News for February 9

What's happening on Tour?

By Tommy Campbell

Look out for Muņoz

As Genting nears, which has been the talking point of the race to date. Today, competitors will get to taste the action on the brutal climb with several names now emerging as favourites. The name constantly being talked about is that of the Columbian, Hernan Dario Muņoz of Selle Italia who has been described as a potential winner. He is regarded as one of the best climbers.

More Tonton

Coach of the Telekom Malaysian team, Joo Ngan has been quick to point out that Tonton Susanto is the man to watch for the remainder of Le Tour.

"Tonton is currently in form and I believe he has what it takes to emerge champion in the Asian category this year," said Joo Ngan.

In less than 12 hours time, we will have our answers.

Eagle Tour of Malaysia

First Cartel, organisers of Le Tour de Langkawi have their sights set on staging a new race on the island of Langkawi. For the first time since the inception of the Tour, the island missed out on a stage. This will be rectified later in the year according to, Datuk Wan Lokman Wan Ibrahim at a press conference in Johor Bahru. They want to plan and organise more races to help develop and boost the standard of cycling on the continent of Asia.

"We realise that the standard of Le Tour has gone up over the years, so much so, some of the Asian cyclists and teams have problems catching up with the Europeans. As such we have applied to the UCI to organise a 2.6 race in the middle of the year, which will be exclusively for Asian teams; club and national, plus teams from Europe."

"It's the least we can do to promote cycling in this part of the world," he said. The race is to be called, The Eagle Tour of Malaysia.

25 years the goal

John Pierce the official photographer of the event is from Bristol. John a long time friend of Sean Kelly has been a regular to the Tour de France for the last 25 years. The possibility of Le Tour reaching that landmark is a possibility. So we'll have to watch this space.

Landmark in Tampin

You be can be sure that most of the entourage attached to Le Tour missed out on a landmark at the end of stage seven in the town of Tampin. It was the residence of the Tunku Besar Tampin. Due to its remarkable and unique design, virtually every visitor who has visited this quaint town has photographed this building.

Tim Harris returns

A blast from the past in the professional ranks for all of 13 years, Tim Harris is the liaison officer for the cyclists and the organisation. Today he is a successful businessman in Belgium. He represented Great Britain as an amateur and as a professional. Titles on the bike were a plenty and he is glad to reminiscent about those days and offer advice to up and coming cyclists.