MERU RAYA — Stage 5 of the Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) today will determine who will wear the green jersey as the overall champion of this year’s edition of the ProSeries road cycling race.
The route will cover a distance of 126.4km from Slim River to Genting Highlands.
It will feature two sprint zones, Tanjung Malim and Gombak, and two Category 1 climbs at Rawang Bypass and Bentong.
Then it will finish with the Hors Category climb to Genting Highlands covering a distance of 1,625m, with the maximum gradient increasing from 11% to 13.4%.
After riders cross the finish line in Genting Highlands, there are still three more stages to go.
But the sheer difficulty of the route and the number of points on offer on the climbs will put those who shine in those zones in a comfortable position to claim the green jersey for the Individual General classification.
Stage 3 winner George Jackson of Bolton Equities Black Spoke is in pole position having taken over the green jersey from Enrico Zanoncello of Green Project Bardiani-CSF Faizane yesterday.
However, the time advantage that Jackson has over the other contenders is only 0.06 seconds from Zanoncello followed by Simon Carr with 0.10s.
“I remember watching my teammate Hugh Carthy last year leading for quite a long time on the Genting Highlands route and (he) kind of cracked in the end and he finished second.
“It looks like a tough and long climb so it will be important to have a lot left for the final there.
“I think the day that’s going to decide the General Classification is probably (today),” said Carr.
Since the Genting Highlands route returned to the list in 2019 after being omitted for four years, two riders have been able to conquer it — Australian Benjamin Dyball in 2019 and Colombian Ivan Sosa last year.
National team coach Mohd Yusof Abdul Nasir realises the green jersey is out of his riders’ reach but is confident his charges will give a good fight to the European cyclists.
“Before LTdL started we had been training at Genting Highlands for the past three months. We will give fierce competition to the European riders.
“We have Shaiful Adlan, Muhsin Al Redha Misbah, and Nur Aiman Rosli to get us back up in the individual and overall team classification.
“Genting Highlands is very special, it is likened to the stage in the Tour de France which goes through the Alps, and fans around the world know of this race because of this stage.
“Fans await eagerly for the race here and we will try to make something happen to make Malaysia proud,” said Yusof. — September 27, 2023