LOTHIANS cycling star Alex Coutts went into today's closing stage of the Tour of Thailand poised for the biggest win of his career.
The 24-year-old's best performances to date include 17th place in the 2005 Tour of Britain and several minor placings in European races.
Coutts, a former member of the Capital club, Edinburgh RC, has raced professionally on the continent an
d competed for Scotland in the road race at the 2006 Commonwealth Games
He is now riding on the UCI Asian Circuit in the colours of the Giant Asia Racing Team. In addition to the squads who normally compete in Asian races, the event in Thailand also features teams from the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland.
Coutts took over the yellow jersey after the second stage and since then has ridden intelligently, gradually building a lead of 46 seconds going into yesterday's penultimate day of the race.
He finished comfortably in the leading bunch yesterday, more than five minutes down on the stage winner Bjorn Glassner of Germany, who poses no threat in the overall standings.
That preserved his advantage ahead of the final day's 148 kilometre circuit race in Lampang, comprising eight laps of 18.5 kilometres.
The full article contains 207 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
