The first of three flat stages leading up to the trio of lumpy ones. As you’d expect the sprinters will be heavily favoured to control this one. Each of these three do have a possible late hill complication we’ll see if that adds any trauma.
We’ll also crown our first king of the mountains today, though these lumps categorised as 4th cat a barely anything compared to Genting.
Larsson stunned the Bouygues boys yesterday, the boys in blue do have a back up plan in Jurgen Roelandts, who we are looking forward to racing in the head to head with Lo Cicero and Guarnieri.
In fact we are going to be a showdown earlier than we thought at the first sprint point.
Guarnieri showing his inexperience being hopelessly out of position. Roelandts and Lo Cicero meanwhile are pretty much neck and neck in the early going but...
A pretty devastating kick in the teeth for Lo Cicero here as Roelandts zooms through to take the sprint with Guarnieri appearing to be his main threat coming through to take second ahead of the slow Lo Cicero. No-one else contested this perhaps smartly saving energy for later.
On the approach to the king of the mountains three riders have attacked the pack.
Mundle, Hayakawa and Atkins. Hayakawa takes the first KoM point ahead of Mundle and Atkins.
Atkins is the best placed of these three at 40 seconds to Larsson after producing a decent time trial yesterday. He could gain some useful bonifications today also, though there is a stiff breeze so it is possible if caught these three could be shelled out the back quickly.
For the time being though Atkins can be pleased with a virtual GC
Lead as the gap grows between the break and the pack.
Atkins may have thought with the other two fairly low ranked on GC he would get a free run at the sprint but Hayakawa has other ideas out kicking him as we run up this coastal road.
They go over the next 4th category climb with the rankings completely reversed from the previous climb.
It means the three breakaways will have to share that jersey, hope they can find one big enough.
The pack come through in chase mode with Armavia, Bouygues and Vespa all lending a hand to Vattenfall.
50km to go and the break has just under 4 minutes. It’s not the easiest of racing conditions out there and the pack are forced to form an echelon like shape.
The wind isn’t really blowing that hard, that is before they get into the last 40km and the wind sock begins to blow a bit more.
First though the break has to squabble over the final hotspot sprint. Hayakawa once again is far too fast for Atkins and Mundle.
Still Atkins with a pair of second places has moved to second on the youth rankings and could move well up inside the top ten on GC with this break. That is if when caught, as seems to be inevitable, he doesn’t get dropped.
The pack is still all together despite the increase in wind, there isn’t the side wind at the moment to split things.
Here is the run-in
It’s hardly much of a bump at the end but who knows.
The wind proves too much for the break which gets swallowed with 15km to go..
Armavia at the head of affairs here, but possibly showing some inexperience catching the break so soon.
Atkins meanwhile gets shelled.
Mundle and Hayakawa go soon after also, meanwhile at the head of affairs there is not much of a lead out left with 3.6km left to run.
Wang is left in front of Lo Cicero, Guarnieri is just behind, then Manan, Roelandts, Manarelli, Bouhanni and Bazajev. Andriato and Zabel are also looking to get involved.
In fact it's a longer sprint train than we thought.
Murray and Torckler are there with Lorenzetto, Crespo, Petit and Baumann . Nishitani also makes a late move to get up there.
Still those late names have got a ridiculously long way to make up as they all just sit behind Armavia with 2km to go.
Lo Cicero decides enough is enough with 1500m to go.
Nasty little tactic from Meiji here as Bouhanni doesn’t sprint blocking all those behind him especially Andriato and Bazajev.
Zabel and Torckler get blocked by the Vattenfalls pace mob.
Under the kite.
Roelandts is looking to make a move around Manan, with Guarnieri waiting patiently behind Lo Cicero, Manarelli meanwhile is probably happy enough to be there.
750m out
Lo Cicero fades as we hear some strange Caucassion curses at the finish line, the Malay are going mad though as Manan looks to challenge Guarnieri and Roelandts. Manarelli is going to try the blind side with Bazajev and Andriato back on terms.
350m out.
Lo Cicero is now way out of it as Guarnieri shows he has stamina in his legs as Manan just is beginning to pedal squares against Roelandts and Manarelli.
We could have a late split here.
Back to the front.
Can Guarnieri hold Roelandts? Manarelli is fighting Bazajev and Manan for third.
Jacopi Guarnieri takes it.
Bazajev nabs third over Manarelli and Manan. Andriato is sixth over Torckler and Galle. Zabel is ninth Lorenzetto 10th, Lo Cicero really faded there.
Stage results
No late splits. But a hard windy finish really which could sap the recuperation a bit. Seems to be about 16 or so riders genuinely interested in sprinting for the finale which could give some interesting sprinters here. First blood though to Guarnieri.
GC
Roelandts took 18 seconds of bonus today to move up to ninth on GC, he still have 37 seconds to make up on Larsson who will be hoping for the Genting stage to come quickly.
Points
He may have been out of position at the first sprint, but was better in the finale. Exactly in the right position behind the bulky brute Lo Cicero in the final hiding from the wind. Roelandts showed he will be a tough rival though here.
Rank
Name
Team
Points
General
1
Jacopo Guarnieri
Vespa-Aprilia Racing
29
29
2
Jurgen Roelandts
Bouygues Telecom
26
26
3
Gustav Larsson
Vattenfall Cycling
0
25
4
Tony Martin
Bouygues Telecom
0
20
5
Hugues Mottin
Bouygues Telecom
0
16
6
Assan Bazajev
ING Cycling - Project
16
16
7
Jean-Christophe Peraud
Oz Cycling Project
0
14
8
Carlos Alexandre Manarelli
Evian-MIAT
14
14
9
Luca Ascani
Vespa-Aprilia Racing
0
12
10
Josh Atkins
Cisco Cycling Team
8
12
11
Anuar Manan
Meiji - Cannondale
12
12
12
Tomohiro Hayakawa
Japanese - Korean Cycling Project
12
12
13
Adrian Laidler
Oz Cycling Project
0
10
14
Rafael Andriato
Repsol-Cativen
10
10
15
Aleksandr Bespalov
LukOil-Rostelekom
0
9
16
Michael Torckler
Team Cadbury - Schweppes
9
9
17
Johann Rabie
MTN - World Bicycle Relief
0
8
18
Simon Galle
Vattenfall Cycling
8
8
19
Carlos Castaño
ING Cycling - Project
0
7
20
Rick Zabel
VolksWagen-Mapei
7
7
21
Vadim Ratiy
VolksWagen-Mapei
0
6
22
Mirko Lorenzetto
Team UPC - Boehringer-Ingelheim
6
6
23
Ivano Lo Cicero
PFG-Armavia
6
6
24
Phan Age Haugard
VolksWagen-Mapei
0
5
25
Nacer Bouhanni
Meiji - Cannondale
5
5
26
Benedikt Mundle
Sauber Petronas Racing
4
4
27
Maxim Iglinski
LukOil-Rostelekom
0
3
28
Florian Scheit
Vattenfall Cycling
3
3
29
Vassilis Adamou
PFG-Armavia
0
2
30
Marcos Crespo
Vattenfall Cycling
2
2
31
David Garbelli
Vespa-Aprilia Racing
0
1
32
Eric Baumann
Japanese - Korean Cycling Project
1
1
KoM
Was there some deal made here? Three youngsters gave it a go and will share the jersey.
Rank
Name
Team
Mountain
1
Josh Atkins
Cisco Cycling Team
6
2
Benedikt Mundle
Sauber Petronas Racing
6
3
Tomohiro Hayakawa
Japanese - Korean Cycling Project
6
Youth
There is a heavy young generation presence here in Langkawi, most are in for a big eductation come Genting you feel.
Name
Team
General Time
Hugues Mottin
Bouygues Telecom
4h06'09 (1)
Vadim Ratiy
VolksWagen-Mapei
+ 28 (2)
Phan Age Haugard
VolksWagen-Mapei
+ 29 (3)
Vassilis Adamou
PFG-Armavia
+ 32 (4)
Chen Shikai
Meiji - Cannondale
+ 35 (5)
Andrea Dal Col
Vespa-Aprilia Racing
+ 42 (6)
Simon Yates
Team Cadbury - Schweppes
+ 44 (7)
Michael Hepburn
Cisco Cycling Team
+ 46 (8)
Fernando Briceno
Repsol-Cativen
+ 46 (9)
Sam Harrison
Team Cadbury - Schweppes
+ 47 (10)
Teams
The bridesmaids Bouygues will know the team lead is probably short lived, so they will be desperate to deliver a real win in the coming days.
