Jacques Hopes to Emulate Younger Brother's Feat in 2017 LTdL

By MAZANI CHAN YAT SIN KUALA TERENGGANU, Feb 22 (Bernama) -- Dimension Data rider Jacques Janse van Rensburg will be vying to continue his younger brother's legacy when Asia's most prestigious cycling race, Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL), gets underway here Wednesday. The 29-year old rider who is making his seventh appearance in the annual race, however, does not want to take things for granted and aware of the challenges ahead, adding that the stage four stretching a distance of 174.4km from Seri Manjung to Cameron Highlands would be the deciding stage for the yellow jersey (overall individual champion). For the record, Reinardt Janse van Rensburg, 27, who is also from Dimension Data won the yellow jersey in LTdL 2016. "There’s always a nice atmosphere for racing here. We came with an all-round team for sprinting and riding for General Classification (yellow jersey), which seems to work for our team as we won this race for the past two years," Jacques told a pre-race press conference, here Tuesday. "We have an all African team, except for Ben O’Connor who is an Australian and I hope to be able to fight for the General Classification," he added. Regular face in LTdL, Jakub Mareczko of Willier Triestina team, on the other hand, hoped to emulate the stage victory he achieved last year, especially with the presence of strong teammates in the Italian team like Rafael Andriato and Filippo Pozzato. "There are many good sprinters on the start line, mostly from Italy with Nicolas Marini from Nippo-Vini Fantini, Marco Benfatto and Andrea Palini of Androni Giocattoli," he said. "I also know Scott Sunderland from Australia when racing him in China before. I’ll try to repeat the stage victory I had here last year," Mareczko added. Sharing his views was Pozzato who is gunning for a stage win on his debut in the 22nd edition of the cycling race. “I’ve wanted participate in the Le Tour de Langkawi many times before but I was always doing Tirreno-Adriatico cycling race (in Italy). "Since our team has not been invited to Tirreno-Adriatico, I took the opportunity to come here after the Tour of Oman to get a good condition for Milan-Sanremo (cycling race)," the 35-year-old Italian added. Indonesian continental team, KFC Cycling Team, had decided to pull out from the race at the eleventh hour due to internal problems, leaving only 19 teams to compete in this year's race. Wednesday, stage one of the 2017 LTdL will start from Kuala Berang to Kuala Terengganu, covering a distance of 128.4km. -- BERNAMA