Moving to within one win of Grame Brown’s record at the Tour de Langkawi, Andrea Guardini clocked up his eighth stage triumph in two years when he hit the line first today. As was the case in the past two days, the Farnese Vini – Selle Italia rider was too quick for his opposition, and indeed took his most comfortable win yet.
He finished into Muar ahead of Jacobe Keough (United Healthcare), Salleh Harrif (Terengganu Cycling Team), Yohann Gene (Team Europcar) and the rest of the peloton.
Louis Crosby (New Zealand national team) had been in the day’s break and made a big push for the stage victory, but was caught – heartbreakingly for him – with approximately 75 metres to go.
Race leader Dave Zabriskie rolled across the line in 70th place, preserving his one minute advantage in the general classification. His Garmin Barracuda team did the bulk of the work in chasing the break down, although Guardini’s Farnese Vini Selle Italia and Alexander Vinokourov’s Astana squad contributed closer to the end, ramping up the speed sufficiently to reel in the move.
“With 30 kilometres to go, when the difference was five minutes, nobody believed any more that there would be a bunch sprint today,” Guardini explained. “But we believed we could do it. We calculated that with ten seconds per kilometre, we could catch them, and we respected this time to catch them just in time in the last kilometre.
“We received a big help from the Astana team and Mr. Vinokourov himself, and that is how we managed to get across in the last kilometre. I then opened up my sprint with 300 metres to go.”
Zabriskie had a straightforward day, but his team had a tougher time in needing to ride hard to limit the break’s gains. He said afterwards that it wasn’t up to them to bring the move back, but simply to limit its gains.
“I think the best-placed guy was three minutes down, so we just had to get it manageable,” Zabriskie said. “The guys have been doing some great work. It has taken its toll a little bit so it was good to see some other teams get up there and help out.”
Tomorrow’s fifth stage is somewhat tougher, due to the fact that it includes two category two climbs plus a third category ascent.
Because of that, it’s not certain how Guardini will fare. He said that decisions will be made based on how things work out.
“We will have to see how it goes during the stage, and mostly we’ll have to see how my team-mates are going,” he said. “It mostly depends on them as they spent a lot of energy taking me to the win today. It will depend more on them than me if I am up there for the win tomorrow.”
How things played out:
Today’s stage was marked by an extremely heavy downpour half an hour before the start, but fortunately the rain disappeared before the 128 riders rolled out of Batu Pahat. There was one rider missing; Guardini’s team-mate Rafael Andriato (Farnese Vini – Selle Italia) withdrew due to an arm injury.
This would in theory make things more complicated for Guardini, but he and his team would gamble that the Garmin Barracuda team of race leader Dave Zabriskie would chase to protect the yellow jersey.
The first two riders to try to go clear were Rhys Pollock (Drapac Cycling) and Adiq Hussainie (Champion System). Their move didn’t last long, but a subsequent attack by Pollock, Kevin Reza (Europcar), Shinichi Fukushima (Terengganu Cycling) and Louis Crosby (New Zealand) was more successful and daylight opened.
The quartet quickly gained time. Having attacked approximately eight kilometres into the stage, they were almost two and a half minutes clear at kilometre thirteen and, coming up to the first intermediate sprint at Simpang Renggam (km 64), they were almost six minutes ahead.
Crosby, Fukushima, Pollock and Reza went over the prime line in that order, and did the same for the second sprint, that of Air Hitam (km 84.5). They completed two hours of racing shortly after that point, with the break averaging 43.3 kilometres per hour for that period.
Crosby was once again best in the third intermediate sprint (Batu Pahat, km 115.5) and – once again – Fukushima, Pollock and Reza were next in line.
The bunch was becoming a little more concerned at the extent of the time gap and the pace picked up behind. The effect was clear; the break’s advantage was down to just under five minutes 33 kilometres from the line, and Farnese Vini – Selle Italia’s appearance at the front of the peloton saw a new urgency being injected into things.
With 25 kilometres remaining, the break was four mintues ten seconds ahead. This fell to three minutes 22 seconds over the next five kilometres, then dropped to two minutes with ten kilometres to go.
The gap still appeared to be sufficient, but the Astana team aided Farnese Vini – Selle Italia in ramping the speed even higher. It became clear to those out front that the bunch was screaming in the road, prompting Crosby to try a lone attack.
The effort was a brave one, but he just missed out on the win. Guardini passed him 75 metres from the line, then several others got by. The Kiwi sat up and faded to 18th, his brave attempt at an end.
Tour de Langkawi stage 4, Batu Pahat to Muar:
1 Andrea Guardini (Farnese Vini - Selle Italia) 169.4 kilometres in 3:57:11
2 Jacob Keough (UnitedHealthcare Presented By Maxxis)
3 Hariff Salleh (Terengganu Cycling Team)
4 Yohann Gene (Europcar)
5 Valentin Iglinskiy (Astana Pro Team)
6 Sonny Colbrelli (Colnago CSF Bardiani)
7 Anuar Manan (Champion System)
8 Kevin Reza (Europcar)
9 Jani Tewelde Weldegaber (Team MTN Qhubeka)
10 Hossein Nateghi (Tabriz Petrochemical Cycling Team)
11 Mohamed Rizuan Zainal (Malaysia)
12 James Williamson (New Zealand)
13 Chan Jae Jang (Terengganu Cycling Team)
14 Joon Yong Seo (Seoul Cycling)
15 Shinichi Fukushima (Terengganu Cycling Team)
16 Roman Van Uden (New Zealand)
17 Ramin Mizan Maleki (Tabriz Petrochemical Cycling Team)
18 Louis Crosby (New Zealand)
19 Suhardi Hassan (Malaysia)
20 Freddy Excelino Gonzalez Martinez (Azad University Iran)
21 Jackson Rodriguez (Androni - Venezuela)
22 Behnam Khalilikhosroshahi (Tabriz Petrochemical Cycling Team)
23 Jose Rodolfo Serpa Perez (Androni - Venezuela)
24 Tesfay Habtemariam (Team MTN Qhubeka)
25 Meran Russom (Team MTN Qhubeka)
26 Dennis Van Niekerk (Team MTN Qhubeka)
27 Alexandr Dyachenko (Astana Pro Team)
28 Kazuhiro Mori (Aisan Racing Team)
29 Aaron Kemps (Champion System)
30 Malcom Rudolph (Drapac Cycling Team)
31 Chin Lung Huang (RTS Racing Team)
32 Alireza Haghi (Azad University Iran)
33 Mohammed Zamri Saleh (Terengganu Cycling Team)
34 Hossein Askari (Tabriz Petrochemical Cycling Team)
35 Jae Won Lee (Seoul Cycling)
36 Artem Ovechkin (Team Rusvelo)
37 Mathieu Claude (Europcar)
38 Masahiro Shinagawa (Aisan Racing Team)
39 Iwan Setiawan (Indonesia)
40 Arin Iswana (Indonesia)
41 Jonathan Monsalve (Androni - Venezuela)
42 Niño Victor Corredor (Azad University Iran)
43 Thomas Danielson (Team Garmin - Barracuda)
44 Jacques Janse Van Rensburg (Team MTN Qhubeka)
45 Mohd Fauzan Ahmad Lutfi (Malaysia)
46 Endra Wijaya (Indonesia)
47 Karl Menzies (UnitedHealthcare Presented By Maxxis)
48 José Humberto Rujano Guillen (Androni - Venezuela)
49 Darren Lapthorne (Drapac Cycling Team)
50 Andrey Zeits (Astana Pro Team)
51 Alessandro De Marchi (Androni - Venezuela)
52 Amir Rusli (Drapac Cycling Team)
53 Dmitriy Gruzdev (Astana Pro Team)
54 Stefano Locatelli (Colnago CSF Bardiani)
55 Thomas Peterson (Team Garmin - Barracuda)
56 Hao Liu (Max Success Sports)
57 Taiji Nishitani (Aisan Racing Team)
58 Jonathan Clarke (UnitedHealthcare Presented By Maxxis)
59 Abbas Saeidi Tanha (Azad University Iran)
60 Lee Rodgers (RTS Racing Team)
61 Valery Valynin (Team Rusvelo)
62 Chris Butler (Champion System)
63 Sergey Klimov (Team Rusvelo)
64 Mohammad Saufi Mat Senan (Terengganu Cycling Team)
65 Muhamad Adiq Husaine Othman (Champion System)
66 Pengfei Qi (Max Success Sports)
67 Anthony Charteau (Europcar)
68 Masakazu Ito (Aisan Racing Team)
69 Jun Bin Kim (Seoul Cycling)
70 David Zabriskie (Team Garmin - Barracuda)
71 Hossein Alizadeh (Tabriz Petrochemical Cycling Team)
72 Adam Phelan (Drapac Cycling Team)
73 Ghader Mizbani Iranagh (Tabriz Petrochemical Cycling Team)
74 Mat Amin Shahrul (Terengganu Cycling Team)
75 Dmitry Kozontchuk (Team Rusvelo)
76 Craig Lewis (Champion System)
77 Parno Parno (Indonesia)
78 Agung Ali Syahbana (Indonesia)
79 Jung Hwan Youm (Seoul Cycling)
80 Floris Goesinnen (Drapac Cycling Team)
81 Rhys Pollock (Drapac Cycling Team)
82 Alexander Khatuntsev (Team Rusvelo)
83 Jai Crawford (RTS Racing Team)
84 Nathan Haas (Team Garmin - Barracuda)
85 Carlos José Ochoa (Androni - Venezuela)
86 Alfredo Balloni (Farnese Vini - Selle Italia)
87 Jun Rong Ho (Ocbc Singapore Continental Cycling Team)
88 Niño Victor Corredor (Azad University Iran)
89 Joseph Cooper (New Zealand)
90 Misbah Rauf Nur (Malaysia)
91 Adam Semple (Drapac Cycling Team)
92 Choon Huat Goh (Ocbc Singapore Continental Cycling Team)
93 Alex Coutts (RTS Racing Team)
94 Dadi Suryadi (Indonesia)
95 Assan Bazayev (Astana Pro Team)
96 Kenichi Suzuki (Aisan Racing Team)
97 Ting Deng (Max Success Sports)
98 Andrea Di Corrado (Colnago CSF Bardiani)
99 Christian Delle Stelle (Colnago CSF Bardiani)
100 Yong Li Ng (Azad University Iran)
101 Jae Won Lee (Seoul Cycling)
102 Ahmad Fallanie Ali (Malaysia) 00:18
103 Christiano Benenati (Farnese Vini - Selle Italia) 00:20
104 Jaan Kirsipuu (Champion System)
105 Raymond Kreder (Team Garmin - Barracuda)
106 Marco Canola (Colnago CSF Bardiani)
107 Robert Förster (UnitedHealthcare Presented By Maxxis)
108 Sukho Kang (Seoul Cycling)
109 Sam Bewley (New Zealand) 00:27
110 Nicholas Francesco Squillari (Ocbc Singapore Continental Cycling Team) 00:31
111 Loh Sea Keong (Ocbc Singapore Continental Cycling Team)
112 Yasuharu Nakajima (Aisan Racing Team)
113 Hilton Clarke (UnitedHealthcare Presented By Maxxis) 00:42
114 Matteo Pelucchi (Europcar)
115 Thomas Bertolini (Farnese Vini - Selle Italia)
116 Marcus Leong (Ocbc Singapore Continental Cycling Team) 00:44
117 Christophe Kern (Europcar)
118 Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana Pro Team) 00:58
119 Adrian Hegyvari (UnitedHealthcare Presented By Maxxis) 01:37
120 Alex Howes (Team Garmin - Barracuda) 01:45
121 Paolo Locatelli (Colnago CSF Bardiani) 01:58
122 Xue Ming Xing (Max Success Sports)
123 Matteo Rabottini (Farnese Vini - Selle Italia) 02:11
124 David Mc Cann (RTS Racing Team) 02:19
125 Adrien Niyonshuti (Team MTN Qhubeka) 02:37
126 Michael Torckler (New Zealand)
127 Chin Lung Huang (RTS Racing Team) 03:48
128 En Huang (Max Success Sports) 07:52
DNS: Rafael Andriato De Mattas (Farnese Vini - Selle Italia)
General classification after stage 4:
1 David Zabriskie (Team Garmin - Barracuda) 12:27:15
2 Adam Phelan (Drapac Cycling Team) 01:00
3 Darren Lapthorne (Drapac Cycling Team) 01:10
4 Thomas Danielson (Team Garmin - Barracuda) 01:17
5 José Humberto Rujano Guillen (Androni - Venezuela) 01:26
6 Joseph Cooper (New Zealand) 01:31
7 Dmitriy Gruzdev (Astana Pro Team) 01:33
8 Alexandr Dyachenko (Astana Pro Team) 01:39
9 Behnam Khalilikhosroshahi (Tabriz Petrochemical Cycling Team) 01:46
10 Floris Goesinnen (Drapac Cycling Team) 01:50
11 Artem Ovechkin (Team Rusvelo) 01:51
12 Yohann Gene (Europcar) 01:52
13 Nathan Haas (Team Garmin - Barracuda) 01:54
14 Alfredo Balloni (Farnese Vini - Selle Italia) 01:57
15 Craig Lewis (Champion System) same time
16 Alessandro De Marchi (Androni - Venezuela) 02:00
17 Ghader Mizbani Iranagh (Tabriz Petrochemical Cycling Team) 02:12
18 Roman Van Uden (New Zealand) same time
19 Malcom Rudolph (Drapac Cycling Team) 02:13
20 Carlos José Ochoa (Androni - Venezuela) 02:14
21 Jose Rodolfo Serpa Perez (Androni - Venezuela) 02:22
22 Meran Russom (Team MTN Qhubeka) 02:23
23 Jacques Janse Van Rensburg (Team MTN Qhubeka) same time
24 Hossein Askari (Tabriz Petrochemical Cycling Team) 02:24
25 Jonathan Clarke (UnitedHealthcare Presented By Maxxis) 02:25
26 Jackson Rodriguez (Androni - Venezuela) 02:28
27 Jani Tewelde Weldegaber (Team MTN Qhubeka) 02:30
28 Andrea Di Corrado (Colnago CSF Bardiani) 02:31
29 Dennis Van Niekerk (Team MTN Qhubeka) 02:36
30 Thomas Peterson (Team Garmin - Barracuda) same time
31 Jonathan Monsalve (Androni - Venezuela) same time
32 Dmitry Kozontchuk (Team Rusvelo) 02:37
33 Andrey Zeits (Astana Pro Team) 02:38
34 Muhamad Adiq Husaine Othman (Champion System) 02:43
35 Assan Bazayev (Astana Pro Team) 02:50
36 Niño Victor Corredor (Azad University Iran) 02:51
37 Xue Ming Xing (Max Success Sports) 02:52
38 Ramin Mizan Maleki (Tabriz Petrochemical Cycling Team) 02:57
39 Hossein Alizadeh (Tabriz Petrochemical Cycling Team) 02:59
40 Stefano Locatelli (Colnago CSF Bardiani) 03:00
41 Adam Semple (Drapac Cycling Team) 03:05
42 Jai Crawford (RTS Racing Team) same time
43 Alireza Haghi (Azad University Iran) same time
44 Tesfay Habtemariam (Team MTN Qhubeka) 03:06
45 Aaron Kemps (Champion System) 03:12
46 Valentin Iglinskiy (Astana Pro Team) 03:13
47 Karl Menzies (UnitedHealthcare Presented By Maxxis) same time
48 Mohammed Zamri Saleh (Terengganu Cycling Team) 03:15
49 Marco Canola (Colnago CSF Bardiani) same time
50 Rhys Pollock (Drapac Cycling Team) same time
51 Mohd Fauzan Ahmad Lutfi (Malaysia) 03:17
52 Sonny Colbrelli (Colnago CSF Bardiani) 03:20
53 Masakazu Ito (Aisan Racing Team) 03:21
54 Chris Butler (Champion System) same time
55 Hariff Salleh (Terengganu Cycling Team) 03:22
56 Hossein Nateghi (Tabriz Petrochemical Cycling Team) 03:27
57 Freddy Excelino Gonzalez Martinez (Azad University Iran) 03:29
58 Taiji Nishitani (Aisan Racing Team) 03:30
59 Kevin Reza (Europcar) 03:34
60 Jung Hwan Youm (Seoul Cycling) 03:36
61 Andrea Guardini (Farnese Vini - Selle Italia) 03:39
62 Christiano Benenati (Farnese Vini - Selle Italia) 03:42
63 Kazuhiro Mori (Aisan Racing Team) 03:43
64 Sergey Klimov (Team Rusvelo) same time
65 Jacob Keough (UnitedHealthcare Presented By Maxxis) 03:47
66 Joon Yong Seo (Seoul Cycling) 03:53
67 Abbas Saeidi Tanha (Azad University Iran) 03:54
68 Kenichi Suzuki (Aisan Racing Team) 03:55
69 Niño Victor Corredor (Azad University Iran) same time
70 Mohammad Saufi Mat Senan (Terengganu Cycling Team) 03:57
71 Anthony Charteau (Europcar) 03:58
72 James Williamson (New Zealand) 03:59
73 Mathieu Claude (Europcar) same time
74 Masahiro Shinagawa (Aisan Racing Team) 04:01
75 Anuar Manan (Champion System) 04:08
76 Lee Rodgers (RTS Racing Team) 04:10
77 Christian Delle Stelle (Colnago CSF Bardiani) same time
78 Jae Won Lee (Seoul Cycling) 04:12
79 Amir Rusli (Drapac Cycling Team) 04:15
80 Thomas Bertolini (Farnese Vini - Selle Italia) same time
81 Raymond Kreder (Team Garmin - Barracuda) 04:16
82 Jun Rong Ho (Ocbc Singapore Continental Cycling Team) 04:21
83 Yasuharu Nakajima (Aisan Racing Team) 04:22
84 Alexander Khatuntsev (Team Rusvelo) 04:24
85 Arin Iswana (Indonesia) 04:27
86 Yong Li Ng (Azad University Iran) 04:29
87 Endra Wijaya (Indonesia) 04:35
88 Sukho Kang (Seoul Cycling) 04:41
89 Iwan Setiawan (Indonesia) 04:55
90 Dadi Suryadi (Indonesia) 04:57
91 Chan Jae Jang (Terengganu Cycling Team) same time
92 Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana Pro Team) 04:58
93 Alex Coutts (RTS Racing Team) 05:02
94 Agung Ali Syahbana (Indonesia) 05:03
95 Misbah Rauf Nur (Malaysia) same time
96 Shinichi Fukushima (Terengganu Cycling Team) same time
97 Mat Amin Shahrul (Terengganu Cycling Team) 05:13
98 Suhardi Hassan (Malaysia) 05:19
99 Michael Torckler (New Zealand) 05:24
100 Jun Bin Kim (Seoul Cycling) 05:35
101 Choon Huat Goh (Ocbc Singapore Continental Cycling Team) 05:37
102 Mohamed Rizuan Zainal (Malaysia) 05:39
103 Jaan Kirsipuu (Champion System) same time
104 Adrien Niyonshuti (Team MTN Qhubeka) 05:44
105 Nicholas Francesco Squillari (Ocbc Singapore Continental Cycling Team) 05:53
106 Hao Liu (Max Success Sports) 05:56
107 Valery Valynin (Team Rusvelo) 05:58
108 Parno Parno (Indonesia) 06:05
109 Matteo Rabottini (Farnese Vini - Selle Italia) 06:18
110 Alex Howes (Team Garmin - Barracuda) 06:21
111 Ahmad Fallanie Ali (Malaysia) 06:24
112 Jae Won Lee (Seoul Cycling) 06:40
113 Pengfei Qi (Max Success Sports) 06:43
114 Marcus Leong (Ocbc Singapore Continental Cycling Team) 06:44
115 Matteo Pelucchi (Europcar) 06:46
116 Ting Deng (Max Success Sports) 06:49
117 Robert Förster (UnitedHealthcare Presented By Maxxis) 07:15
118 Paolo Locatelli (Colnago CSF Bardiani) 07:27
119 Hilton Clarke (UnitedHealthcare Presented By Maxxis) 07:28
120 David Mc Cann (RTS Racing Team) 07:32
121 Chin Lung Huang (RTS Racing Team) 08:46
122 Loh Sea Keong (Ocbc Singapore Continental Cycling Team) 10:32
123 Chin Lung Huang (RTS Racing Team) 10:44
124 En Huang (Max Success Sports) 12:03
125 Louis Crosby (New Zealand) 12:39
126 Adrian Hegyvari (UnitedHealthcare Presented By Maxxis) 12:40
127 Christophe Kern (Europcar) 12:56
128 Sam Bewley (New Zealand) 15:38