TOP RIDERS READY TO STRIKE

Filippo Pozzato of Wilier Triestina

Jakub Mareczko of Wilier Triestina

Jacques Janse Van Rensburg from Dimension Data

Egan Bernal from Androni

Anuar Manan TSG looking good for stage wins

KUALA TERENGGANU, Tuesday, 21 February 2017 : Cycling superstar Filippo Pozzato and up and coming sprinter Jakub Mareczko (Willier Triestina), GC contender Jacques Janse van Rensburg (Dimension Data), Colombian prodigy Egan Bernal (Androni Giocattoli) and local hero Anuar Manan (Terengganu TSG) attended the top riders pre-race press conference in Kuala Terengganu ahead of the 22^nd edition of Le Tour de Langkawi due to start in Kuala Berang on Wednesday 22 February.

Anuar Manan: “We’ve been training and taking part in local criteriums for six weeks in Australia under our new coach Jeremy Hunt who’s been a Team Sky rider. The condition is good but other teams have also prepared LTdL very seriously. For the next LTdL, some young Malaysian riders have a good potential for performing but for now, it’s still up to me and my team-mates.”

Jakub Mareczko: “There are many good sprinters on the start line, mostly from Italy with Nicolas Marini from Nippo-Vini Fantini, Marco Benfatto and Andrea Palini of Androni Giocattoli. I also know Scott Sunderland from Australia for racing him in China before. I’ll try to repeat the stage victory I got here last year. We have a strong team for that with Rafael Andriato and Filippo Pozzato to lead me out in the finales.”

Filippo Pozzato: “I’ve wanted to do Le Tour de Langkawi many times but I was always doing Tirreno-Adriatico. Since our team hasn’t been invited to Tirreno-Adriatico, I took the opportunity to come here after the Tour of Oman to get a good condition for Milan-Sanremo. I’d like to go for a stage win myself but we also have a great team to lead Mareczko out in the bunch sprints.”

Jacques Janse van Rensburg: “This is my seventh time taking part in Le Tour de Langkawi. There’s always a nice atmosphere for racing here. We came with an all rounded team for sprinting and riding for GC, which seems to work for our team as we won this race in the past two years. We have an all African team, except from Ben O’Connor who is an Australian. I hope to be able to fight for GC. Cameron Highlands is always a tough climb at the end and that’s where the GC should be decided.”

Egan Bernal: “I’ve trained a lot ahead of this season and I started racing in Argentina with the Vuelta a San Juan. I felt good there, so I want to do well at Le Tour de Langkawi. It’s a good race for me and an important event in my career. Many Colombians have made their fame over here. I’m still very young. I don’t have enough experience yet to be able to tell where and when I’ll be a winner. I want to learn first. I’ve been told that Cameron Highlands isn’t a too hard climb. I hope it’ll be a good one for me.”

Organised by the Ministry of Youth and Sports Malaysia and managed by Ciclista Sports Sdn Bhd, the 22nd edition of Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) from 22 February to 1 March, 2017 is set to cover more than 1,200km over 8 stages, the UCI 2.HC (hors category) race featuring again as one of the biggest events on the UCI Asia Tour calendar.

MANCEBO CLINCHES JELAJAH MALAYSIA OVERALL WIN

Anuar and Andrea goes head to head

Stage 5 winners

Overall Team & Overall Asian Team Classification winner Skydive Dubai

Jersey winners of Jelajah Malaysia 2015

KUALA LUMPUR, Sunday 13 December 2015 : As many had expected, Francisco Mancebo held steady to bag the overall win at the Jelajah Malaysia today while local hero Anuar Manan gave fans much to cheer as he romped to another stage win on home soil.

TSG's Anuar finished the final stage, which covered 47KM from Shah Alam to Dataran Merdeka, in 59 minutes and 37 seconds, outsprinting Italian Andrea Palini (Skydive Dubai) to victory as Seo Joon Yong (KSPO) came in third.

Mancebo (Skydive Dubai) finished 38th, but in the same group as Anuar it was enough to secure him the yellow jersey as he topped the general classification with a total time of 9:48:30s.

Palini and Cheung King Lok (Hong Kong National Team) finished second and third overall.

Mancebo said he was happy to get the job done and is looking forward to defending his title next year.

"At last we can keep the yellow jersey. It has been a tough week of racing and I want to thank the team for helping me achieve this," said Mancebo, who also won the Tour of Egypt this year.

"We stuck to our plan and although we could not get Palini the stage win, it was a good day.

"Although we had some problems this year, it was a good event and I am hopeful that we can come back and race here again next season."

Anuar, who won the third stage on Friday, said: " We knew this stage would be suitable for sprinters and I expected myself Harrif Saleh and Palini to fight for the win."

"At the end it was very close with Palini and I feel a bit lucky to have won. Overall, I am very happy with my performance and as well as how the team did this year."

Palini bagged the overall points classification title (blue jersey) while Nur Amirul Fakhruddin Mazuki (TSG) had in stage four taken the red jersey. 

Skydive Dubai took both the general and Asian team classification titles while Kim Okcheol (Korea National Team) won the best young rider category (white jersey) overall title.

Jelajah Malaysia covered a total distance of 435 KM over five stages this year.

The Jelajah Malaysia 2015 is held from 9th to 13th December and is a UCI sanctioned 2.2 class race, organised by the Malaysian National Cycling Federation and managed by Peloton Resources.

ANUAR ROMPS TO THIRD STAGE WIN

Anuar celebrates his win on stage 4

Stage 4 winners

No changes to the leaders

PUTRAJAYA, Friday 11 December 2015 : Anuar Manan proved he is still a forced to be reckoned with after powering to victory in the third stage of Jelajah Malaysia today as Spaniard Francisco Mancebo remained the man to beat in the general classification.

The Terengganu Cycling Team rider crossed the finish line in a time of two hours, 14 minutes and 58 seconds while teammate Harrif Saleh came in third in the sprint finish. 

Korean Park Sung Baek of KSPO took second while Mancebo came in 27th in the same group. The third stage started in Bangi and passed through Nilai and Salak Tinggi before finishing in Putrajaya, covering a total distance of 103.3km.

Anuar was delighted with the result and is eyeing another stage win in the tour.

"Although the team had expected us (sprinters) to do well today I did not expect to win this stage as my focus was on helping my teammates do well in the king of mountains classification and the intermediate sprint," said the 29-year-old.

"This is my 11th stage win in Jelajah Malaysia since my first (Jelajah Malaysia) in 2007 so I am very happy, especially as I had been struggling with a back injury prior to this.

"The team did a great job as well and they deserve the credit too.

"We still have another two stages and hopefully we can win another stage, maybe on Sunday."

Mancebo, who leads the GC with a total time of 6:06:24s, said he is hoping to do well in the fourth stage tomorrow which will see riders covering 115.3KM. The race will start at Berjaya Times Square and pass through hill sections in Ampang, Hulu Langat and Semenyih before ending in Putrajaya.

"Our plan was to keep the yellow jersey today and I am happy that we managed to do as the pace was very fast from the start," said Skydive Dubai rider.

"The stage tomorrow will be slightly longer with some hill sections and I believe it will be good for me. My focus is on winning the GC but there are also other good riders I have to be careful of."

Skydive teammate Andrea Palini is currently third overall while Cheung King Lok of Team Hong Kong is second, 1:33s and 1:26s behind Mancebo. TSG's Nur Amirul Fakhruddin Mazuki continues to lead the mountains classification (red jersey) with eight points.

The Jelajah Malaysia 2015 is held from 9th to 13th December and is a UCI sanctioned 2.2 class race, organised by the Malaysian National Cycling Federation and managed by Peloton Resources.

GUARDINI INCREASES RECORD TO 15 WINS

Top 3 for Stage 1

The leaders after Stage 1

LANGKAWI, Sunday 8th March 2015 - Italy's Andrea Guardini now has 15 Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) stage wins to his record after yet another emphatic win in a bunch sprint in Stage One, ironically in Langkawi where he registered the first professional victory of his career on the opening stage of the same race in 2011.
The Astana rider surged ahead of a bunch sprint ahead of Orica-GreenEdge's Caleb Ewan of Australia, and Malaysia's Anuar Manan of the Terengganu Cycling Team, to take what was also his second victory of the year after winning a stage in the Tour of Oman last month.
"I am in good form coming into this race and I have worked hard during the winter to prepare for this, so I am very happy with this first win. Now we will look at the coming stages to see if we can take more wins," said Guardini, 27.
Guardini said the Orica-GreenEdge train had been a strong one and he managed to tag along behind their sprinter Ewan and opened up the sprint in the final 200 metres, which he won.
"I think Orica-GreenEdge have a strong lead-out train, but our team have a good team for working to catch breakaways. So, if we work together in the coming stages, we can expect more wins."
The stage started with a six man breakaway that included eventual mountains classification leader Kiel Reijnen of United Healthcare and Asian riders' classification leader Ma Guangtong of the Hengxiang Cycling Team. Guardini landed the blue jersey for the points classification leader, on top of the yellow jersey as the overall leader after his win.
Reijnen had bagged top points in both KOM summits of the day, which he said was his target, but he also launched an audacious solo attack in the final kilometres after the rest of his breakaway partners were caught by the peloton. Reijnen was only caught by the peloton with less than a kilometre to go.
Malaysian hopes were spiked after TSG's Anuar took his first LTdL podium in two years and will now be planning for a stage win in the coming stages.
"It was quite a tough day today. The speed was quite high in the final kilometres and then a crash happened in the front. Harrif Saleh and myself managed to get to the front as a result of that and then I managed to stay with the leaders and sprint. I didn't get the victory today, but now our first target of a podium has been achieved," said Anuar.
"We will now target a win in one of the coming stages. But remember, there is not just me. We have Harrif, who is also in good form."
The 20th edition of LTdL continues tomorrow with Stage 2 fro Alor Setar to Sungai Petani, which will cover a distance of 180km.

BATTLE OF THE SPRINTERS WILL STEAL THE SHOW IN THE EARLY STAGES

All eyes on them this 20th edition : (L-R) Merhawi Kudus (MTN Qhubeka), Sebastian Henao (Sky), Alessandro Petacchi (Southeast), LTdL 2015 CEO Datuk Malik Mydin, Andrea Guardini (Astana), Caleb Ewan (Orica-GreenEDGE) and Anuar Manan (TSG)

KUALA LUMPUR - LANGKAWI, Saturday 7th March 2015 - While the presence of the world's biggest teams - Team Sky and Saxo-Tinkoff - will arguably be the main draw of the 20th edition of Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) that starts in Pantai Chenang tomorrow, the battle of the sprinters is likely to be explosive in the earlier stages.

With a line-up of sprinters that features the likes of Alessandro Petacchi, Andrea Guardini, Caleb Ewan, Francesco Chicchi and Jakub Mareczko, the race will be lit up by explosive bunch sprints in the predominantly flat stages of the race.
Local hopes will lie with TSG's Anuar Manan, who says his team packs a good chance with teammate Harrif Saleh on form, having already bagged two UCI Asia Tour stage wins this season.
The legendary 41-year old Petacchi still packs a powerful sprint, but remains certain that he will be working more for his Southeast teammate Mareczko, while the young Australian Ewan could be the surprise package in this year's edition which will start with Astana's record stage winner Guardini as the favourite.

Both Italians, Petacchi and Guardini began their careers with stage victories in LTdL, Petacchi in 1999 and Guardini in 2011, but while the former is likely to be on the verge of winding down his career, the latter is at his peak and this could yet be his most successful yet, with already a stage win in the Tour of Oman under his belt.

"I don't know if this is the best form of my life, but I have worked a lot during the winter to prepare for this season and I have good form, that showed in Oman where I won a stage and I had good form in the other races leading to this one," said Guardini, who in 2012 achieved a record of six stage wins in one edition of LTdL.
"This year we have two stages less than last year, with eight stages, but there are some stages which could be good, like the one here in Langkawi where I won my first stage. We will first try to go for the first win, then see what happens after that."
Petacchi says he is now more as a lead-out man for Mareczko, but will not pass on an opportunity to go for a win should it arise.
"I can try to sprint for wins, but in our team we have also have a good chance with Mareczko. We need to do good sprints with Mareczko to help him win stages, but if there are some days when he finds it hard, then I can try to win myself," said Petacchi.
Young Ewan comes to the race on the back of a strong showing in the Herald Sun Tour, where he won two stages in his first season with the UCI Pro Team Orica-GreenEdge, but admits the strength of the field could see the going tough for him, but the immense heat in Malaysia could work in his favour.
Team Sky will parade a team led by young Colombian Sebastian Henao, who will be the one the team is banking on to deliver the overall title, but his main challengers could well be in the form of fellow-Colombians in the field, also the young Eritrean Merhawi Kudus, who shocked the world by finishing second overall last year.
"I am going to look at how the race goes. Yes, normally we have a good showing here from Colombians, mainly because we are used to the weather, which is similar. But we are also normally good for the climbs. We have a good team here, with also Philip Deignan capable of climbing well. We will see how it goes," said Henao, 22.

Organised by Human Voyage Sdn Bhd, the 20th edition of Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) from 8 to 15 March, 2015 is set to cover more than 1,000km over 8 stages, the UCI 2.HC (hors category) race featuring again as one of the biggest events on the UCI Asia Tour calendar.

HOT RIDE PUTRAJAYA, ‘NATURALLY LANGKAWI’ ROUND ISLAND TO WELCOME LTdL 2013

26 November 2012 MONDAY, KUALA LUMPUR: The 18th edition of Asia's biggest cycling race, Le Tour de Langkawi, beckons and it will be welcomed by two pre-event rides for the fans - the Putrajaya Hot Ride on January 27 and the Naturally Langkawi Round Island (NLRI) ride on February 20, 2013.

In meeting the organisers' aims of giving fans a first hand experience of the hype around the race, the Putrajaya Hot Ride on January 27 is geared towards promoting Le Tour de Langkawi in two categories of cycling. The first ride will be a 60 kilometre tour around Putrajaya open to cyclists using road bikes and a 20 kilometres ride for bicycles of all types.

These events are also part of the Youth and Sports Ministry's support of the Healthy Lifestyle Through Cycling campaign, apart from promoting Putrajaya as a destination for cycling and recreation.

Each entry for the Putrajaya Hot Ride will be charged RM60 and will receive a Hot Ride t-shirt, a race number and a certificate of participation for those who complete the ride. A lucky draw will also be held at the end of the event.

LTdL chief operating officer Emir Abdul Jalal said the organisers hope all cycling enthusiasts especially those in the Klang Valley, including national, back-up, Kuala Lumpur and Selangor cyclists participate to make the event, which starts at the Palace of Justice in Precinct 3, a success.

"LTdL belongs to all Malaysians who continue to support the Tour since its inception in 1996, so they should not forgo this opportunity to welcome the arrival of the 18th edition of LTdL," said Emir.

The inaugural Naturally Langkawi Round Island ride is aimed at supporting the 'Naturally Langkawi' promotional campaign recently launched by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Tun Razak.

"LTdL supports the initiative by the Langkawi Development Authority (LADA) which aims to develop the island into one of the 10 top island destinations in the world by 2015, in line with the Langkawi Tourism Blueprint 2011-2015. We believe that the NLRI can attract cyclists from all over the world to the island.

"The best way to explore the island is obviously by cycling as visitors will get to experience all the island has to offer from wonderful beaches, natural rainforests, flora and fauna and get to know the people and their culture," said Emir.

"NLRI is a golden opportunity for its participants to welcome the 18th edition of LTdL and meet the professional riders who will be competing in the race in a hi-tea gathering held a day before the race begins."

Each entry for the NLRI will be charged RM160 and it is open to cyclists using road bike, who will cover a distance of 65 kilometres, of which in the final three kilometres they will be joined by the LTdL cyclists in the 3km loop into Dataran Lang in Kuah.

Entries for this ride will also receive a commemorative t-shirt, name-tags, race numbers, medals and certificates for those who complete the ride. A lucky draw will also be held, in which contestants stand to win attractive prizes including flight tickets, holiday packages, electrical and telecommunications goods, such as smartphones and tablets.

Registration forms can be downloaded via the LTdL website or Facebook pages of cycling communities.

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 1466.6 kilometres.

The 18th edition of the race is marked not only by its return to its legendary birthplace, but also a challenging route which features two tough climbs up Cameron Highlands and Genting Highlands.

Anuar Manan Incentive Presentation, 18 March 2010