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| Europcar is back as World Tour team |
BUKIT
JALIL, 15 January 2014 - Being the only squad upgraded from the Pro Continental ranks to the
World Tour in 2014, French team Europcar will be under pressure to perform at
Le Tour de Langkawi from February 27 to March 8.
After
winning two stages with sprinter ace Bryan Coquard last year, they’ll have a
different target with African super climber Natnael Berhane this time around.
“Natnael came to fame when he won a mountainous stage at the Tour of Turkey
last year”, directeur sportif Andy Flickinger noted from a race his Eritrean protégé
eventually won after the disqualification of the overall winner. “Le Tour de
Langkawi suits him very well to step up in his cycling career. Clearly, his
goal will be to ride GC.”
While
South Americans are often under the spotlight climbing up to Genting Highlands,
they might be challenged this year by an African who is one of the biggest
prospects of cycling worldwide, having developed through the World Cycling
Centre of the UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale) like Tour de France winner
Chris Froome and more recently Malaysia’s Sofian Nabil Omar Bakri.
“But we
don’t neglect the other important part of Le Tour de Langkawi, which is
sprinting”, Flickinger added. “We’ll bring our recruit Yannick Martinez who is
a young sprinter who can also climb decently. Therefore, the course of LTdL is
perfect for him. He hasn’t raced for ten days in a row yet, so this will be
good for him to try and win stages as well as improving for the future.”
Martinez
is poised to become the lead out man for Coquard at the Tour de France.
“It’s a
great pleasure for us to welcome Europcar back in Malaysia”, LTdL chief
operating officer Emir Abdul Jalal said as he received the entry form from the
headquarters of the French team in Vendée. “They’re a Pro Team this year, which
is a well deserved reward for the great job they’ve done in recent years with
Thomas Voeckler and Pierre Rolland who have both raced in Malaysia on several
occasions.”
“But
moreover, this team has been in our heart as Malaysian cycling fans because we
don’t forget their participation in the first ever Le Tour de Langkawi back in
1996. They’ve been faithful to our race organization as much as they could
since then.”
Still
an amateur team named Vendée U in 1996, the squad managed by former Tour de
France star Jean-René Bernaudeau returned to Malaysia as a professional outfit
called Bonjour and won their first pro race in Sitiawan with Damien Nazon in
2000. Under the appellation of Bouygues Telecom, they’ve also claimed stage
victories with Matthieu Sprick and Yohan Gène in 2008 and 2009 respectively.
EUROPCAR
FOR THE 2014 LE TOUR DE LANGKAWI:
Natnael
BERHANE (Eri), Antoine DUCHESNE (Can), Romain GUILLEMOIS (Fra), Christophe KERN (Fra), Morgan LAMOISSON (Fra), Yannick MARTINEZ (Fra).
Organised
by the Ministry of Youth and Sports, via the National Sports Council (NSC) in
association with the Malaysian National Cycling Federation (MNCF). The 19th
edition of Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) from February 27 to March 8, 2014 is set
to cover a total distance of 1,507.9km over 10 stages, the UCI 2.HC (hors
category) race featuring again as one of the biggest events on the UCI Asia
Tour calendar.
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