Cycling news - Former world junior road race champ wins Malaysian Classic

The 25th edition of Le Tour de Langkawi may have concluded on Friday, but a majority of the riders who braved scorching condition during the eight-stage UCI 2.Pro Asia Tour road race lined up for the start of the one-day, 159-kilometre MMC Langkawi Malaysian Classic (1.1) less than 24 hours later in Kuah.

In the end, it was 2008 world junior road race champion Johan Le Bon (B&B Hotels Vital Concept p/b KTM) with the win as he out-sprinted a Australian Jesse Ewart (Team Sapura), who arrived fresh for the race after enjoying a few days off following a sixth-place general classification result at the Herald Sun Tour (2.1) last week.

Nippo Delko One Provence’s Lucas de Rossi rounded out the podium in third.

“It’s a great pleasure for me to win this race,” said the 29-year-old Le Bon, who last won in 2017 at the Tour de l’Ain prologue. “It’s my first win of the year for the team and the first win for me in a very long time.

“I was quite tired because it was a tough race and also because we had just completed LTdL the day before, everyone was tired.” he continued. “But I attacked in the finale with the Sapura rider (Ewart) and the plan was to just stay ahead of the chasing group and luckily we managed to do that.”