Rusvelo Wants To Create History At 2012 LTDL

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 11 (Bernama) -- A newly formed Pro Continental team called RusVelo from Russia is expected to spice up the Le Tour De Langkawi, the most prestigious cycling competition in Asia. "RusVelo reminds us of team Tinkoff in 2007, when the newly formed Russian team had their first race in Malaysia. They won their first race with Pavel Brutt in Seremban, this remains as one of the best stages ever contested at Le Tour de Langkawi. "They carried on with enjoying great success at the Tour of Italy and they became the famous Katusha team later on. That's what we like, raising talents in our beautiful and hospitable country," said LTdL's chief operating officer Emir Abdul Jalal in a statement Tuesday. The all-Russian team will be spearheaded by Artem Ovechkin, the country's former national time trial champion, and he would be the man to watch at the 2012 LTdL's first stage (Individual Time Trial) in Putrajaya on Feb 24. The other riders in the all-Russian team are Alexander Khatuntsev, Sergei Klimov, Valery Valynin, Ivan Savitsky and Matvey Zubov. While RusVelo team manager Heiko Salzwedel knows very well about the LTdL race since he was with Australia's Giant-AIS that won the first edition of the race in 1996. "I have great memories about this race. In 1996 and 1997 I was the sport's director of a small Australian squad. We were new, young team and our riders Damian McDonald won in 1996 and Jens Voigt finished second overall in 1997. I hope we can have a similar impact this year with RusVelo and show that we are a strong and hungry team," said the German team manager. "Our main goal for 2012 is the Olympic Games and the World Team Time Trial Championships. To achieve good results at these events we have gathered a homogenous mix of experienced riders and young riders who have great potential," he added. As for team management, the team had hired an international group of experts comprising Viatcheslav Ekimov, Victor Popov, Henk Vogels and Egon van Kessel. The LTdL race from Feb 24 to March 4 maintains a 2.HC (Hors Classe) status and is recognised and sanctioned by the International Cycling Union (UCI) and UCI Asia Tour. -- BERNAMA