South Africa going for Asian victories

By Greg Johnson in Melaka, Malaysia

South Africa's national squad is hoping to pull some upset victories at the Tour of Langkawi this week, after finishing third and second on the opening two stages. The squad isn't only hoping to go one better at a stage finish, however, instead aiming to climb into the leader's jersey on the Genting Highlands stage.

"[For now] our focus is for stage wins," said Janse van Rensburg. "We got a third place in yesterday's sprint and a second place today, so tomorrow we will see if we can get the win with our sprinter.

"The main focus is to go for the general classification," he added.

Rensburg climbed his way into the King of the Mountains leader's jersey on stage 2 on Tuesday. The rider took over from teammate Jaco Venter, a sprinter who took the jersey by being in the leader's group at yesterday's slight rise.

"We got King of the Mountains on the first day, but we weren't aiming to get King of the Mountains, we were aiming to get a rider into the first breakaway of the day," he said. "It's something to work for, it's something just to keep our mind on the race.

"I may just try to defend the jersey tomorrow [Wednesday - ed.] and maybe I'll hold on," he added. "I'm not going 100 percent to hold on to the jersey to the end."