ORICA-GREENEDGE BACKS 2013 RUNNER UP PIETER WEENING

Aidis Kroupis

Brett Lancaster

Pieter Weening climbing Genting Highlands in 2013

BUKIT JALIL, 29 January 2014 - While the 2013 overall winner JulianArredondo from Colombia has moved on to Trek Factory Racing and confirmed histalent by winning stage 2 of the Tour de San Luis that opened the 2014 seasonon the America Tour, runner up Peter Weening will make his return to Le Tour deLangkawi will the clear intention of stepping up to the top position when therace will come to a conclusion in Kuala Terengganu on March 8 after a ten dayjourney from the Paradisiacal island of Langkawi.

The last Dutchman to have won a stage at the Tour deFrance (in 2005) and is also a former pink jersey wearer at the Giro d’Italia(in 2011) and last year’s overall winner of World Tour race Tour of Poland hasfallen in love with Malaysia and asked the management of his Australian team Orica-GreenEdgeto include him again in their line-up for LTdL. “After finishing second lastyear, Peter wants to go one step higher”, explained team manager Shayne Bannanwho has been a long-time supporter of the Asian H.C. race since he directed theAustralian Institute of Sport on these roads in 1998.

Orica-GreenEdge also features Colombian super climberEsteban Chavez who won the Tour de l’Avenir in 2011 following the path of hiscompatriot Nairo Quintana. But his capacities to perform remain unknown as hesustained a terrible crash at the Laigueglia Trophy in Italy in February lastyear and hasn’t raced again since.

“Weening is definitely our GC contender”, Bannancontinued. “He really enjoyed Le Tour de Langkawi last year. His pre-season isgoing a lot better than what it was last year. Chavez will support him up toGenting Highlands and he’ll use this race to build his confidence for thefuture.”

Orica-GreenEdge will also take a sprinter on board asthey see “a lot of opportunities for [Lithuania’s] Aidis Kruopis” who will havethe crème de la crème as a lead out man with Brett Lancaster who won stage 3from Tapah to Raub ten years ago and escorted Graeme Brown on his numerousMalaysian successes.

The Australian outfit will also have two timetriallists to close the gaps and prepare for bunch sprints with U23 worldchampion Damian Howson and Sam Bewley. “In Malaysia, we always enjoy the goodweather and the excellent level of organization”, Bannan mentioned. “It’s afantastic event to prepare for the rest of the season.”

“This is a super team”, noted LTdL chief operatingofficer Emir Abdul Jalal. “We couldn’t hope for a better support fromAustralia’s only World Tour team. In their second participation, we can be surethat they have all it takes to handle the pressure of being hot favorites forthe race.”

ORICA-GREENEDGEFOR THE 2014 LE TOUR DE LANGKAWI:

BEWLEY Sam (NZL), CHAVES RUBIO Jhoan Esteban(COL), KRUOPIS Aidis (LTU), LANCASTER Brett (AUS), WEENING Pieter (NED), HOWSON Damien (AUS)

Organisedby the Ministry of Youth and Sports, via the National Sports Council (NSC) inassociation with the Malaysian National Cycling Federation (MNCF). The 19thedition of Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) from February 27 to March 8, 2014 is setto cover a total distance of 1,507.9kmover 10stages, the UCI 2.HC (hors category) race featuring again as one of the biggestevents on the UCI Asia Tour calendar.

GUARDINI ENDS WAIT FOR VICTORY IN DUNGUN

The peloton entering the Dungun, district of Terengganu

Guardini finally gets his win in Dungun, ahead of Chicchi (Vini Fantini) and Kroupis (OGE)

Andrea hounded by the press

the stage winners

The jersey leaders

Astana Team Manager Jaan Kirsipuu celebrates with Andrea

DUNGUN, Wednesday 27 February 2013 - Star sprinter Andrea Guardini finally ended the wait for his first win for his new team Astana in Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) 2013 when he won a bunch sprint to bag Stage 7 from Kuantan to Dungun today.

This win brought Guardini's record of wins in LTdL to 12 and was also Astana's first victory of the year. It came after the disappointment of losing out in the final sprint to Theo Bos (Blanco Pro Cycling) and Francesco Chicchi (Vini Fantini-Selle Italia) in stages before this.

Wearing the sprints classification blue jersey which he took in Stage 4, the victory in Dungun is also the 22nd in 24-year old Guardini's career and also improved his chances of a repeat points classification victory.

Guardini beat Stage 4 winner Francesco Chicchi of his former team Vini Fantini-Selle Italia, which was known as Farnese Vini when he recorded his first 11 LTdL victories in 2011 and last year. Orica-GreenEdge's Aidis Kroupis finished third.  

"IT is difficult if I don't win something early in the season. But this year I had to familiarise myself with a new team and new teammates at Astana. I had entered the Tour Down Under and Tour of Qatar without the condition to challenge for wins, but here it was perfect," said Guardini.

"I'm relieved. The challenge is not that easy with so many strong sprinters here. But today, my teammates Assan Bazayev and Ruslan Tleubayev worked hard and rode very fast to find the space and position for me.

"In the final 500 metres, Tleubayev put me on the wheel of Aidis Kroupis and Allan Davis and I made a sprint from the left to overtake them.

"I also knew that Anuar Manan (Synergy-Baku Cycling Project) was getting closer to me in the points classification after he collected points at the intermediate sprints but I focused on the stage win only.

"I'm very happy with the victory and it goes well with the blue jersey," said Guardini, who captured the attention of the world when he won Stage 18 of the Giro d'Italia last year.

The yellow jersey remained with Team Nippo-De Rosa's Julian Arredondo (25 hours 55 minutes 05 seconds), who's team worked hard to prevent any major threat to his lead, particularly Orica-GreenEdge's Pieter Weening, who is one minute and 15 seconds adrift in the general classification.

Henxiang Cycling Team's Wang Meiyin remained the leader of the mountains classification wit 48 points, three more than Arredondo, who did not try to attack at the two king of the mountains hot spots at Kijal and Bukit Anak Dara today. Meiyin also remained the leader of the Asian riders' classification.

The LTdL 2013, which carries the slogan "The Heat is On", will officially begin in Kangar on February 21 and the race comprises 10 stages, covering 1469.7 kilometres. 

The race is sanctioned by the International Cycling Union (UCI) as a 2.HC (hors category) race on the UCI Asia Tour calendar, organised by the Ministry of Youth and Sports, via the National Sports Council (NSC) in association with the Malaysian National Cycling Federation (MNCF).

TWO IN A ROW AS BOS LOOKS UNSTOPPABLE

Theo Bos (Blanco) in 1st place, Andrea Guardini (Astana) in 2nd, and Aidis Kroupis (Orica-GreenEdge) 3rd.

Theo Bos holds on to Yellow

The dramatic finish in Kuala Kangsar

Theo Bos holds on to Yellow and Blue jersey, Seo Joon Yong (KSPO) in Red, while Wang Meiyin (HengXiang) in Best Asian White jersey.

KUALA KANGSAR, Friday, 22 February 2013 - Blanco Pro Cycling's Theo Bos continued his dominant form while disappointing his rivals after winning Stage 2 of Le Tour de Langkawi from Serdang, Kedah to Kuala Kangsar today.

Yet again, Bos' closest rival and LTdL stage win record holder Andrea Guardini of the Astana team was left behind in a bunch sprint to the finish line of the short but tough 117.8 kilometre stage.

Bos crossed the line in 2 hours 54 minutes and 48 seconds, leaving Guardini in second spot and Team Orica-GreenEdge's Aidis Kroupis in third. Guardini had slight problems with his pedals in the final metres of the sprint.

With another comfortable victory, Bos retained the yellow jersey as the overall leader of the race with a 10 seconds advantage over Guardini. Bos also holds the blue jersey as the points classification leader, three points clear of Guardini. 

"I am happyb to have continued with this winning rhythm, although today was a little bit more difficult because I had to start my sprint quite early. My teammate Greame Brown had opened it up too early.

"At first I saw the Garmin rider (Steele Von Hoff) behind me, then suddenly Guardini was there. But I also saw that he had some problems with his pedal, so I was a bit lucky today," said Bos, 30, who managed seven victories the whole of last year, but has already got three in his first two races this year after also winning Stage 2 in the Tour of the Algarve last week.

However, he admitted that it would be a difficult task to maintain the yellow jersey in the third stage tomorrow which ends with a tough climb up Cameron Highlands, but the Dutch rider aid he aims to add to his collection of victories in the flat stages after that.

"So far I'm satisfied with my performance and I hope to be consistent so that I get into some Grand Tour races and win a stage there. That is the ambition of every rider," said the winner of the sprint silver medal at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

Meanwhile the king of the mountains jersey switched hands to Seo Joon Yong of the KSPO team after the South Korean topped the summit of the category two climb at Bukit Sumpitan yesterday to collect 10 points.

China's Wang Meiyin of the Hengxiang team lost the red jersey to Seo, but retained the Asian riders' white jersey.

In today's stage, a group of five riders - Seo, Li Fuyu (Hengxiang), Anuar Manan (Synergy-Baku), Shahrul Mat Amin (Terengganu Cycling) and Goh Choon Huat (OCBC Singapore) made an early breakaway right after the official start in Serdang.

Anuar managed to win the first two intermediate sprints in Selama and Lenggong to keep his chances of landing the points classification alive after he collected 10 points.

Seo took the mountains classification lead after he managed to top Bukit Sumpitan while Shahrul saw his hopes of landing the jersey diminish when he crashed about 70 metres from the summit.

The breakaway riders were caught by the peloton which was left three minutes behind when  Shahrul won the third intermediate sprint in Kati, 17 kilometres from the finish in Kuala Kangsar.

"I am not a climber, but I knew I had a chance to do something if I made an early breakaway. I was lucky to collect the points at summit of the climb, because the was a crash between Fuyu and Shahrul," said Seo.

Stage 3 tomorrow from Sungai Siput to Cameron Highlands covers 145.4km and will see the challengers coming from among the climbers as it involves a long and hard climb to the summit of the highlands resort town.

The LTdL 2013, which carries the slogan "The Heat is On", will officially begin in Kangar on February 21 and the race comprises 10 stages, covering 1469.7 kilometres.

The race is sanctioned by the International Cycling Union (UCI) as a 2.HC (hors category) race on the UCI Asia Tour calendar, organised by the Ministry of Youth and Sports, via the National Sports Council (NSC) in association with the Malaysian National Cycling Federation (MNCF).