Honours are even between our top two sprinters at the Tour of Langkawi. Jurgen Roelandts could even take the overall lead today with a stage win, though stage two winner Guarnieri will try and time his effort a bit better today. What about Lo Cicero? It doesn't get much flatter than this so this is his chance before we begin the climbing stages.
As we approach the first sprint Atkins has broken away but the sprinter teams are speeding the pack up and catch Atkins.
Roelandts can get closer to the GC lead but is beaten this time by both his stage win rival Guarnieri and Lo Cicero.
It does nethertheless move Roelandts to 15 seconds down on Larsson.
In between the next two sprints another joint mountains leader in Hayakawa goes on the attack.
He does build up a lead of over three minutes, but on approach to the next sprint his lead narrows as he struggles to hold off those sprinters.
Lo Cicero manages to outkick Roelandts for second place, with Guarnieri, Manarelli and Andriato competing for this unsuccessfully behind.
Hayakawa has just survived the sprinter team burst and goes about building his lead again. Vattenfall ride steady at the front but Larsson is under serious pressure from the Bouygues team today with Roelandts now 13 seconds back from him.
At the final sprint prime, Hayakawa holds off the sprinters by half a minute again with Roelandts this time taking the sprint for second over Lo Cicero.
Roelandts now just needs second place on the stage to move into the race lead.
Hayakawa has tried but ultimately gives in with 17km to go.
In fact as Hayakawa drops off the back of the pack so do to three of his teammates Itami, Jang and Choi.
Armavia then have their third go at setting up Lo Cicero, with 4km out they have set up a train.
Wang and Matzka are driving it with Baumann, Andriato and Bazajev following.
Meanwhile Bouygues set up there's with Jacobs and Weylandt leading out Roelandts. Crespo, Manarelli and Torckler follow.
Not sure what Vespa are doing with Guarnieri and his sprint train guys making a right mess.
As you can see Nishitani and Lorenzetto are making a beeline for the end of the Bouygues train.
2.5km to go.
Vespa get there act together as Ascani and Richeze create a decent train for Guarnieri, Manan follows it with teammate Nishitini swapping over to this late formed train along with Lorenzetto.
1.8km to go and we get first drop.
A bit messy for Vespa still as Richeze crashes across into the middle of the Armavia train blocking Andriato and Bazajev. Manan is left along at the side with Torckler and Lorenzetto a bit confused behind.
1.4km left and Guarneiri is totally muddled now sitting behind Andriato.
Torckler is sprinting alone on the far right as Lo Cicero and Roelandts are in the box seats.
Under the kite and Matzka runs out of puff.
Rather than immediately sprint round Lo Cicero attempts to bide his time but Roelandts is still sitting comfortably behind Weylandt.
750m left.
Roelandts has been dropped off where he needs to be, Vespa seem to have something as Richeze has drifted all the way across and now Guarnieri is making up ground in the left. on the right Zabel is moving through with Torckler surely about to hit the wall. In the centre Manan has a free run having moved ahead of Baumann.
500m left.
Checking his run seems to be working for Lo Cicero as he seems to have more speed than Roelandts who looks like he is struggling to make that top two. Guarnieri's eventful sprint is coming to a crescendo as now he spies a gap behind Lo Cicero.
250m
Lorenzetto slams to door shut on Guarneiri as Manan fades in the middle offering g a chance for Baumann. Lo Cicero looks good here though.
Lorenzetto is coming late could he keep the GC lead for Larsson?
Nope Lo Cicero wins, Roelandts second and new GC leader, Lorenzetto third with Baumann 4th.
Nice win for the Italian.
Bazajev gets 5th proving a fairly consistent sprinter so far, Crespo gets a half decent 6th over Guarnieri who had a troubled lead-out there. Manan just doesn't have the speed here and can only make 8th over Andriato, Nishitani and Manarelli.
Stage results
So the big three sprinters take one each before the more difficult middle stages.
GC
Bouygues have the GC lead through Roelandts, Larsson crucially losing it before Genting. Roelandts will start favourite for tomorrows flat rated but hilly outing as well.
Points
Lo Cicero got himself back in this race with a good win here, but it will be very tough to reel in Roelandts from here. Bazajev and Lorenzetto may have hopes of a stage win and a decent points showing with good consistency also.
Rank
Name
Team
Points
General
1
Jurgen Roelandts
Bouygues Telecom
28
79
2
Jacopo Guarnieri
Vespa-Aprilia Racing
15
58
3
Assan Bazajev
ING Cycling - Project
12
48
4
Ivano Lo Cicero
PFG-Armavia
35
45
5
Mirko Lorenzetto
Team UPC - Boehringer-Ingelheim
16
34
6
Carlos Alexandre Manarelli
Evian-MIAT
5
29
7
Gustav Larsson
Vattenfall Cycling
0
25
8
Rick Zabel
VolksWagen-Mapei
1
24
9
Tomohiro Hayakawa
Japanese - Korean Cycling Project
12
24
10
Rafael Andriato
Repsol-Cativen
7
22
11
Eric Baumann
Japanese - Korean Cycling Project
14
21
12
Michael Torckler
Team Cadbury - Schweppes
3
21
13
Tony Martin
Bouygues Telecom
0
20
14
Anuar Manan
Meiji - Cannondale
8
20
15
Marcos Crespo
Vattenfall Cycling
10
20
16
Aaron Gate
Team Cadbury - Schweppes
0
18
17
Hugues Mottin
Bouygues Telecom
0
16
18
Jean-Christophe Peraud
Oz Cycling Project
0
14
19
Taiji Nishitani
Meiji - Cannondale
6
13
20
Luca Ascani
Vespa-Aprilia Racing
0
12
21
Josh Atkins
Cisco Cycling Team
0
12
22
Adrian Laidler
Oz Cycling Project
0
10
23
Gyung Gu Jang
Japanese - Korean Cycling Project
0
10
24
Aleksandr Bespalov
LukOil-Rostelekom
0
9
25
Johann Rabie
MTN - World Bicycle Relief
0
8
KoM
The three-way love in will end soon. Hayakawa was on the crazy attack today.
Rank
Name
Team
Mountain
General
1
Josh Atkins
Cisco Cycling Team
0
6
2
Tomohiro Hayakawa
Japanese - Korean Cycling Project
0
6
3
Benedikt Mundle
Sauber Petronas Racing
0
6
4
Aaron Gate
Team Cadbury - Schweppes
0
5
5
Johannes Christofel Nel
MTN - World Bicycle Relief
0
3
6
Gyung Gu Jang
Japanese - Korean Cycling Project
0
1
Youth
Let's hope the young uns have been looking after themselves because the tough stuff is coming.
Name
Team
General Time
Hugues Mottin
Bouygues Telecom
12h20'35 (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)
Teams
Will Bouygues lead into Genting? Most probably no breakaways is keeping the team standings as it was from after the TT.
