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LTDL 2012 - Presence of six former winners set to make the Tour a thriller

KUALA LUMPUR: An engrossing battle for the 2012 Tour of Langkawi (LTdL) title begins today with the 20.3km individual time trial in Putrajaya.

Two World Tour teams, Garmin-Barracuda and Astana, will join the fray with 21 other teams over 10 days until the final stage in Kuala Terengganu on March 4.

With six former champions, the 17th edition of the race will be one of the keenest in recent years.
Androni Giocattoli boasts three former winners – Jose Rujano, Jose Serpa and defending champion Yonattha Monsalve – in a line-up even Garmin’s Tom Danielson calls “a terrifying team”.

Danielson himself was a previous winner, grabbing the title in 2003 while racing with Saturn. Anthony Charteau of Europcar won with Credit Agricole in 2007 while Freddy Gonzalez took the yellow jersey in 2004 with Colombia-SelleItalia.

The 37-year-old Gonzalez is now racing with Azad University Cross where he has local rider Ng Yong Li for company.

The six former champions will be gunning for their second title to emulate Paolo Lanfranchi (Mapei-Quick Step), who rode to glory in 1999 and 2001.

But with a 20.3km time trial in the opening stage and a lot of good climbers in the competition, the race for the coveted yellow jersey will be an open battle.

Rujano, who won in 2010, admits that time-trialling is not his strong feature, but insists that he should not concede more than 20-30 seconds in the first stage.

“I can’t lose a lot of time in the time trial. But we have to fight hard in the mountain stage (Genting Highlands) if we want to win the Tour,” he said.

Astana could spring a surprise although team leader Alexandre Vinokourov said he would help out his team-mates in the race.

“We have strong riders in (Valentin) Iglin­skiy and (Assan) Bazayev,” said Vinokou­rov, who finished third in the 2003 Tour de France.

“(Dmitriy) Gruzdev, who won the time-trial silver medal in the Asian Championships, could get a good lead in the general classification in the opening stage too.”

Vinokourov himself is a good time-triallist, coming in third in the 2006 World Championships and winning the Asian Championships in 2009.

But with a different approach to his final year as a professional, Vinokourov said even winning a stage would be a big bonus for him.



THE STAR

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