Astana Pro Team Aims For Stage Win In Le Tour De Langkawi

SEPANG (Selangor, Malaysia), Feb 19 (Bernama) -- A fierce rivalry is expected for the blue jersey as Astana Pro Team from Kazakhstan aims to win a stage in the Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) that will kick off in Putrajaya on Friday. Team Captain Vinokourov Alexandre said the team wants to achieve a better target in this year's edition. "I have participated in this prestigious race in 1997, and this is the second time. Together with the team, we are targetting a good finish. "I will try my best to ensure that I win a stage. Le Tour de Langkawi has a special place in my heart and off course in the 10-day race there is time to improve my performance," he told reporters upon arrival at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport here Sunday. Vinokourov, Alexandre Dyachenko and Andrey Zeits together with team manager Alexandr Shefer are here for race which covers a distance of 1,410.7km and starts with the Individual Time Trial (ITT) event in Putrajaya. Vinokourov will be accompanied by the team's sprinter Assan Bazayev and Alexandre (who finished ninth at the 2011 world championship), Dimitriy Gruzdev, Valentin Iglinskiy (winner of Tour of Hainan in 2010 and 2011) and Andrey (runner-up of 2011 Tour of Turkey). This year's edition (LTdL) will see a first in the history of the event with five former champions at the starting line. The five are 2003 champion Tom Danielson, Freddy Gonzalez (2004), Anthony Charteau (2007), Jose Rujano (2010) and Jonnatha Monsalve (2011), who is aiming for a back-to back win. For the record, only Paolo Lanfranchi has succeeded in winning the race twice, in 1999 and 2001. The 17th edition of the LTdL is organised by the National Sports Council (NSC) as a mark of continuity to the organisation of the Ministry of Youth and Sports in 2010 and 2011 in collaboration with the Malaysian National Cycling Federation. The race maintained its 2.HC (Hors Classe) status and is recognised and sanctioned by the International Cycling Union (UCI) and UCI Asia Tour and is feature 22 teams. -- BERNAMA