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Thanks Aini for the post. Anyone else interested in guest blogging - English, BM or Chinese - all are welcome.

Haidar the Kemaman Export

Name: Ahmad Haidar bin Anuawar
DOB: April 25, 1986
Height: 169cm, Weight: 59-61kg
Siblings: 1st of 6 siblings, 4 boys and 2 girls

Ahmad Haidar is a typical village boy from the suburban area of Kemaman. His passion for cycling started as a young boy who was impressed with his uncle's shiny racing bike. He would normally take out the bike for joyride only to be scolded later by his uncle for his misdeed. But this didn't dampened his spirit to one day ride a bike of his own and to earn a living doing what he liked best - cycling.

When he was in Primary school, armed with his trusted bike, which was remotely a racing bike like the ones he owns now, he joined several local kampung races aptly called Race Nyamuk("Mosquito race") and won almost every time, much to his mother's annoyance. Of course every mother would like the best for their children and all she had ever wanted was Haidar to excel in his studies. But seeing that his interest was more to cycling than studying, she relented and just prayed for the best for her first child. Eventually his uncle saw his talent, too and supported this passion of his.

During his Fourth Form, he started to meddle into road bikes and road racing. Then when he was in his Fifth Form, he entered Sukan Remaja which was organized by Sport Excel and he was officially discovered. There was no turning back for him. Subsequently he entered Sukma under Pahang's ticket. It was during 2004 Sukma in Negeri Sembilan when he was noticed by Rahim, who is currently coaching LeTua.

Rahim told Haidar that he has the potential that he was looking for in a cyclist and coincidentally they were looking for talents to form a cycling club called LeTua. Haidar didn't give second thoughts about it and was taken under Rahim's wing. Their trainings were mainly done around Subang area where they lived in the nearby Kg Melayu Subang.

Donning LeTua's jersey, he competed in several Asian cycling tours and proved himself in the international circuit by standing on the podium in some stages, namely third placing in Stage 7 of Tour Indonesia in 2005, Stage 9(Tour Indonesia, 2006), and first place wins in Stage 3 of 2007 Tour of Siam and Stage 3 of Tour of Hong Kong in 2007.

For this Kemaman born cyclist, his favourite routes includes Fraser's Hill(with a compulsory detour in Bentong for the famous Kow Po ice cream and ais kacang(shaved ice)) and Genting Highlands. The longer the climb, the better for him to build his strength. He also would like to see more youngsters participate in cycling and hopes that the cycling scene in Malaysia will stay alive and more new talents will be discovered and nurtured.

**Haidar uses a Time road bike, frame size 50 with Campagnolo Record groupset

**written by Aini Zakaria