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KUALA LUMPUR: Continental team from Japan Shimano Racing Team is expected to pose a threat in its attempt to win it all during Jelajah Malaysia (JM) 2009 which will be held 19th- 26th this month.

Shimano Racing Team features six of its best riders comprise of five professional riders of vast experiences from Skil-Shimano Hidenori Nodera, Tomoya Kano, Shinri Suzuki, Yusuke Hatanaka and Yoshinori Iiro, while Yuzuru Suzuki used to ride for Aisan Racing Team.

Executive Chairman Datuk Astaman Abdul Aziz expects that the combination of great riders in this team will make it one of the main contenders against others in the bid to gain podium finish.

"Based on the experiences and riders’ professional background in collective, Shimano Racing Team will be one of the favourites to be the best in JM this time around.”

"I’m also expecting JM to be  ‘scorching hot’ with the numbers of great riders competing each others and not forgetting our very own home-bred riders who are also up to par," he added.

Astaman said that the achievements of two riders from Shimano Racing Team; Hidenori and Tomoya in JM is undeniable as both of them had podium finish before and he expects them to recur their victories in this edition.

"I predict that any of the Shimano Racing Team’s riders would managed to ‘steal’ any one of the stages to ensure their place on the podium as winner," he added.

Hidenori was JM2003’s best overall winner while Tomoya managed to win stage 7 of last year’s JM.

Apart from the duo, Yoshinori was in the third place in stage 6 of Tour de Hokkaido in 2007, while Yuzuru finished stage 5 of Tour of Thailand in 10th place and secured 36th place overall in the event held recently.

Jelajah Malaysia 2009 of 2.2 categorization by the International Cycling Union (UCI), will be held from 19th to 26th April is organized by Ten Speed Events Sdn Bhd.

The eight-stage race of 1240km in distance will commence from Kuala Selangor to Ipoh, stage 2 (Ipoh - Sungai Petani), stage 3 (Gerik - Tanah Merah), stage 4 (Pasir Mas - Kuala Terengganu), stage 5 (Kuala Terengganu - Kuantan), stage 6 (Kuantan - Bera), stage 7 (Tanjung Malim-Genting) and will end in stage 8 of Criterium race in Dataran Merdeka.