The ball’s still at TSC’s feet – despite Dyball’s absence

PETALING JAYA: The absence of Australian Benjamin Dyball – the yellow jersey winner of last year’s Le Tour de Langkawi – has not affected the confidence level of Sapura Cycling Team (TSC) as they look to maintain their supremacy at the 2020 edition slated for Feb 7-14.

TSC team manager Sayuti Zahit admitted that while it will be hard to fill the vacuum left behind with the departure of Dyball, he nevertheless felt that the current line-up of riders chosen for the 25th edition, which has Petronas as the title sponsor, will deliver what is expected of them.

“It has always been the objective in the formation of TSC to provide a platform for riders from Malaysia and abroad for them to showcase their quality.

“Sapura are very pleased that Dyball has managed to demonstrate his ability enough to attract a World Tour team like NTT (formerly Dimension Data) to sign him, ” said Sayuti.

“This is the fourth year that TSC have competed in Asia and we are grateful that our sponsors have once again come forward to support us.

Our main sponsors Sapura alongside Castelli, Rudy Project, Shimano and Cervelo have been fabulous. With the backing that we have, it is not impossible to be competitive and look to deliver even bigger victories this year.”

TSC, who had a modest beginning back in 2017 where they won just four stages, did better in 2018 before completing 2019 with an awesome 26 stage victories alongside picking up four yellow jerseys.

The most satisfying obviously was Dyball’s yellow jersey win at LTdL last year right in front of their home fans.

But with the 25th edition now a Pro Series race by the UCI, Sayuti said that it will be an even tougher field to beat with a handful of World Tour teams alongside those from Pro Continental set to do battle.

“It is much easier to win stages than it would be taking a jersey. But we will try very hard to make sure that we retain the yellow jersey we won last year.

“I believe that it is possible considering that the race in 2020 will be more on flat terrains suitable for the likes of Marcus Culey, who won the first stage from Kuala Lumpur to Tampin last year, ” added Sayuti.

Other than Culey, fresh from his comprehensive victory at the Tour de Selangor a few weeks ago, TSC have included fast maturing Malaysians Nur Aiman Zariff and Muhamad Zawawi Azman alongside the experienced Roy Eefting from Holland.

They will also call on Turkey’s national road race and time trial champion Ahmet Orken, former Floyd Cycling team’s Serghei Tvetcov from Romania and perhaps TSC’s best bet for the yellow jersey Pierpaolo Ficara of Italy, who was previously with Amore & Vita-Prodir.

The eight-stage event is scheduled to cover a total distance of 1095.7km across nine states, including Sarawak.