Tobias Erler has had a very impressive Tour de Langkawi, leading the race ever since he finished second on stage two last Monday. He currently holds a six-second lead over David Pell (Drapac Porsche Cycling) and eight over Jay Thomson (South Africa National Team), and has coped very well with the demands of heading a 2.HC-ranked event.
Despite the strong performance, he revealed this week that he plans to start working as a children’s teacher in September. He spent the following day in yellow and by the end of the stage, didn’t rule out completely the idea of remaining in the sport a little longer.
“I am already 30 years old, I raced for two years in Europe. For sure I made a step in the last two years and I changed the training completely,” he said. “This pays off; I do a lot of hard workouts and before I was just riding.
“If you are riding well in a race like this, for sure you have doubts [about stopping] and maybe you would like to race for a longer time. Never say no, but normally I will start to teach small children in September.”
The German rider has competed with the Giant Asia and 3C – Gruppe teams in the past and currently rides with the Iran-based Tabriz Petrochemical Cycling team. He has said that he expects to lose the race lead on tomorrow’s gruelling Genting Highlands stage of the race but, whatever happens, he has been one of the big guns of this edition of the Malaysian tour.