Posts Tagged ‘Credit Agricole’
Source: LTdL Website
SITIAWAN (10 Feb, 2008) – Englishman Jeremy Hunt overcame an early two-man breakaway to win his first ever stage victory in the prestigious Le Tour de Langkawi on the second day of Asia’s biggest road race from Butterworth to Sitiawan here today.
Japanese champion Yukiya Arashiro and Yoshimasa Hirose from Skil Shimano broke away at 85km but Hunt and his Credit Agricole teammates staged a frantic fightback and reeled the leaders in some 2km from the end.
Hunt completed the 159.7-kilometre stage in a time of 3 hours 34 minutes and 36 seconds. Italian Matteo Priamo from CSF Group-Navigare and Gustava Cesar from Karpin Galicia were second and third. Malaysian hopeful Annuar Manan from the Le Tua Racing Team performed remarkably, finishing 18th overall.
“It has been more than a year ago since I last won a stage,” said Hunt. “I came here to get some conditioning for the Classics and was hoping for a stage win. And after the win today, I hope I can win more in the days ahead.”
Several early attacks saw the peloton settling down at the 12km mark as the South African national team set the pace.
The first sprint in Sungai Bakap was won by Aurlien Clerc (Bouygues Telecom) before LeTua Cycling team’s Bernard Sulzberger took Sprint Two in Bagan Serai.
After several attempts, a successful breakway was launched by Asahiro and Hirose. They managed to open up a gap of more than four minutes from the peloton which averaged speeds of 47kmh in the first two hours.
For his efforts, Asahiro took Sprint Three in Pantai Remis. Down the final 25km, Tinkoff Credit Systems paced the main bunch as Nicolas Roche (Credit Agricole) charged away to chase the two riders up front. Credit Agricole worked hard to reel in the duo and set up a grand finish for Hunt.
Despite the win, Hunt was not able to overhaul Frenchman Matthieu Sprick for the leader’s yellow jersey.
“As a spectator, I would enjoy watching a change to the yellow jersey but not as a rider,” added Matthieu Sprick from Bouygues Telecom who is still in the leaders’s yellow jersey.
“There were a lot of attacks and I was a little happy to see the two riders going off as that allowed us to set a steady pace.”
Added new green jersey leader Gustavo Cesar of team Karpin Galicia: “we are in a good position at the moment and I believe that any change to a jersey can only mean that the race is good.”
Shinichi Fukushima, who still maintained his hold of Asia’s blue jersey, had a relatively quiet day although he did well to be second in the Second Sprint behind Sulzberger.
“Winning time in the sprint will be valuable in the final count and today, we could not do much. We will try again tomorrow,” said Shinichi.
SHAH ALAM – Datuk Naim Mohamad, Chief Operating officer, Le Tour de Langkawi 2008 announces today that A record number of 30 different nationalities will form the field for Le Tour de Langkawi this year. The race will start in Alor Setar, on February 9 and will end up with the traditional criterium at Dataran Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur on February 17.
According to the provisional start list of 150 riders, Malaysia will have the highest number of participants with 18, followed closely by Australia with 17, then Japan with 12, Italy with 10, France and Germany with 9 each. The other nations with cyclists involved are New Zealand, Hong Kong, Korea, Iran, South Africa, Indonesia, Spain, Russia, Colombia, Switzerland, Kazakhstan, China, Mexico, Argentina, Belarus, Venezuela, Taiwan, Ireland, Great-Britain, Moldavia, Netherlands, Estonia, Belgium and the USA. Continue Reading »
Source: The Star
KUALA LUMPUR: Swiss NGC Medical-OTC Industria Porte are newcomers in the cycling fraternity but they certainly won’t be lacking in experience in the Tour of Langkawi (LTdL) championships from Feb 9-17.
They have five experienced Italian riders in their ranks alongside one Swiss and they will be looking at making a big impact in the LTdL.
In 25-year-old Enrico Rossi, they have a rider with the experience of having raced in Asia and he will spearhead the team’s charge in the sprints.
The team will bank on Massimiliano Maisto to provide much of the thrust in the climb up Fraser’s Hill. Continue Reading »
KUALA LUMPUR – The orange train which is now known as CSF Group-Navigare from the previous Ceramica-Panaria are expected to dominate Le Tour de Langkawi 2008 following the inclusion of two of its top riders.
As usual, the presence of the team led by the effervescent Roberto Reberveri have always had a positive impact on the annual cycling race series be it in the sprint or in the climb.
And this time round, it will be no different following the inclusion of sprint specialist Ruben Guillermo Bongiorno from Argentina as well as nippy climber Julio Alberto Perez from Mexico in the chase for the overall yellow jersey. Continue Reading »
KUALA LUMPUR – A team with strong Russian flavour, registered in Italy and sponsored by a cycling-mad Russian millionaire, Tinkoff Credit Systems will make their return to the 13th edition of Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) from February 9 to 17, this time looking to be among the frontrunners for the overall crown.
Having finished an impressive seventh overall last year, young Russian climber Pavel Brutt returns with a squad that looks likely to be tucked firmly in battle in every stage of this year’s Tour, with Tinkoff lining up six men that can easily cause the biggest sensations in this year’s race.
Many will remember that it was Brutt who delivered Tinkoff Credit Systems’ historic first win in Stage Nine of the LTdL from Putrajaya to Seremban on February 10 last year.
“It was a dream start of the year. The victory, my first one for the new team and actually the very first one of the team on the whole, was naturally a great inspiration. The race gave a good basis to dwell on, and had a very positive effect on the first half of the season, including the Giro,” said Brutt. Continue Reading »
KUALA LUMPUR – RIDERS bound for Le Tour de Langkawi 2008 have regarded the Fraser’s Hill climb as “equally challenging” as the Genting climb with some expecting an open race and exciting competition in the race which starts in Alor Setar on Feb 9.
Some of the riders, who are now competing in the Tour Down Under, were of the opinion that the exclusion of Genting would not at all affect the excitement and competitiveness of the annual race.
For Credit Agricole’s new signing Simon Gerrans, despite Fraser’s Hill being at a lower level than Genting, he
predicts tough challenges ahead.
“I’ve never done Genting before as this will be my first ride in Le Tour de Langkawi. I’m not sure how it feels to
ride in Genting but my teammates who have done Genting told me that it would be really really tough so in a way, I’m kind of glad not to do it at this point of time,” said Gerrans who is currently competing in in Adelaide. Continue Reading »
Source: Cyclingnews
Live commentary by Gerard Knapp, with reporting from Paul Verkuylen and Greg Johnson
14:50 CST
Immediately after the finish, Allan Davis from UniSA – Australia said, “mate, it’s a big relief (to get the stage win). I’d like to thank my team-mates from UniSA. The boys did a great job and I’d like to thank all of them.” Davis said coming into Continue Reading »
Source: TDU Website
Andre Greipel (Team High Road) today paid homage to the heritage of Hahndorf, first settled by Germans in 1839, by giving the fans a German winner on Stage 2 of the 2008 Tour Down Under but it’s an Australian, Graeme Brown, who wears the race leader’s ochre jersey after a countback to separate three riders deadlocked on time.
Greipel, who won the Down Under Classic curtain raiser event at Glenelg on Sunday, unleashed a furious sprint kick to win the 148km stage from Stirling in a time of 3hr46min55sec holding off Australians Graeme Brown (Rabobank) and Allan Davis (Australia-UniSA) who finished second and third respectively.
“I feel like I am in Germany here and before the race I thought it would be nice to win here because it is a German city,” said Greipel. “I think the people from Hahndorf are also proud of me.” Continue Reading »
A video clip of Tour Down Under 2008 (Australia) Stage 1 highlights with an interview with Mark Renshaw, the winner of Stage 1.
Credit Agricole’s Mark Renshaw has taken out stage 1 of the 2008 Tour Down Under. In something of a rarity for the opening day’s racing, the boy from Bathurst, New South Wales won in a bunch sprint.
The 129 km stage took riders from Mawson Lakes into the picturesque Barossa Valley – home to some of the finest wines Australia has to offer.
All the pre-stage talk was if a breakaway would again succeed and dwindle down the overall contenders to just a select few. Riders and directors believed that although there would be escapees, all teams had too much to play for in the first ProTour race of the year and a sprint would determine the winner.
The day’s only King of the Mountain points were on offer after just 12 kilometres of racing. No significant attacks took place on the Gould Creek climb which saw Francaise Des Jeux’s Philippe Gilbert take maximum points. Continue Reading »
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