photo credit @ Tour de Langkawi
excerpts from Tour de Langkawi
Andrea Guardini again proved unstoppable in a bunch spritn when the Astana Pro Team rider took his third win of Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) 2015 in a bunch sprint in Stage Four from Kota Baru to Kuala Berang today.
Guardini, 27, beat Team Southeast’s Jakub Mareczko to the finish line, with Orica-GreenEdge’s Caleb Ewan finishing third this time but held on to both the overall general classification and points classification leads. This was also Guardini’s 17th ever win in the race’s history, extending even further his already impressive record.
“I am happy with the way the sprint went. I managed a really good sprint to take this win. Today was a really fast paced stage with the speed in the earlier part already very high at 50 to 60 kp/h,” said Guardini.
“I then had a good lead-out and I took a good risk, then the job was done. For the moment, this is a good result. But for now, I think I can do more than this.”
A five-man breakaway of United Healthcare’s Jonathan Clarke, Bretagne-Seche Environnement’s Pierre-Luc Perichon, Synergy Baku’s Elchin Asadov, Skydive Dubai’s Vladimir Gusev and Pegasus Jamalidin Novardianto escaped the peloton after 30km of the 165km stage and they took all the intermediate points on offer for the day before the peloton caught them 2km from the finish.
Ewan lost out to Guardini and had to settle for third this time, but was not raising his hopes to much when asked about his chances of keeping the overall lead to the end of the race.
“I climbed well yesterday and tried to just stay in the group. But I’m not really a pure climber. I prefer to sprint. It depends on the day. If I feel good on the day, then I can climb well, but if I don’t then it will be the other way around,” said Ewan, who won Stage 3 yesterday after surviving the tough climb across the summit of Titiwangsa.
United Healthcare’s Kiel Reijnen retained the mountains classification lead, as did Asian riders classification leader Zhang Wen Long of the Giant-Champion System team.
Stage Five is the longest stage of the race at 200km from Kuala Terengganu to Kuantan with coastal crosswinds and undulating terrain providing a different challenge to the peloton, which could provide an opportunity for a differnet rider to take the top step of the podium.
Top 10 Finishers
1 Andrea Guardini (Ita) Astana Pro Team 3:43:14 2 Jakub Mareczko (Ita) Southeast 3 Caleb Ewan (Aus) Orica GreenEdge 4 Youcef Reguigui (Alg) MTN – Qhubeka 5 Ken Hanson (USA) UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling 6 Harrif Salleh (Mas) Terengganu Cycling Team 7 Christopher Sutton (Aus) Team Sky 8 Rafaa Chtioui (Tun) Skydive Dubai Pro Cycling Team 9 Oleksandr Surutkovych (Ukr) Synergy Baku Cycling Project 10 Ryohei Komori (Jpn) Aisan Racing Team
General Classification
1 Caleb Ewan (Aus) Orica GreenEdge 14:46:02 2 Natnael Berhane (Eri) MTN – Qhubeka 14:46:19 3 Youcef Reguigui (Alg) MTN – Qhubeka 14:46:22 4 Pierre-Luc Perichon (Fra) Bretagne-Séché Environnement 5 Francisco Mancebo (Spa) Skydive Dubai Pro Cycling Team 6 Leonardo Duque (Col) Colombia 14:46:24 7 Frédéric Brun (Fra) Bretagne-Séché Environnement 14:46:25 8 Wen Long Zhang (Chn) Giant-Champion System Pro 14:46:26 9 Jianpeng Liu (Chn) Hengxiang Cycling Team 10 Robin Manullang (Ina) Pegasus Continental Cycling Team 14:46:27
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