This is the longest stage with 221 km.

Gavazzi 3rd Win

MALACCA: Italian rider Mattia Gavazzi conquered Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) 2009 as he got a hattrick and manages to keep the yellow jersey after he finished the third stage today.

The 26-year old rider of pro continental team Diquigiovanni-Androni defeated other riders as he did a spectacular sprint up to the finishing point in the third stage today from Malacca to Malacca, a total distance of 186km.

Gavazzi managed to put himself in the perfect spot to sprint all the way to the finishing point leading the rest of 118 riders in 4 hours 33 minutes and 29 seconds.

“Today, I would say that with the back up from my teammates, I was in a really good condition. They did really well and in high spirit to win,” he said.

Gavazzi won the opening stage from Putrajaya to Senawang on Monday and the second stage from Senawang to Malacca yesterday.

Team Manager Gianni Savio said that he had asked the team to stop working after they reached 30km towards the finish.

“They had been working really hard especially the team leader Jose Serpa. But then Gavazzi said that he is in good condition thus the rest of the team helped him to secure the lead,” he said.

At the third stage today, Gavazzi also kept the green jersey sponsored by MILO and remained the sprint king with 45 points.

Even though no points were collected by the leader at the climb zone in Kesang today, the jersey King of Mountain is still in the belonging of Jacque Janse Van Rensburg from the national team of South Africa.

Gavazzi Finish at Stage 3

“Today’s race is longer in distance but quite easier compared to the day before. At first the race was slow and I expect the race tomorrow will be harder with two climb zones,” he said.

Today at the third stage of LTdL, the rider of the Malaysian national team, Ahmad Haidar Anuawar who was in high spirit to secure a better placing from seventh in the second stage yesterday to fourth top best rider in the Asian classification.

The rider from Chukai, Terengganu, ended the rest in a big bunch at 16th place, and was the fourth Asian rider to arrive at the finish point of the third stage at Jalan Hang Tuah.

As for another team Malaysia’s rider Ahmad Fallanie Ali, managed to get points in all three sprint zones. In Muar he gets three points as he secured the second place and third place (two points) at the sprint zone in Bukit Kepong, Tangkak and a point in Kesang.

The fourth stage tomorrow from Malacca to Bandar Baru Bangi is the longest stage in LTdL 2009 with a total distance of 221km.

Riders will be cycling through the sprint zone at the Akademi Laut Malaysia, Port Dickson and Seremban with two climb zones in Bukit Tinggi of 367 meters and Genting Peres of 459 meters before ending the race in Bandar Baru Bangi.

Stage 3 Race Log

stage result: 1. Gavazzi, 2. Sutton, 3. Clerc, 4. Hoffman, 5. Kostyuk, 6. Haselbacher, 7. Clarke, 8. Abakoumov, 9. Samai, 10. Gene.

Winner at Stage 3

Winner: Gavazzi. 2. Sutton. 3. Clerc. 4. Kostyuk.

Meitan comes up as well. 2km to go.

Garmin also in command.

Compact bunch with 4km to go. Fuji Servetto leads the bunch.

Gruzdev caught

5km to go. Gruzdev insists.

15 sec lead. 8km to go.

Gruzdev’s lead is 11 seconds.

Attack by Gruzdev at 14km to go.

All together with 16 km to go.

New time gap: 43 seconds.

Within 20km to go, the gap is 1 minute.

At km 158, the gap is 1.20 between the two leaders and the bunch.

Fallanie is dropped from the leading group.

1.50 is the gap at km 150.

At km 142, the gap is 3.08.

Gap at km 138: 3.50.

Sprint 3 at km 132: 1. Vandervelde, 2. Suh, 3. Fallanie, 4. Celli. Time gap: 4.25.

At km 127, the gap is 5.20.

In 3 hours, the riders have covered 120 km.

At km 114, the leading trio has 6.30 advantage.

Jacques Janse van Rensburg remains the leader of the king of the mountains competition.

KOM at km 105.5: 1. Suh, 2. Vandervelde, 3. Fallanie.

Sprint 2: 1. Vandervelde, 2. Suh, 3. Fallanie, 4. Rizuan. Time gap: 6.45.

At the feed zone, the bunch was 7 minutes behind Fallanie, Vandervelde and Suh

At km 78, the gap is 7.30.

At km 60, the bunch is 8.15 behind the leading trio.

At km 46, the gap is 7.10.

45 km covered in the first hour.

Sprint 1 at km 34: 1. Vandervelde, 2. Fallanie, 3. Suh, 4. Razif.

After 27 km, the gap is 4.10.

The Diquigiovanni team sets the pace at the head of the bunch.

At km 20, the gap is 3.30.

At km 15, the gap is 2.40.

At km 6, Suh Seok Kyu rejoins Fallanie and Vandervelde. The trio has 35 seconds lead.

First attack at km 1 by Fallanie and Vandervelde.

119 riders on the start line in Malacca for stage 3. Also many colourful trishaws but they won’t race.

Gavazzi second time winner @Stage 2

MALACCA: The rider of Diquigiovanni-Androni, Mattia Gavazzi keeps the yellow jersey in the second stage of LTdL2009 from Senawang to Malacca covering a distance of 160.9km. The rider form Italy also kept the green jersey sponsored by MILO as he led the bunch of 118 riders to the finish in 3 hours, 42 minutes and 13 seconds.

Gavazzi said that honestly he is surprised to have won three victories which were a stage in Tour de San Luis and two stages in LTdL 2009 (stage 1 and 2) in the early part of the season this year.

“To be honest I never thought that I’d get to win three times in the early season of 2009.  At first I thought that team manager Savio was joking when he told me that he wants me to replace Alberto Loddo in the race this time. Somehow rather his decision seems to be working well,” he quoted.

As for the sharp turn situated about 500 meter from the finishing line, Gavazzi said that he had read the race manual before the race started early today in Senawang.

“I’d say that the sharp turn was not dangerous but then, I do have my teammate, Manuel Belleti to look after me and I would not take any unnecessary risk if it was too risky for me,” he added.

He leads the point classification with 30 points ahead of Nolan Hoffman in the second place with a difference of 3 points.

The second stage today is more challenging compared to yesterday’s as the riders had to climb as early as kilometer 24.

South Africa once again won the polka dot jersey sponsored by Resorts World Berhad this time around by the team’s rider, Jacque Janse Van Rensburg, who accumulated 6 points up to now.

MNCF Cycling Team rider, Mohd Akmal Amrun maintains his position in the 8^th place overall regardless that he finished today’s race at 111 placing.

The rider from Selangor also maintains his place as the second best rider of Asian category behind the rider of Kazakhstan, Dmitriy Gruzdev who finished the second stage today in 15^th place.

As for Malaysian rider, Ahmad Haidar Anuawar managed to be in the 12 placing in the big bunch, followed by rider of MNCF Cycling Team Mohd Faris Abdul Razak, who finished the race in the 17^th placing.

However, Ahmad Haidar still maintains his position at the 7^th place in the Asian category.

As for stage three tomorrow, the race will start and end in Malacca through Muar, Bukit Kepong, Kesang and Tangkak, for a total of 186 km.

Race Log

ing of the mountains: Jacques Janse van Rensburg.

Stage result: 1. Gavazzi, 2. Hoffman, 3. Clerc, 4. Van Heerden, 5. Clarke, 6. Kostyuk, 7. Haselbacher, 8. Arashiro, 9. Nateghi, 10. Shimizu

Gavazzi wins again. Hoffman 2nd. Clerc 3rd.

4.5km to go: all together.

5 km to go: 25 sec.

7km to go: 40 sec.

9km to go: 43 sec.

10km to go: 1.10.

12km to go: 1.30.

17km to go: 1.50.

20km to go: 2.05.

Garmin has taken the commands of the peloton.

With 25km to go, the time gap is 2.40.

Km 133: 3.05 lead for Pliushin and Pujol.

At km 130, the gap is 3.20.

Time gap at km 124: 3.50.

Sprint 3 at km 120.8: 1. Pliushin, 2. Pujol, 3. C. Meier, 4. Rodriguez.

At km 111, the gap is reduced to 4.50.

Sprint 2 at km 97.8: 1. Pliushin, 2. Pujol, 3. Vandervelde, 4. Zhiyentaev.

The two chasers have been caught.

Pliushin and Pujol have covered 88.4km in 2 hours on a very ondulated terrain.

Two teams combine forces in the bunch: Diquigiovanni and csf.

At km 83, Pliushin and Pujol are 3.35 ahead of the chasers and 7.10 ahead of the bunch.

At the feed zone at km 70, the chasers are at 2.55 and the bunch at 6.35.

Pujol and Pliushin now share the turns at the head of the race.

Gaps at km 63: 2.30 and 5.55.

Sprint 1 at km 59: 1. Pliushin, 2. Pujol, 3. Zhiyentaev, 4. Vandervelde.

At km 57, the bunch is at 5.30.

At km 55, two chasers at 2.10. Zhang has been dropped.

Diquigiovanni might have felt the danger. Belletti now sets the pace at the head of the peloton.

Pliushin does most of the work in the front. This is a champion in the making! He’s only 21 year old.

At km 45, Pliushin and Pujol are in the lead. At 1.34, Vandervelde, Zhiyentayev and Zhang. Peloton at 2.50.

Result of kom at km 24.2: 1. Van Rensburg, 2. Huzarski, 3. Crawford, 4. Pujol.

At km 38, the gap is 1.55 between the two leaders and the bunch.

Correction: it’s Pujol and not Gomez Marchante in the front with Pliushin.

After 30km, Pliushin and Gomez Marchante have 1.10 lead over the bunch.

At km 20, Suhardi and Ji Jianhua have 40 sec advantage over the peloton.

All together at km 10.

3 leaders after 8km: Suh, Susanto, Park.

At km 1, the first three attackers of the day were Ki Hong Yoo, Hannachi and Suhardi but they got caught quickly.

After holiday, kids are back to school and very excited to cheer for Le Tour de Langkawi. Great atmosphere at the start in Senawang.

Gavazzi

SENAWANG: The rider from Diquigiovanni-Androni, Mattia Gavazzi prolong the excellence of the team from the previous year by winning the first stage of Le Tour de Langkawi today.
The strategy of the team from Venezuela, which had won the team general classification in the previous edition of LTdL proved to be rewarding as Gavazzi lead another 119 riders competing in the stage 1 of 133.8km today.

“Everything went well for my team today as we managed to lead the bunch as we had planned before.”

“My team has work very hard and I only finished the race today,” said the rider who had just won the first stage of Tour de San Luis in Argentina last month.

Gavazzi before finish at Stage 1

The Winner of Stage 1

The rider from Italy finished the race in a big group in 3 hours, 6 minutes and 42 seconds and managed to win the yellow jersey jointly sponsored by Proton and TM and also the green jersey sponsored by MILO after he managed to accumulate 15 points in sprint zone.

He said that both win (Tour de San Luis and LTdL 2009) in quite a short time is totally unexpected and unique.

The talent of the 25-year old rider must have been in th bloodline as his father, Pierino Gavaz was the three-time champion Italian National Road Race Championship.

As for the polka dot jersey , sponsored by Resort World Berhad became Jaco Venter’s from the National Team of South Africa with 4 points at the climb zone in Bukit Puyoh at a mere 170meter.

“I’m ecstatic to win the polka dot jersey today as the climb is suitable for me compared to the climb stage in Genting which is for sure more of a feat compared to this.”

“From the early kilometer, I have been striving to break away from the bunch and I hope I get to do that in the next stage also,” he added.

As for the rider from MNCF Cycling Team, Mohd Akmal Amrun, he managed to be in the fifth place overall after he excel in the sprint zone in Kajang, Semenyih and Nilai.

The 22-year old rider managed to accumulate two points each in the sprint zone in Kajang and Semenyih and another five points in Nilai, which is at kilometer 93.8 of today’s race.

Not only that, he also managed to be in the second place during the climb zone in Bukit Puyoh and secured the fifth place overall and become the second best rider of Asia.

The rider of National Team Malaysia, Ahmad Haidar Anuawar today finished the race in th seventh place while his teammate, Anuar Manan was in the tenth place.

After all 20 teams had their ‘warm up’ today in the first stage, the second stage will be more challenging for our national team to keep their performance as it is a distance of 160.9km.

The second stage will start in Senawang through the clim,b zone in Bukit Inas and then thru the climb zone in Tampin, Masjid Tanah and Cheng before it ends in Melaka.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Mattia Gavazzi: “The race went well for us today. We kept the lead of the bunch for the whole day, exactly what we wanted to do. My team has done a big work today and I only have to crown them.” “We can speak about today stage, we will speak tonight about tomorrow’s stage. We will see what’s the best thing to do. Of course we will try to win every stage everyday but of course it is impossible that everyday we will be the best. We are more confident tomorrow because had won today.”

Team manager – Gianni Savio: “Today was very difficult so we had to work very hard. Finishing the first stage, it is not an easy win. I think we cannot work this way all the time. So tomorrow it is not important to keep our lead, but the right lead would be in Genting. But I think, if there will be a breakaway, we will try to put some of our riders in the breakaway.”

Jaco Venter: “I’m very happy to win the KOM jersey. Today’s climb suit me before Genting. From the beginning, I try to break away and it is good. My plan tomorrow, I will try to break away for every stage. I’m not a climber anyway. In the race today, I start attack since the first hour and I’m the one who get away.”

Executive Chairman LTdL, Tuan Haji Abu Samah Hj Abd Wahab said that all 20 teams which will competing against each other tomorrow are already in Malaysia.

“With 120 from 35 countries of five continents, the Hors status race will feature a competitive, neck-to-neck race from the riders.

“We expect the race to be an international level with more than 800 million viewers all over the world,” katanya.

He hopes that the participation of 15 local riders in the 14th edition of LTdL will be the benchmark in order to establish more world-class riders.

Four Pro Tour teams that participate in the race are BBOX Bouygues Telecom from France, AG2R La Mondiale (France), Garmin Slipstream (USA) and Fuji-Servetto (Spain).

As for Pro Continental teams; CSF Group-Navigare (Ireland), Diquigivanni-Androni (Venezuela), ISD (Itali), Cervelo Test Team (Switzerland) and Vorarlberg-Corratec (Austria).

Continental teams lined up are Seoul Cycling (Korea), EQA-Meitan Hompo-Graphite Design (Japan), MNCF Cycling (Malaysia) and Doha (Qatar).

In this edition, six national teams that will be competing are Malaysia, Australia, South Africa, China, Iran and Kazakhstan.

In the Team Presentation Ceremony held at the Hotel Palace of Golden Horses today, Chief Operating Officer LTdL Datuk Naim Mohamad and the representatives from all the sponsors are present.

With the theme Sports Tourism towards One Malaysia, the 14th edition of LTdL will feature a seven-stage race starting from the national administration centre in Putrajaya and will end in a criterium stage at Dataran Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur.

This time around, LTdL covers a total distance of 1031.7 km starting from Putrajaya to Senawang (Stage 1) and then from Senawang to Melaka (stage 2), Melaka (stage 3) Melaka to Bandar Baru Bangi (stage 4), Petaling Jaya to Genting Highlands (stage 5), Batang Kali to Shah Alam (stage 6) and Criterium Kuala Lumpur (stage 7).

The Hors category race is organized by MNCF with the support of the Malaysian Government through the Ministry of Youth and Sports and fully endorsed by Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) and the Asian Cycling Confederation (ACC).

The 24-year old rider will make his past experience, training with the under 23 Liberty Seguros and being the rider of Victoria ASC and Meitan Hompo-GDR, to strategize Le Tua’s path to the podium.

“I will work together with Tonton Susanto, Jeremy Yates and the rest of the team to ensure Le Tua’s win over the Asian jersey. We will surely help Jeremy who was in the fourth place overall last year to get a better placing this time around,” he said.

Being the team leader of LeTua is not a burden to the ex-rider of Proton T-Bikes (2005) because to him, the most important is to perform the best regardless which teams he is in.

“My main task stays the same. Regardless which team I am with, I will strive for the best.

Due to his relentless spirit and his love for the sports, Yong Li not only sacrificed the celebrating Chinese New Year with loved ones, he also managed to get back to health from Chicken Pox in mere four days.

Yong Li is confident that he is fully fit and promises a good fight and will strive for a place in the Asian category, in which he was in eighth place in the previous edition of LTdL.

“I am confident that my fitness level is way better compared to previous year. I am really glad that I have fully recovered from the illness. 

“Even though I have to sacrificed the Chinese New Year celebration this year, it has become a norm by now as when LTdL approaches, it is along the dates of New Year. One thing for sure though, training is of the utmost important in order to be victorious,” he added.

Been participating in LTdL five years in a row, the rider who hails from Batu Pahat, Johor describe this edition will be more challenging even though this edition only features seven-stage compared to nine stages in the previous edition.

“Even though it is shorter in distance, there is hillclimb in each stage and with quite a number of really good riders this year’s LTdL will be a challenging race and everything has to be taken into account to ensure the best achievement will be Le Tua’s,” he said.

Yong Li, with another three renowned climbers – Tonton, Jeremy and Yueng Meng have strategized to compete with the climbers from Iran National Team such as Ghader Mizbani and Hosein Askari. 

“We will ensure no riders get to break away on straight road, and always be in the first bunch. We will go all out at the climb stages,” he said.

As for the preparation of the 14th edition of LTdL this year, Yong Li said that, as the Hors status race will commence in two days time, Le Tua will have only light training of two-hour to keep the fitness level of riders at its best.

Yong Li who had a long vacation after he came back from France in August last year, had been in training for three months along with fellow countrymen from LeTua such as Mohd Razif Salleh, Lim Yue Meng and four others, Tonton Susanto, Samai Samai (Indonesia) and Jeremy Yates (New Zealand) while Low Jee Yuen (Singapore) is the reserved rider.

LTdL edisi ke-14 will be held from 9th to 15th Feb, with a showcase of 20 teams’ feat in seven stages starting from Putrajaya and will end in Kuala Lumpur in a criterium stage in Dataran Merdeka.

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 4^th 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:

(L-R) Dato' Haji Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir (Proton Holdings Berhad Managing Director), Datuk Naim Mohamad (COO LTdL2009), Dato' Mohd Nadzmi Mohd Salleh (Proton Holdings Berhad Chairman) and Dato Rosle Jamaat (Sponsorship Manager LTdL2009).

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)