Langkawi: Andrea Guardini remains unbeaten on KL finish, TSG makes history

Italian sprinter Andrea Guardini (Bardiani-CSF) closed the 23rd Le Tour de Langkawi (UCI 2.HC) in Kuala Lumpur with his second stage win of the race to bring his race record total to 24 and remain unbeaten in five finishes at Independence Square.

“Sometimes here a lot of guys wait 150 metres, but I know it’s too late because in 150m you are in the cobbles and you need to start before to take the shortest way,” Guardini explained to Eurosport after his sprint victory over penultimate stage winner Manuel Belletti (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec) and stage 6 winner Luca Pacioni (Wilier Triestina-Selle Italia).

“This time and other times I do my sprint like I want. I was also a bit lucky because the Androni guys leave me the space in the left, and I say ‘it’s unbelievable they leave me space’ and I start and this is my best finish ever.”

For Guardini, who won his first stage in Langkawi in 2011, the bookend victory was not easy.

“Each year the race goes up a level,” he said. “Also today I had to fight a lot to catch the final because the stage in the start was pretty hard with the climbs and it was really hard for me to stay in the peloton. But my teammates work really well to bring me inside the peloton and then we do perfect teamwork and in the final I make my work.”

Guardini was not the only rider to find it difficult on the stage which featured three category 4 climbs — one of which won by New Zealand’s Joe Cooper (Bennelong-SwissWellness) inside the first 29km — and three intermediate sprints.

Stage 5 winner and race leader Artem Ovechkin of Terengganu Cycling Team (TSG) had to no reprieve for the second straight day. After both an initial four-man break and a nine-rider attack following the final KOM contained a virtual race leader each, Ovechkin also had to dig deep to pull off the general classification (GC) win.

“I thought it was would be easy but it was not easy,” admitted the 31-year-old Russian, who dropped the polka-dot mountain jersey to Alvaro Duarte (Forca-Amskins). “It was a very hard day. After two mountains the breakaway went away with one or two good guys on GC.”

Eurosport caught up with TSG sports director Jeremy Hunt after the race, who said the race was still in doubt on the day as two virtual leaders as Yecid Sierra (Manzana Postobon) and Amanuel Gebreigzabhier (Dimension Data) each topped the GC at some point over the 141.1-kilometre final stage.

“It has been a stressful two days, and even with two laps to go today it was not over as you can see from the race,” said Hunt. “In the end it came down to a bunch sprint and we managed to win Le Tour de Langkawi.”

According to the retired British pro living in Australia, the team worked extremely hard to deliver it’s new signee the yellow jersey and the team’s first overall win just three days after making history with its debut stage victory.

“When there were attacks on the last climbs and they took back a minute, we lost the jersey and then all our guys had to get on the front and had to chase and luckily all came back together again,” he said. “A Malaysian team has been trying to win stages for 22 years, we didn’t just win a stage we won the race. It’s the biggest thing to happen to Malaysian cycling.”

While the top three riders on GC remained the same — albeit for a one-second gain from Polish runner-up Lukasz Owsian (CCC-Sprandi Polkowice) over Australian Ben Dyball (St George Continental) in third — Eritrean Gebreigzabhier jumped over Italian Giuseppe Fonzi (Wilier Triestina-Selle Italia) for fourth, while two punctures in the final 6km caused Australian Harry Sweeny (Mitchelton-Bike-Exchange to slide from fifth to 10th overall.

Two-time stage winner Riccardo Minali also endured a string of bad luck which ultimately caused him to drop the green points jersey to Guardini. An emergency nature break, a broken saddle and a dropped chain, of which occurred in the final 600 metres of the final lap of the six-lap 6.6km city circuit finale on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur’s central business district.

For full stage and race results, click here.