MOST SUCCESSFUL TEAM IN LTDL HISTORY MAKES COME BACK

30 November 2010, KUALA LUMPUR - Under the successive appellations of Scrigno-Gaerne, Navigare, Panaria and CSF, the Colnago-CSF of the Reverberi’s (father Bruno and son Roberto) is the most successful team in terms of stage wins in the history of Le Tour de Langkawi with 33 up to date. The Italian squad collected these triumphs from 1998 to 2009 but missed out on the 2010 edition of LTdL due to the clash with European events in March.

However, they kept the Malaysian event in mind and were the first team to enter for the sixteenth Tour de Langkawi that will be held from January 23 to February 1st. “We’re glad to come back because the organisation of the event is always great and this is for sure a nice experience for our young riders”, Roberto Reverberi said. He selected four neo professionals who will make their debut in the highest ranks when the race will kick off on the island of Langkawi and two riders in their second year pro. Alberto Contoli who will be with Colnago-CSF for the second season at the age of 23 is their designated climber for LTdL, while Andrea Piechele who transferred from Carmiooro-NGC will come to Malaysia as the team’s sprinter. He got several top ten placing in 2010, among which a second place at Circuit of Getxo in Spain.

Colnago-CSF’s four neo-pros at LTdL will be Paolo Locatelli, Omar Lombardi, Angelo Pagani and Andrea Pasqualon who are some of the most promising Italian talents. In the past, Reverberi’s team enjoyed successes in Malaysia with foreign riders such as Australia’s Graeme Brown, Nathan O’Neill and Brett Lancaster, Argentine’s Ruben Bongiorno and the Richeze brothers, Ukraine’s Sergey Matveyev, as well as Mexican Julio Alberto Perez Cuapio who won the Genting stage in 2000, but it’s now a fully Italian roster since the title sponsorship of the team has been taken over by legendary bike manufacturer Ernesto Colnago who enjoyed the unexpected stage win of Manuel Belletti at the 2010 Giro d’Italia in his home town of Cesenatico.

“Our strategy might change from the previous years since the mountain stages of Cameron and Genting Highlands are on day 4 and 5”, Reverberi noted. “That means from stage 6 onwards, there will be breakaways from far out that will have a chance to succeed. For young riders, it’s a great opportunity to get the experience to race as professionals. A positive thing is the pretty short distance of the stages, it suits the early season period. As always, we’ll do our best to make the most of the course.”

The Colnago-CSF team returns to Malaysia with the same spirit they had on their first Asian trip. That led Alessandro Petacchi to score the first win of his pro career in Mersing. That was to be followed by 145 more victories, including two at the 2010 Tour de France where he also won the points classification.

“Thanks to this team, one of the world’s best cyclists of the past decade has made Malaysia known worldwide because he scored his first pro win on our land”, said the CEO of Le Tour de Langkawi, Mohamed Salleh. “So it’s of course a great pleasure to welcome the team of the Reverberi family back to Malaysia. We’re sure they have loads of great new talents coming up and we look forward to see them in action again.”

Le Tour de Langkawi 2011 is organized by the Ministry Youth and Sports Malaysia together with the Malaysian National Cycling Federation. The 2011 Tour to be held from 23rd January to 1st February covers a total distance of 1315.4 kms with 10 stages, starting in Langkawi Island and ending at Dataran Merdeka.

COLNAGO CSF INOX PROFESSIONAL CYCLING TEAM LINE-UP

TEAM MANAGER: Roberto REVERBERI
RIDERS: Alberto CONTOLI, Paolo LOCATELLI, Omar LOMBARDI, Angelo PAGANI, Andrea PASQUALON, Andrea PIECHELE

For the record, here are the 33 stage winners of the team in the history of LTdL:

1998: Mirko Rossato, stage 4; Alessandro Petacchi, stage 6; Dario Pieri, stage 8; Mirko Rossato, stage 9; Luca Cei, stage 12.

1999: Enrico Degano, stage 2; Enrico Degano, stage 7; Luca Cei, stage 12.

2000: Julio Alberto Perez Cuapio, stage 10.

2001: Enrico Degano, stage 2; Enrico Degano, stage 5; Nathan O’Neill, stage 10.

2002: Enrico Degano, stage 3; Graeme Brown, stage 6; Graeme Brown, stage 10.

2003: Graeme Brown, stage 5: Graeme Brown, stage 7; Ruben Bongiorno, stage 10.

2004: Brett Lancaster, stage 3; Ruben Bongiorno, stage 10.

2005: Graeme Brown, stage 1; Ruben Bongiorno, stage 2; Graeme Brown, stage 5,Ruben Bongiorno, stage 6; Graeme Brown, stage 7; Graeme Brown, stage 9; Graeme Brown, stage 10.

2006: Maximiliano Richeze, stage 1; Ruben Bongiorno, stage 2; Sergey Matveyev, stage 9.

2007: Maximiliano Richeze, stage 2.

2008: Filippo Savini, stage 8; Mauro Richeze, stage 9.


The team during the LTdL 2009 presentation

Alberto Contoli will be their climber

FIRST TEAMS FROM ASIA-PACIFIC CONFIRMED FOR LE TOUR de LANGKAWI

KUALA LUMPUR - The Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) organisers have confirmed five teams to return to Le Tour de Langkawi (January 23 to February 1st) after their positive showing in the 2010 edition of the Malaysian stage race. They are Tabriz Petrochemical from Iran, Aisan Racing Team from Japan, Polygon Cycling Team from Indonesia, Drapac-Porsche from Australia and Giant Asia Racing Team from Taiwan, all continental teams from the Asia-Pacific region.

“Le Tour de Langkawi being one of the only four UCI H.C. races on the Asia Tour, it’s part of our duty to give exposure to some of the teams from our continent”, said the CEO of Le Tour de Langkawi, Mohamed Salleh. “Some teams are faithful to our event and we’re happy to reward them with inviting them once again.”

Tabriz Petrochemical are the defending champions in the teams’ competition of LTdL since they outclassed ISD-Neri and Footon-Servetto earlier this year. They also had three riders in the individual top ten overall of the race won by Venezuela’s José Rujano with Hossein Askari finishing third, Ghader Mizbani ninth and Ahad Kazemi tenth.
Aisan’s first appearance as a Japanese team at LTdL after years of the participation of the national team and Meitan-Hompo with their stars Yukiya Arashiro and the Fukushima brothers, was a successful one with the unexpected stage win for the then national champion Taiji Nishitani who outsprinted eventual U23 world champion Michael Matthews from Jayco-Skin at Parit Sulong on stage 4.

Drapac-Porsche was even more successful as they bagged the final stage from Kuala Kubu Baru to Kuala Lumpur with Stuart Shaw outsprinting Footon-Servetto’s Vidal Celis at Dataran Merdeka (Independence Square). Peter McDonald finished fourth overall and was crowned King of the Mountain of the 2010 LTdL. There are tight ties between Australia’s Drapac-Porsche team and Malaysia. The Melbourne-based squad is associated to the development of up-and-coming Adiq Husainie Othman. For the 2011 season, Malaysia’s road race national champion will be joined at Drapac by compatriot Amir Mustafa Rusli who finished third overall at the Jelajah Malaysia.

The winner of the 2010 Jelajah Malaysia David McCann will be back in action at LTdL with the famous Taiwanese team Giant Asia Racing team. The Irish champion for time trial had a prolific season with winning the Melaka Governor Cup, the Tour of Taiwan and the Tour of the Philippines in 2010. “There’s one race I’d like to win in Asia before I quit racing, it’s Le Tour de Langkawi”, said McCann who believes he’ll have a stronger line up on his side in 2011.

More teams are expected to sign up for LTdL in the coming days as the organisers have planned 23 teams to enter the event, three of them being from Malaysia, ten from Asia-Pacific and ten from Europe and the US. “Our technical department is working hard on getting good teams to attend our race”, Mohamed said. “We’re confident that the sixteenth edition of Le Tour de Langkawi will be a very good one on an international scale.”

After three years of omission, Le Tour de Langkawi will kick off on the paradisiacal island of Langkawi again on January 23rd.

Le Tour de Langkawi 2011 is organized by the Ministry Youth and Sports Malaysia together with the Malaysian National Cycling Federation. The 2011 Tour to be held from 23rd January to 1st February covers a total distance of 1315.4 kms with 10 stages, starting in Langkawi Island and ending at Dataran Merdeka.

Ends


Taiji Nishitani from Aisan Racing Team wins a stage in LTdL 2010


Defending team champion Tabriz Petrochemical will be back!

Malaysia tuan rumah ACC 2012!

MALAYSIA meraih ruang kesempatan paling berbisa untuk menghantar kontingen besar pelumba trek dan lebuh raya ke Sukan Olimpik 2012 di London, Britain apabila menang bidaan menjadi tuan rumah Kejohanan Lumba Basikal Asia 2012 (ACC 2012).

Malaysia menewaskan India 6-2 menerusi sistem kiraan undi secara sulit di kalangan lapan negara yang mempunyai hak mengundi di kalangan ahli Kongres Persatuan Berbasikal Asia (ACC) dalam mesyuarat Kongres di Guangzhou, China semalam.

Naib Presiden ACC, Abu Samah Abd Wahab berkata Kejohanan ACC 2012 dijangka diadakan di Kuala Lumpur dan Melaka bakal menjadi medan terbaik untuk pelumba Malaysia mengumpul mata kelayakan ke Sukan Olimpik 2012 dengan penuh selesa kerana berlumba di halaman sendiri.

Bagaimanapun, kita hampir terlepas peluang mendapat hak penganjuran ACC 2012 selepas Kongres ACC semalam tampak lebih cenderung memilih New Delhi sebagai tuan rumah kejohanan tersebut kerana negara itu belum pernah diberikan status penganjur kejohanan berbasikal terbesar di benua Asia.:

Malah, New Delhi juga menjadikan alasan Malaysia pernah menjadi tuan rumah ACC 2006 sebagai faktor untuk meyakinkan Kongres ACC supaya menganugerahkan hak penganjuran kepada India.

Beliau yang juga Presiden Persekutuan Kebangsaan Berbasikal Malaysia (MNCF) berkata Kongres ACC juga sangat terpikat dengan tawaran bidaan New Delhi khususnya pakej hotel penginapan bertaraf lima bintang dan velodrom yang dikatakan antara terbaik di dunia ketika ini.

“Bagaimanapun, ada antara wakil negara tertentu di dalam Kongres ACC lebih mempercayai kebolehan dan reputasi Malaysia sebagai penganjur kejohanan bertaraf dunia. Jadi mereka mencadangkan supaya diaplikasikan sistem undian secara rahsia bagi memilih tuan rumah ACC 2012.

“Akhirnya Malaysia menang dengan kelebihan enam undi. Jelas ramai yang mempercayai kebolehan kita sebagai penganjur kejohanan bertaraf dunia,” katanya ketika dihubungi di Guangzhou, China semalam.

Abu Samah menegaskan ACC 2012 sangat penting kerana kita ada hak menganjurkan jadual perlumbaan mengikut cita rasa dan peratusan kemenangan di kalangan pelumba negara sebagaimana yang berlaku di Sukan Asia 2010 di Guangzhou.

“Jadikanlah insiden di Guangzhou sebagai satu pengajaran. Lihat sahaja bagaimana China memanipulasi jadual hinggakan Malaysia gagal dalam acara 200 meter pecut individu dan pecut berpasukan.

“Mereka tahu kita boleh menang sekurang-kurangnya dua emas atau 1 emas, 2 perak. Jadi strategi mereka adalah menghidangkan satu jadual padat sehinggakan Mohd Azizulhasni (Awang) terpaksa mengorbankan dua acara iaitu 200 meter pecut individu dan pecut berpasukan semata-mata mahu menumpukan kepada keirin.

“Nasib baik perjudian Mohd Azizulhasni dan Josiah berbaloi. Akhirnya kita menang 1 emas dan 1 perak,” katanya.

- http://www.sinarharian.com.my/com/content/story8435923.asp