Kazakhstan’s Vino-Astana Motors hope to make their presence felt in this year’s Petronas Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL), which starts on Friday.
Despite leaving out last year’s third-place overall finisher Vadim Pronskiy, Vino-Astana Motors are still confident ahead of the race.
Igor Chzhan, 20, and 19-year old Yevgeniy Fedorov will lead the charge this year.
Chzhan is eager to challenge for honours after his second-placed outing in the Tour of Peninsula in October while Fedorov is the reigning Under-23 Asian time trial champion.
He also finished second in the road race event at the Under-23 Asian Championships last year.
The team will also be counting on the experience of 27-year old sprinter Matvey Nikitin, who won last year’s Odessa Grand Prix in Ukraine.
He will be backed by Grigoriy Shtein and Alexandr Semenov in the flat stages.
Chzhan and Fedorov, along with 19-year old Gleb Brussinskiy will carry the team’s general classification hopes, where they are expected to challenge for the Asian classifications.
The 25th edition of LTdL will begin in Kuching.
The 86.7km Criterium International in Kota Kinabalu will serve as a prelude, while the post-race 159km Malaysian Classic in Langkawi will end festivities on Feb 15.
New Straits Times, 3 February 2020