Two road race stages completed, two sprints won. As he did in the 2011 edition, young Italian sprinter Andrea Guardini is once again showing that he is the fastest rider in the Tour de Langkawi.
Twenty four hours after winning into Melaka, the Farnese Vini – Selle Italia rider triumphed into the town of Parit Sulong. His latest success came at the end of a nervous run into the line, with a number of riders crashing inside the final five kilometres.
Guardini’s squad kept him out of trouble, helping him remain towards the front and providing the final leadout before he hit the jets and rocketed towards the line
Garmin – Barracuda’s Raymond Kreder tried to get past him, but Guardini was too strong. He punched the air in celebration of what is his seventh stage victory in two years, and increased his grip on the blue points classification jersey.
Kreder took second, with Malaysian favourite Anuar Manan (Champion System) netting third. [Note – see finish in the video below]
Guardini revealed after the finish that attempts were made to get rid of him. “There was a king of the mountains prize with ten kilometres to go,” he said. “Colnago tried to make the race hard, they tried to stay in the bunch, leaving me behind. But my team got me back and, like always, they were trying hard to do exactly what I wanted. I can savour their good job.”
Earlier, a four man break went clear and remained out front for much of the stage. That eventually dwindled down to two riders, Shinichi Fukushima (Terrengganu Cycling Team) and Taiji Nishitani (Aisan Racing Team). The latter had won a bunch sprint into the same finish town two years ago, but tried a different tactic this time.
It didn’t pay off, though, with the peloton reeling them back in inside the final twenty kilometres.
From that point on it was all about maneuvering for position, and staying out of trouble. One of those who fell foul of the latter was Tom Danielson (Garmin Barracuda), although fortunately the American was not too badly hurt. He was the last rider to cross the finish line, dropping seven minutes 40 seconds to Guardini.
Fortunately the accident happened within the final three kilometres, with the UCI rules governing such situations ensuring that he was given the same time as the others. He consequently remains fourth overall.
His team-mate Dave Zabriskie finished in the peloton and maintains his one minute lead over Adam Phelan (Drapac Cycling).
“It was crazy hot out there today – it’s hot at the Tour, but there’s a humidity as well that’s very hard,” the American told VeloNation after the podium presentation. “It’s tough on the body, but its also hard to breathe.”
How things played out:
All 129 finishers from yesterday lined out for this morning’s start of the third stage of the Tour de Langkawi in Melaka, with the riders who went down in crashes yesterday all able to continue. That list of fallers includes the rider in second place overall, Adrian Phelan, who received stitches to his leg but was otherwise not too badly affected.
Like Danielson today, his crash yesterday fortunately took place inside the final three kilometres, thus ensuring he didn’t lose time to the other GC contenders.
Early on, Shinichi Fukushima (Terrengganu Cycling Team) and Suhardi Hassan (Malaysian national team) went clear, but were reeled in. A few more riders then tried their luck, but everything was together twenty kilometres into the 187.6 kilometre stage.
Almost immediately, though, four riders clipped away and started building a solid lead. The group comprised RTS Sport rider Alex Coutts, a persistent Fukushima, Ahmad Lutfi M. Fauzan and Taiji Nishitani (Aisan Racing Team); the latter was particularly motivated, as he won into today’s finishing town two years ago with a perfectly timed sprint.
After 31 kilometres of racing, the quartet out front were forty seconds clear of Xue Ming Xing (Max Success Sports) and Wijaya Endra (Indonesia), who were trying to get across. The peloton was one minute 37 seconds back and losing ground.
Race leader Dave Zabriskie’s Garmin-Barracuda team was setting the pace and initially gave the break some leeway. After one hour of racing, 43.5 kilometres covered, the peloton was four and a half minutes back; the two chasers were two minutes down, and thus looking highly unlikely to get across.
Primes and finish:
There were a total of three intermediate sprints and one mountains prime on today’s mainly flat stage. The first of those was in Tangkak, 51.9 kilometres after the start and was taken by Fukushima ahead of Fauzan, Nishitani and Coutts.
At that point the two chasers were three minutes back and facing a hopeless cause to reach the front. The peloton was four minutes 15 seconds back, and caught the duo soon afterwards. However it continued to lose time to the leaders, who surpassed five minutes’ advantage at the 69 kilometre point.
Nishitani had started the day three minutes and seven seconds back and so he was firmly race leader on the road. Fauzan won the intermediate sprint at Labis (km 119.3), but was pipped by Nishitani to take the next in Chaah (km 136).
The pendulum had swung, though, and the gap there was down to three minutes 50 seconds. Fauzan felt that the cause was a hopeless one and sat up, waiting for the bunch. The others persisted and actually succeeded in extending their lead for some time, bringing the gap back up to four minutes and two seconds. However it started to drop again very soon after with 40 kilometres left, had nibbled it back to three minutes 20 seconds.
The advantage continued to be eroded and fell below a minute over the twenty kilometres or so. Coutts was dropped soon after taht, leaving Fukushima and Nishitani out front alone. The two Japanese gave it everything to try to stay away, but were themselves caught before the summit of the category four Bukit Belah, which hit its high point 10.9 kilometres from the end.
There, the Colnago team did what it could to put Guardini under pressure. However he remained calm and stayed in contact, then moved back into position before blasting home for Tour de Langkawi stage win number seven of his career.
Tour de Langkawi (2.HC):
Stage 3, Melaka to Parit Sulong:
1, Andrea Guardini (Farnese Vini) 187.6 kilometres in 4 hours 30 mins 11 secs
2, Raymond Kreder (Garmin-Barracuda)
3, Anuar Manan (Champion System)
4, Andrea Piechele (Colnago - CSF Inox)
5, Valentin Iglinskiy (Astana Pro Team)
6, Jacobe Keough (UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling)
7, Hossein Nateghi (Tabriz Petrochemical Team)
8, Roman Van Uden (New Zealand)
9, Ramin Maleki Mizan (Tabriz Petrochemical Team)
10, James Williamson (New Zealand)
11, Joon Yong Seo (Seoul Cycling Team)
12, Jani Tewelde Weldegaber (MTN Qhubeka)
13, Alireza Haghi (Azad University)
14, Freddy Gonzalez Martinez (Azad University)
15, Mohd Zamri Saleh (Terengganu Cycling Team)
16, Suhardi Hassan (Malaysia)
17, Tesfai Habtariam (MTN Qhubeka)
18, Chan Jae Jang (Terengganu Cycling Team)
19, Kazuhiro Mori (Aisan Racing Team)
20, Muhamad Adiq Husainie Othman (Champion System) all same time
General classification:
1, David Zabriskie (Garmin-Barracuda) 8 hours 30 mins 4 secs
2, Adam Phelan (Drapac) at 1 min
3, Darren Lapthorne (Drapac) at 1 min 10 secs
4, Tom Danielson (Garmin-Barracuda) at 1 min 17 secs
5, José Rujano Guillen (Androni Giocattoli) at 1 min 26 secs
6, Joseph Cooper (New Zealand) at 1 mins 31 secs
7, Dmitriy Gruzdev (Astana Pro Team) at 1 min 33 secs
8, Alexsandr Dyachenko (Astana Pro Team) at 1 min 39 secs
9, Behnam Khalilikhosroshahi (Tabriz Petrochemical Team) at 1 min 46 secs
10, Floris Goesinnen (Drapac) at 1 min 50 secs
11, Artem Ovechkin (RusVelo) at 1 min 51 secs
12, Yohann Gene (Team Europcar) at 1 min 52 secs
13, Nathan Haas (Garmin-Barracuda) at 1 min 54 secs
14, Alfredo Balloni (Farnese Vini) at at 1 min 57 secs
15, Craig Lewis (Champion System) same time
16, Alessandro De Marchi (Androni Giocattoli) at 2 mins
17, Ghader Mizbani Eranagh (Tabriz Petrochemical Team) at 2 mins 12 secs
18, Roman Van Uden (New Zealand) same time
19, Malcom Rudolph (Drapac) at 2 mins 13 secs
20, Carlos José Ochoa (Androni Giocattoli) at 2 mins 14 secs