Breaking News – Champion System Racing Wins Big at Tour of Hong Kong – Shanghai – October 21st 2008

Champion System Racing is currently competing in the Tour of Hong Kong – Shanghai commenced on Sunday October 19th and will end on October 26th. This six-day event features very fast and technical circuit races and two point-to-point events with top amateurs and professionals from around the world.

Given the short notice of the invite, and the fact that many riders are now off-season, Team Director Ray Alba had to finalize the recruitment of its 2009 members to field a team for this event.  “I am proud of the team we put together for this event and I am looking forward to their participation with our team in 2009” says Ray Alba.

The team members participating with Champion System for this race and 2009 are:

Lisban Quintero (Colombia)
Gavriel Epstein (USA/Canada)
Blake Longacre (USA)
Raj Seepersaud (Guyana)
Chris Litnaman (Canada)

“We have assembled a team that can win races,” says acting Director Sportif Miguel Morras. “With Lisban alone we can probably win a stage and I am fairly confident given that Gavi is producing pro watts, that he may win a stage and can possibly win the under 23 jersey.”

Champion System’s goals for this event are to ride smart and to leave nothing behind. So far this is playing out to be true. After 3 stages, Ray Alba (Team Director) got a call before midnight on Monday with news that Lisban won the 3rd stage and is 2nd overall on the GC after stage 3.  Gavriel is now in the U23 white jersey and has a three-minute advantage over in that classification. It seems like Miguel’s predictions are coming true. The team believes they can place Lisban on the podium for the overall GC and protect their own positions.

“This race is hard and fast. From the gun you have to be ready to go” says Blake Longacre, who unfortunately crashed twice and flatted twice during the last 3 days.  Blake did manage to recover from these incidents, latch back onto the field and finish the stages.

“Blake and Chris have been very aggressive during each of the stages and they have been the workhorses throughout each of the stages. I would compare our team’s tactics to that of Quickstep. I would like the team to work the same way as Quickstep, where every race it is a new opportunity for all the riders to make it big. Being aggressive makes you enjoy racing, and you mentally grow stronger.  Breaking away and winning is a habit. We want to win to races year round with different riders. Our way to look at races makes our cyclists more competitive” claims Miguel Morras, a former Pro who raced for ONCE in Europe.

“Can you believe it?” says Rennie Alba, Sponsorship Director for Champion System Racing. “Given this great opportunity by Champion System has put us at whole new level. We can’t say enough great things about Louis Shih, Scott Kaylin and the entire Champion System Company. We’ve developed a great relationship and look forward to bigger success in the coming season.”

Louis Shih and Scott Kaylin, owners of Champion System, are elated by the news and feel strong about the team we’ve pulled together. Scott’s response was,  “A stage win is just the icing on the cake. The Champion System KraftGenie team has been part of Champion System family almost from its inception.  We have supported each beneficially for years. Seeing one of our riders on the podium in such prestigious race in Asia represents the mutual hard work and time invested on both sides.  It also sets the tone for the 09 season.”

Tomorrow is a transfer and rest day for the team. Thursday they race again. The team is confident, strong and ready to continue fighting.

http://www.champsysracing.com