Discovery Channel Marco Polo readies for Langkawi

After a month of racing and training in Malaysia and Thailand, the Discovery Channel Marco Polo Team will tackle the Tour de Langkawi. Some of the team's riders have been racing since Christmas, when they competed in the Tour of South China Sea. Others started their season with some racing at the Jelajah Tour of Malaysia, then afterward, eleven team riders stayed on in Malaysia for additional training. In the meantime, five others recently raced in the Tour of Siam in Thailand, where three made the top 15 in the GC, and the team earned three top-three finishes in various stages. Overall, Discovery Channel Marco Polo finished second.

For the Tour de Langkawi, the team hopes to break its winless streak and visit the top step of the podium. In the first month of this year, the team has made the trip to the lower steps of the podium seven times in UCI races. The squad will include the following riders: Russian sprinter Sergey Kudentsov, Chinese Xing Yan Dong, Dutch riders Pol Nabben and Thijs Zonneveld, and Malaysian Loh Sea Keong. Yu Tong from China will replace Jamsran Ulzii-Orshikh from Mongolia, who returned home on short notice.