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| Matt Goss |
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| John Ebsen |
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| The team in their new kit |
SHAH ALAM, Tuesday 12 January 2016: Le Tour de Langkawi will host twenty-two teams from February
24 to March 2nd, one of which will make its first appearance to the Malaysian
event with huge expectations. It’s One Pro Cycling, the first ever British
UCI-registered Pro Continental squad. They’ll line up in Kangar with no less
than the 2011 Milan-Sanremo winner Matt Goss from Australia.
“When we first talked to their sports director Matthew Winston, we felt
this team was special and had a bright future”, the CEO of Le Tour de Langkawi
Emir Abdul Jalal underlined. “We were the first H.C. race to invite Tinkoff and
Slipstream [later renamed Garmin and now Cannondale] back in 2007. We wish One
Pro Cycling to follow their path and be just as successful in years to come.”
Le Tour de Langkawi has a rich history of inviting newly created or
newly promoted Pro Continental teams such as Cervélo and ISD in 2009, MTN in
2011 even before their upgrade to the big league, RusVelo in 2012. “We’re
grateful to team managers like [Tinkoff’s] Stefano Feltrin, [Dimension Data’s]
Douglas Ryder or Shayne Bannan from Orica-GreenEdge who remember our help on
their debuts and keep sending their team to Malaysia every time it fits into
their race schedule”, Emir added.
“We have worked hard to build a race calendar for One Pro Cycling in 2016
to both develop and challenge our squad whilst always looking to be
competitive”, Winston commented. “To be accepted into Le Tour de Langkawi is
testament to the squad that we’ve built and I’m confident we can travel to
Malaysia not only to ride the race but to be challenging for good results.”
New recruit John Ebsen is no stranger to Le Tour de Langkawi as he took
part in the past three editions with three different teams (Synergy Baku, CCN
and Androni). He collected notable results with 8th and 13th
overall in 2013 and 2014. The Danish climber is a strong supporter of the Asia
Tour.
One Pro Cycling’s star rider on Malaysian roads will be Goss who is
looking for redemption after a quiet 2015 season with MTN-Qhubeka. The 29 year
old Australian sprinter who won the 2011 Milan-Sanremo and opened
Orica-GreenEdge’s record book in the Grand Tours with a memorable stage victory
over Mark Cavendish at the 2012 Giro d’Italia will have a few occasions to show
that he remains a top sprinter.
One Pro Cycling will also attract some attention for using the new
Factor bikes developed by former Tour de France stars Baden Cooke and David
Millar.
ONE PRO CYCLING FOR LE TOUR DE
LANGKAWI 2016:
Karol Domagalski (Pol), John Ebsen
(Den), Matt Goss (Aus), Richard Handley (Gbr), George Harper (Gbr), James Oram
(Nzl)
Organised
by Ciclista Sports Sdn Bhd, the 21st edition of Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) from
24 February to 2 March, 2016 is set to cover more than 1,100km over 8 stages,
the UCI 2.HC (hors category) race featuring again as one of the biggest events
on the UCI Asia Tour calendar.
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