Sarawak’s top cycling outfit start season at Shah Alam Criterium
KUCHING: Sarawak’s top cycling outfit Team Corbusier, begins its 2014 campaign this weekend in Peninsula Malaysia.
With no races announced for Kuching, or Sarawak for that matter, Corbusier will start its race calendar in Selangor at the Shah Alam Criterium.
They will be fielding the core of its successful 2013 Sarawak Health race team.
Leading their charge will be West Kalimantan’s Fito Prilanji and Yudi Rachmad with local racers Laurel Lauridsen Adrian and Zaid Ismail.
UiTM’s Charles Diking would have been included in the squad if not for collegiate commitments.
Fito captained Corbusier’s Health race winning team which saw Laurel winning the race after a superb lead-out by Yudi. The Indon pro will be a key feature for Corbusier this season after being dropped from Team CCN, the Brunei-based UCI team.
“Fito will be riding extensively for us this season,” said Team Corbusier principal Safri Mohammed.
After a fine debut season, the team are now focusing on getting its local riders established.
With the help of Aussie pros Paul van der Ploeg and Dan Bonello, Corbusier established itself in the Malaysian cycle racing scene as an exciting team willing to take chances.
“We tried very hard to get recognised last year. Now, we are a known factor,” said Safri. One of their targets for this season is to race in Malaysian races which carry ranking points as they focus on their corp of talented local riders.
“This year, we are going to try to get our young local riders established in the elite level,” said Safri.
To that end, they will be racing in the Malaysian GP Series and UCI races.
One of their first UCI races will be the Chief Minister’s Cup in Malacca.
They will certainly be racing in the Jelajah Malaysia and the Tour of Borneo.
The Borneo race was where they scored their first ever victory when Ploeg outsprinted the bunch to take the first stage. With the success of their UCI squad, the progress of their development squad has taken on an added emphasis.
“I am really pleased to see our juniors, especially the U19 squad, progressing very well,” Said Safri.
He recognised the need to establish a proper vehicle to enable their up-and-coming riders to make it at the national level.
The team are working with the Sarawak Cycling Association and various agencies in an effort to achieve this goal.
Safri’s vision for Corbusier is to see it become a platform not just for Sarawak riders but riders from throughout Borneo as well. As he sees it, they already have Kalimantan pros like Fito and Yudi in addition to Sabahans Laurel and Charles.
Top Sarawak masters racer Supian Nor is the team’s coach and they also have top junior Garry Tay who is now training with the Sukma squad in Perlis.
Another rider who is key to the team’s plan is Bintulu-based Sylvester Ding.
The local uni grad was a key support rider in the Jelajah and Safri is keen to use him in future stage races, provided his work commitments does not clash with the races.
The team also have the ‘X’ factor in the form of Aussie Ploeg, who is the current world champion in the mountainbike eliminator event.
Nobody would have thought that a small Borneo-based club would have this in their resume when Corbusier signed Ploeg to race in the UCI races in 2013.
There is no Malaysian team with a tie to a world champion. Safri acknowledged this marketing coup and is hoping to take advantage of this incredible opportunity.
“We would love to bring Paul here for a race. It just needs the right sponsors and I am hopeful we an do that.”
Just imagine the buzz this would create if a true-blue Rainbow Jersey-wearer were to show up here in the Capital City.
For the uninitiated, the Rainbow Jersey is the jersey awarded to all UCI world champions.