The NIPPO Vini Fantini team is preparing for an important race of the Asian Calendar, the Tour de Langkawi. The leaders of the race: Nicolas Marini for the sprint arrivals, Masakazu Ito and Hideto Nakane for the general ranking.
Malesia, Tour de Langkawi.
6 riders among the #OrangeBlue are yet ready to race the Tour de Lankgawi, important race of the Asian Calendar, in which the team in the 2017 have important goals to reach as a team. The NIPPO Vini Fantini Sports Director of the race will be Shinichi Fukushima, and he his already in Malesia with the team since the begin of last week to prepare the race, and the riders have started to have a good feeling with roads, time zone and special climate of the country. Everything has been prepared in the best ways as possibile for this tour, in which the leaders will be Nicolas Marini for the sprints arrival and single stage victories and Ito Masakazu, that on these roads was involved in an important crash and injury and he his now looking for revenge and play for General Ranking. In a good status also Hideto Nakane that will battle too for General Ranking. With them will race the Young Japanese talent Marino Kobayashi, Riccardo Stacchiotti, as important supporting rider for Nicolas Marini, and Giacomo Berlato at his seasonal debut, as important team worker and “escape man” of the team.
These the words of the Sports Director Shinichi Fukushima: “We are in Malesia since 8 days before the race, for a very special training camp so have the time to adapt to the hot and humid weather conditions. We tried some of the race roads. Nicolas Marini will be our fast rider for all the sprints, with the support of Riccardo Stacchiotti. For Giacomo Berlato, at his seasonal debut, we expect he will improve day by day and will be able to go in some escape in the second part of the Tour. Kobayashi, our young Japanese talent, is happy to race his first race in Asia as a Pro, but he have to grow up in condition. Hideto Nakane he is in good condition and this race is very important for him this year, he is here to battle for the General Ranking. Masakazu Ito he knows this race and had a big crash in this race. He is looking for revenge and will play for the general ranking.”
The team will be racing 8 stages in Tour of Langkawi, 3 of them are with important climbs, especially the stage 4, that will probably be the most important one for the general ranking. The other stages could have sprints arrivals, starting from the first one of the 22nd of February, with Nicolas Marini, looking forward for a victory.