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
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