Theo Bos rose above the rest to win stage 7 of the 2014 Tour of Langkawi today, covering 230.1 kilometers from Kota Tinggi to Pekan.
Bos made good use of tactics heading into the finish line in Pekan to deliver his second stage win of this year’s edition – after winning Stage 2.
Bos was led-out by the experienced Australian Greame Brown, who himself has 9 LTdL wins to his name, as the peloton was swept aside in order to make room for the bunch sprint.
"I had some information from the team car and from those who were already at the finish line, plus we had studied the finish profile before the stage, so I knew exactly where there would be turns and corners, I knew there would be a turn with 500 meters to go," said Bos.
– Earlier in the Race –
The day was marked by a long breakaway group containing Yellow Fluo’s Yonnatha Monsalve (the overall winner in 2011), Orica-GreenEDGE’s Brett Lancaster, OCBC Singapore’s Eric Sheppard and Colombia’s Duber Quintero, the winner of stage 1 in Langkawi.
After opening up a gap of more than 4 minutes, which put Monsalve in the virtual leader’s position, a determined peloton began reeling in the escapees. And, with 15 kilometers remaining, they were caught – thus preserving the yellow jersey of Tabriz Petrochemical’s Mirsamad Pourseyedigolakhour.
At the line, Bos finished well ahead of Orica-GreenEDGE’s Aidis Kroupis and Leonardo Duque of Colombia.
"Heading into the finish, we knew that Kroupis was without Lancaster, who would have been tired after the breakaway. So, we believed we had a bit of an advantage," said Bos.
"We have more stages to look at from tomorrow with the race being flat all the way to the finish, so we can definitely be looking at more wins."
Despite not winning the stage, a disappointed Kroupis did manage to take over the blue points classification jersey from OCBC Singapore’s Thomas Rabou. However, red mountains classification jersey continues to remain with Synergy-Baku’s Matt Brammeier, who has successfully held onto it since stage 1.
Tomorrow will present another long stage, covering 202.3 kilometers from Kuantan to Marang, with another bunch sprint expected.
Stage 7 Results
NED 1 BOS, Theo (BELKIN) 5:33:12 LTU 2 KRUOPIS, Aidis (ORICA GreenEDGE) COL 3 DUQUE, Leonardo Fabio (COLOMBIA) COL 4 ALZATE ESCOBAR, Carlos Eduardo (UNITEDHEALTHCARE) IRI 5 KOLAHDOZHAGH, Amir (TABRIZ PETROCHEMICAL) USA 6 HANSON, Ken (UNITEDHEALTHCARE) GER 7 FÖRSTER, Robert (UNITEDHEALTHCARE) ITA 8 CHICCHI, Francesco (YELLOW FLUO) ITA 9 GUARDINI, Andrea (ASTANA) NZL 10 ROGERS, Rico Dene Thomas (OCBC SINGAPORE)
General Classification after Stage 7 IRI 1 POURSEYEDIGOLAKHOUR, Mirsamad (TABRIZ PETROCHEMICAL) 0
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