ON a roll with seven UCI Asia Tour stage wins in two months, capped by their triple stage victories and two classification jersey wins in the Jelajah Malaysia, the Terengganu Cycling Team (TSG) have found themselves hit by a dampener due to the floods in Terengganu.
Training is on hold, according to team captain Zamri Saleh, as some riders and team staff are affected by the floods while the squad await a decision by coach Sebastian Duclos and the team management on a camp in Chiang Rai, Thailand to keep their training in check.
“What we’ve done in these two months shows we are back on track, so we have to keep focused and build on this form. Thankfully, the spirits are high and the team is united,” said Zamri, who put behind him a two-year victory drought by winning two stages in a one-two finish with younger brother Harrif in the Jelajah Malaysia.
“But with the floods at the moment in Terengganu, our training is a bit disrupted. We will have to find a way to keep the form, so we’ll leave that to the team management to decide. The coach says we have a training camp in Thailand planned, so if we can work with him there, then I am confident we will maintain our form.”
TSG have registered 50 points in two months to move to eighth in the UCI Asia Tour team standings.
The points registered through impressive victories in the Tour of Khatulistiwa, Tour of Ijen, Tour of Sharjah and two wins by Zamri, capped by Harrif’s victory in the final stage of the Jelajah Malaysia, mean they have 10 points more than the team collected all of last season under a management that had to be revamped before the start of this season.
“We have a clear focus now, which is the UCI Asia Tour and our team has our plans for the whole year laid out already. So, for us, that is our goal with a key target being Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) on March 8-15,” said Zamri.
The team’s next race will be the Tour of the Philippines on Feb 1-4, with an entry to the Tour of Dubai still pending.
The UCI Asia Tour champions in 2012 have gone through major restructuring under chief operations officer Nasiruddin Wan Idrus, since the management was returned to the Terengganu Sports Council, two seasons under the Terengganu state secretariat.
A major influence in their improved form, Zamri said, has been the return of trusted French coach Sebastian Duclos, who came back after a year away due to differences with the old management and has immediately made an impact.
“It is not difficult to train these boys and to get them to perform. They are committed. The problem was, under the previous management, they forgot the priority of being a cycling team, which was the need to race. Thankfully, that has changed and now you can see, with constant racing and good training, our boys are performing,” said Duclos, 41.
“They had very few races last season, so the performances dropped and the riders became demoralised. This season onwards, we can go to as many races as possible and I believe the riders can still improve a lot more. We now have to find some more races to prepare for LTdL.” By Arnaz M. Khairul