The Star Online: Sports
The Star Online: Sports |
- Julian favourite for overall title after magnificent win
- Hard part over, Adiq now wants a stage win
- Thunderbolt and UniKL favourites for overall crown battle
| Julian favourite for overall title after magnificent win Posted: 25 Feb 2013 06:13 PM PST GENTING HIGHLANDS: Colombian Julian Arredondo virtually sealed the Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) overall title after producing a magnificent ride to grab the Shah Alam-Genting Highlands Stage Five yesterday. The 24-year-old from Team Nippo rode to his first-ever professional victory by covering the 110.3km stage in 3'11:41. Dutchman Pieter Weening of Orica GreenEdge was second – 26 seconds. Another Colombian, Victor Nino Corredor of RTS Racing, crossed the finish line a further 44 seconds behind. The win puts Arredondo in a comfortable lead in the overall classification after inheriting the leader's yellow jersey from Wang Meiyin of Hengxiang Cycling. Arredondo has a 1:22 advantage over Weening and 2:10 over Sergio Pardilla of MTN Qhubeka. Meiyin finished the stage 5:13 behind Arredondo in 20th spot and currently sits fifth overall – 2:40 behind. "This is the most memorable win for me and I hope this'll mean a lot more success in the future," said Arredondo. "I turned professional last year and had a good result in the Tour of Japan last year, where I finished second overall ... so this means a lot to me." Orica GreenEdge's Travis Meyer initiated a solo breakaway in the early part of the race and enjoyed a lead of up to 9:03 on the peloton. However, Meyer's lead quickly dissolved in the final 20km as teams reined them in. At the foot of the Hors category climb (1,699m), a select group of 35 riders – including Arredondo, Corredor, Weening, Pierre Rolland (Europcar), Yonnatha Monsalve (Vini Fantini) and Meiyin – pulled away from the peloton. The leading group of 35 was strung out on the steep climb, driven by Arredondo's team-mate Fortunato Baliani in front, leaving just 10 riders in the group with five kilometres to go. That was when Meiyin dropped out of contention. "We decided to wait and see how the yellow jersey (Meiyin) will play his cards today and when the front group managed to lose him, we decided to go for the win," said Arredondo, who was 2:43 behind Meiyin in second place at the start of yesterday's stage. Arrendondo then made his move with four kilometres to go to the finish line. "I was doing the job of pulling the small group at the front ... and when I asked Arredondo to do his bit, he just took off," said Weening, who won a mountain stage in the Giro d'Italia in 2011 with Rabobank. "It was a good day for us when he had Meyer in the break. But you know it's going to be chased down easily when it comes to a climb this steep." The 217.5km Stage 6 from Mentakab to Kuantan today is the longest stage in the LTdL this year. |
| Hard part over, Adiq now wants a stage win Posted: 25 Feb 2013 02:28 PM PST GENTING HIGHLANDS: With the difficult part of the race out of the way, Champion System rider Adiq Husainie Othman will be given a free rein to pull a stage win in Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL). Adiq, who spent most of his time helping team-mates get into good positions in the previous five stages, will look to feature in any of the breakaways for a chance to grab a stage win. In the grueling Shah Alam-Genting Highlands stage, with a Hors category climb yesterday, Adiq was the best Malaysian finisher in 32nd spot – 8:21 behind stage winner Julian Arredondo of Team Nippo. Adiq is capable of attacking from a small group like he did last year in the 187.2km stage from Ayer Keroh to Pandan Indah, where he finished fourth. "There is a chance for the breakaway to win the stage and it will most likely come tomorrow (today)," said the 21-year-old Adiq. "The stage is long enough for a break to be succesful and it'll be difficult for the peloton to control the break. |
| Thunderbolt and UniKL favourites for overall crown battle Posted: 25 Feb 2013 06:15 PM PST KUALA LUMPUR: Showdown No. 4 is on the cards as SSTMI-Thunderbolt and Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) are fancied to face off again in this Sunday's MHC-Milo-NSC Junior Hockey League final. The two teams have contested the last three finals for the overall title, with UniKL triumphant in 2010 and Thunderbolt in 2011 and 2012. Both teams will start as favourites in the semi-finals, which will be held tomorrow and on Friday. In tomorrow's first-leg, Thunderbolt will meet MBI-Anderson in Johor Baru while UniKL will play against SSTMI Juniors in Kuala Lumpur. Thunderbolt, however, will be wary of the threat posed by MBI-Anderson, who are the only team to have beaten them in the preliminary round. "When we faced MBI-Anderson in the preliminary round, we had to travel up north and that took a toll on my players. We are again facing a travel headache ... when you consider that teams have to play three matches in six days (including the quarter-final return leg on Sunday), that can be taxing indeed," said Thunderbolt coach Wan Mohamed Roslan. That's why Thunderbolt will need a big win to take back to take to Ipoh for the second leg. MBI-Anderson, on the other hand, will do all they can to try and hold the sports school to a draw or even snatch a narrow win and, hopefully, complete the job on home ground. MBI-Anderson coach Mohd Ezral Ariff warned his players not to be too confident "although we beat Thunderbolt in the preliminary round". "The semi-final is always a different ball game. This is the knockout stage and we need to plan over two matches," he said. "We need to go to Johor Baru and grind out a result which we can use to our advantage in Ipoh. They can be beaten ... we did it earlier, so we can do it again." In the other tie, UniKL will definitely be the team to watch out for especially after their 13-0 aggregate win over Malacca High School in the quarter-finals. SSTMI juniors, meanwhile, endured a tough time before edging Division One runners-up Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) 8-7 in the last eight. But SSTMI Juniors can expect an even tougher time from UniKL, whose coach K. Embaraj wants them to win the overall title. "We won't take any team lightly ... SSTMI Juniors deserve our respect for having come so far. They would have learnt their lessons from the narrow win in the last eight and I'm sure they'll try to secure a good result in KL and then finish us off at home on Friday," said Embaraj. "I'll field my best team as we are injury-free. We want to go for a big win and make our work a little easier in the return leg." |
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