Keen to further build on a staggering list of 33 stage wins in the Tour de Langkawi, the Colnago-CSF-Inox team has been confirmed for the 2011 edition of the race. The Italian team is sending a young squad to the 2.HC Asian event, selecting second year pros Alberto Contoli and Andrea Piechele, as well as debutants Paolo Locatelli, Omar Lombardi, Angelo Pagani and Andrea Pasqualon.
Piechele, who transferred from the Carmiooro-NGC team and who landed top ten results in races such as the 2010 Circuit of Getxo, will be the team’s main man for the sprints, while Contoli is the named climber. The other four riders will support them, and also ride aggressively when it comes to breakaway moves.
The team was absent last year due to a clash with other races on the calendar, but was the first to apply to take part this time round. “We’re glad to come back because the organisation of the event is always great and this is for sure a nice experience for our young riders”, said manager Roberto Reverberi.
“Our strategy might change from the previous years since the mountain stages of Cameron and Genting Highlands are on day 4 and 5”, he continued. “That means from stage 6 onwards, there will be breakaways from far out that will have a chance to succeed. For young riders, it’s a great opportunity to get the experience to race as professionals. A positive thing is the pretty short distance of the stages, it suits the early season period. As always, we’ll do our best to make the most of the course.”
The team has always ridden well, beginning in 1998 when the squad – then named Scrigno-Gaerne – clocked up five wins. The victorious riders were Mirko Rossato, Alessandro Petacchi, Dario Pieri, Mirko Rossato and Luca Cei.
Petacchi’s win was the first of his pro career and in the years since, he has clocked up 145 other victories. These include a staggering 21 stages in the Giro d’Italia, 19 in the Vuelta a España, six in the Tour de France and points classification wins in each. He also won Milan-San Remo in 2005 and Paris-Tours two years later.
In the years since that 1998 debut, the team has competed under a number of other sponsors’ names, such as Navigare, Panaria and CSF. Its stage victors include Enrico Degano, Graeme Brown, Ruben Bongiorno, Maximiliano Richeze and Nathan O’Neill. Most of those have been won in bunch sprints, but in 2000 then Mexican rider Julio Alberto Perez Cuapio triumphed atop the legendary Genting Highlands climb, the most prestigious stage end location in the race.
The squad has clearly played a major part in the history of the race, winning more stages than any other. Tour de Langkawi CEO Mohamed Salleh is happy to see it returning. “Thanks to this team, one of the world’s best cyclists of the past decade [Petacchi] has made Malaysia known worldwide because he scored his first pro win on our land. So it’s of course a great pleasure to welcome the team of the Reverberi family back to Malaysia. We’re sure they have loads of great new talents coming up and we look forward to see them in action again.”
Colnago-CSF joins five previously announced teams from the Asia-Pacific region, namely Giant Asia, Drapac Porsche, Tabriz Petrochemical, Aisan Racing Team and Polygon Cycling Team. A total of 23 teams are planned for the 2011 race, including ten teams from Europe and the US, ten from Asia-Pacific and three from Malaysia itself.
The ten stage, 1315.4 kilometre race will begin on Langkawi island on January 23rd and end on February 1st at Dataran Merdeka.
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Colnago Csf Inox linup:
Riders: Alberto Contoli, Paolo Locatelli, Omar Lombardi, Angelo Pagani, Andrea Pasqualon, Andrea Piechele
Team Manager: Roberto Reverberi
Team’s wins to date in the race:
1998: Mirko Rossato, stage 4; Alessandro Petacchi, stage 6; Dario Pieri, stage 8; Mirko Rossato, stage 9; Luca Cei, stage 12.
1999: Enrico Degano, stage 2; Enrico Degano, stage 7; Luca Cei, stage 12.
2000: Julio Alberto Perez Cuapio, stage 10.
2001: Enrico Degano, stage 2; Enrico Degano, stage 5; Nathan O’Neill, stage 10.
2002: Enrico Degano, stage 3; Graeme Brown, stage 6; Graeme Brown, stage 10.
2003: Graeme Brown, stage 5: Graeme Brown, stage 7; Ruben Bongiorno, stage 10.
2004: Brett Lancaster, stage 3; Ruben Bongiorno, stage 10.
2005: Graeme Brown, stage 1; Ruben Bongiorno, stage 2; Graeme Brown, stage 5, Ruben Bongiorno, stage 6; Graeme Brown, stage 7; Graeme Brown, stage 9; Graeme Brown, stage 10.
2006: Maximiliano Richeze, stage 1; Ruben Bongiorno, stage 2; Sergey Matveyev, stage 9.
2007: Maximiliano Richeze, stage 2.
2008: Filippo Savini, stage 8; Mauro Richeze, stage 9.