GRAEME BROWN TO BACK THEO BOS AGAIN IN BELKIN’S TOP TRAIN

Greame Brown, the perfect lead-out man

Theo Bos, back for more wins

BUKIT JALIL, 6 February 2014 - After completing the 2013 season with thirteen wins including two at Le Tour de Langkawi, Theo Bos will be back in Malaysia at the helm of the Belkin team that accumulated 38 successes, making the Dutch outfit the second most prolific squad of last year after Omega Pharma-Quick Step.

As he became sick after stage 4, Bos pulled out of his first LTdL but following his six bunch sprint victories at the Tour of Hainan in China in October, he’s hungry for more success in Asia, as his lead out man Graeme Brown explained. The Australian was once the record holder of stage wins at Le Tour de Langkawi, until Andrea Guardini who now has twelve under his belt overtook him in 2012.

“I’ve won nine stages when I came to Malaysia as a sprinter [from 2002 to 2005] but now I work for Theo Bos”, the Australian said.

“I really like the race itself. These days many organizers tend to make the races too hard and from what I understand there are nine stages for sprinters out of ten at Le Tour de Langkawi this year. It’s kind of a heritage. It’s always been a lot of sprint stages and it still is. I think it’s great to see. Nine is a lot but we go with a great team for that so it’s perfect.”

“Langkawi is great! It’s very relaxed. It’s a very serious race of course but in a very relaxed atmosphere. Malaysian fans are great and really in to it. I had a lot of success there, so people know my name and remember me winning many times. It’s really nice. It’s a good race with good weather, a little bit humid but on nice roads.”

Brown is adamant that he won’t try to get his record back. “I really enjoy my job as a lead out man”, he stated. “I don’t have the speed I had when I was young. It wouldn’t make sense that I’d race as a sprinter now because Theo always beat me when I sprinted against him. To me it’s logic. I feel less pressure but I still have some pressure. If I don’t put Theo in the right spot, he can’t win the race. He always relies on what I do in the last kilometer. It’s great when he wins of course.”

“You have to remember that only a few years ago he was a track sprinter. It takes some time. He was racing 200 metres and now he’s racing 200 kilometres. He beat the world’s best sprinters [Marcel Kittel and Mark Cavendish] two weeks before the Tour de France last year. Definitely in the Asian races he’s really good. He has the Tour of Qatar to get ready for Le Tour de Langkawi. I really pushed Theo to do this race. He wanted to do Paris-Nice, I said look let’s do Langkawi, let’s try to win some races, it’s a great race with good weather. Hopefully he doesn’t get sick this year.” Brown added.

“It’s very exciting to see Brown and Bos coming back to Malaysia”, chief operating officer of Le Tour de Langkawi Emir Abdul Jalal commented. “Belkin also entered Steven Kruijswijk for riding GC and Jack Bobridge as part of the lead out train with Rick Flens and Dennis van Winden who are the experts in paving the way for Brown and Bos. Bobridge is another cycling super star.”

“In Malaysia we are also very keen on watching track cycling, so to have the world record holder for the individual pursuit (4km) is a great honor for us.” Emir added.

BELKIN PRO CUCLING TEAM FOR THE 2014 LE TOUR DE LANGKAWI:

Theo BOS (NED), Greame BROWN (AUS), Rik FLENS (NED), Jack BOBRIDGE (AUS), Steven KRUIJSWIJK (NED) and Dennis VAN WINDEN (NED).

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.

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).

THEO SHOWS WHO'S BOS WITH EASY VICTORY

The break

Flag off by Raja Muda Perlis Tuanku Syed Faizuddin Putra Jamalullail

Theo takes the win!

KULIM, Thursday - Blanco Pro Cycling Team's Theo Bos swept the opening victory in the 18th edition of Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) today almost unchallenged in the bunch sprint finish.

That victory, 29-year old Bos' second in two weeks, gave him both the Visit Terengganu Year 2013 yellow jersey as the overall leader and the Proton blue jersey as the leader of the points classification.

Backed by a strong team that included the former LTdL record stage winner Greame Brown, Bos easily saw off the challenge of young French sprinter Bryan Coquard of Team Europcar and Italy's Andrea Guardini of the Astana Pro Team, the current LTdL stage win record holder at the end of the 162.7 kilometre stage that ended in 4 hours and 17 seconds.

China's Wang Meiyin of the Hengxiang Cycling Team also grabbed some atention when his early effort in a breakway from kilometre zero with Japan's Shinichi Fukushima of Team Nippo and Ho Junrong of OCBC Singapore saw him win all three intermediate sprints and the category 4 KOM at Bukit Selambau to take the Malaysia Airlines white Asian riders' jersey as well as the Genting red jersey as the mountains classification leader.     

The end result of the stage confirmed pre-race speculations as Bos, winner of Stage Two in the Tour of Algarve in Portugal last week, produced an explosive sprint to finish off the opposition after the peloton had caught up with the three breakway riders 20 kilometres from the finish.

"It was quite easy becausde my teammates controlled the tempo at the front which made it difficult for the other teams to find a good position. My teammate Brown has a lot of experience here, so that also helped me," said Bos.

"But I realise that the race after this will not always be easy. With our team in good condition, I hope to register more victories in the coming stages."

Meiyin, who saw his hopes of a surprise victory diminish when the peloton caught up after  they passed Kuala Ketil, ssaid he had entered the race hoping to make an impact.

"I wanted to show my ability in this race and try to win something," said Meiyin, who has raced in Malaysia with the Marco Polo team prior to this.

"I realised that this is a race with a very high level and it requires a lot more for me to win. But I am still eager to prove something and with the performance in the stage, I'm happy that I have come up with good form after the winter in China," said Meiyin.

Synergy-Baku Cycling Project's Anuar Manan emerged as the best Malaysian rider on the day by finishing seventh in the stage.

"When Blanco were at the front, there was a split in the front of the peloton and I was left behind, so my lead-out man Rico Rogers had to work extra hard to pull me back to the front. After that I tried to match the guys at the front, but they were just too fast," said Anuar.

The second stage of LTdL covers 117km from Serdang to Kuala Kangsar today, where the peloton has toalso negotiate a tough category 2 climb up Bukit Sumpitan.

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).