Bos to chase sprint victories for Blanco Pro Cycling team in Tour de Langkawi

Dutchman to be backed by multiple stage winner Grame Brown and others

The fourth WorldTour team for this year’s Le Tour de Langkawi has been named, with former world track champion Theo Bos to spearhead a sprint-focussed squad in the Malaysian event.

Bos will line out in the race for the first time but will be able to draw upon the experience of Graeme Brown, who has won a total of nine stages in the past and who will be able to give him valuable pointers on how to chase success in the race.

“I see Le Tour de Langkawi as a good opportunity to get our sprint train on track,” said Bos. “Doing sprints, getting experience, learning from mistakes… This race will be perfect because there are a lot of sprint stages.”

The 29 year old had his best road season to date last year, winning stages in the Presidential Tour of Turkey, the Eneco Tour, the World Ports Classic, as well as taking Dwars door Drenthe, the Dutch Food Valley Classic and the Memorial Rik Van Steenbergen.

“We’ll be in Malaysia firstly for getting the new team together,” he said, explaining the strategy. “This is a new start for the former Rabobank. There are some new influences in the team, new staff members, new sports directors…, other ideas. The team focus on sprints is getting bigger and bigger. I really enjoy that. I hope it will bear fruit!”

He will be backed there by the Australian Brown plus Dutchmen Jetse Bol, Tom Leezer, Marc Goos and Jos Van Emden. The lineup makes clear that the team is focussing on the flatter stages in particular, and there are plenty of opportunity for victories amongst the ten race stages.

Bos wants himself or another team rider to pick up at least one of those stages. “Going to Le Tour de Langkawi, it’s a goal to come home with at least a win in our pockets. I really don’t know what to expect about the country. It’ll be my first visit, except from my stopovers at Kuala Lumpur airport. I only know a few guys from the Malaysian track team like Josiah Ng.”

The event will be preceded by a circuit race on Langkawi Island on February 20th, then begins properly the following day with a 163.7 kilometres race from Kangar to Kulim.

It runs until March 2nd, with key stages being the summit finishes at Cameron Highlands and Genting Highlands. The general classification will likely be settled by those two stages, while the sprinters will have many chances to duke it out on the other legs of the race.

Amongst those sprinters will be Astana’s new signing Andrea Guardini, who has set the record of eleven stage wins in just two years.

Blanco Pro Cycling team:

Total Distance: 1467 km