Stage 2 - Serdang > Kuala Kangsar The first flat stage is the shortest and even though it's the only flat stage with a climb halfway through the route, we should not expect the pure sprinters to suffer from that climb. It's probably the well known fight between an early break and the sprinter teams. And it's Chavanne, who will try and hope to somehow defend the race lead for another day before we hit the mountains tomorrow.
Guillén will prefer the short profile today and his biggest competitors should be Manninen, local favorite Salleh and other guys like Coutinho/Hochmann/Wippert, Matthews, Von Hoff or Vanoverschelde. Even Guillén's teammate Mezgec can become a threat if his faster teammate struggles today. Vanderaerden and Korzh with outsider's chances.
The stage would kick off with an early attack from Thill and Chérel..
Urcelay, Girdlestone and Downey would try to join the duo a few moments later, but yet they struggled to bridge across a minutes gap..
The first intermediate sprint is then won by Thill ahead of Chérel, with Girdlestone coming 3rd..
It's been some hectic first 30km of the race and it seems like the peloton would not allow a bigger group to stay clear. Girdlestone and Urcelay really tried, but they eventually did not make it into the breakaway group:
Thill Chérel Downey
as the only three of the early attackers leading the race by now 3 minutes with still 80kms to go! Downey (15th in the GC, 7 seconds) and Thill (8 seconds) as the best placed riders of those three and with Thill already taking the first intermediate sprint, he's a threat for GC leader Chavanne with another sprint to come..
Chérel takes the only mountain sprint ahead of Till, who attacked a few moments too early, it seems. What looked like an easy "win" for Thill, ended up in a late, but fast sprint by Chérel, who flew past Thill on the final metres to the "line" - a nice reward for him already, as he will definitely wear the polka dot on tomorrow's first day in the mountains!
Chérel also takes the second intermediate sprint ahead of Downey and Thill! Which is good news for Chavanne, since no one managed to go past him in the virtual GC - well, there's still a 2'20" advantage for the breakaway with 34km to go, of course!
The peloton, however, looks in control: 19km remaining and the gap is down to just 38 seconds! Several teams sharing the work well and the brekaway group probably won't make it to the line..
Some interesting names doing the hard work at the front of the pack, by the way:
Stancu and Gregaard for ENI Seibeb, Brajkovic (!) and Kasa for SPAR Ahmad Zamri and Mundle for Sauber
They did their work though and with 10km to go, the early escapees have been swallowed by the pack! Mundle now setting the pace for the final kilometres, where we should expect the peloton to prepare the bunch sprint now..
And yes, it's time for the sprint, as we enter the final 2.5km of the stage with quite a packed front of the peloton now. Let's sort out, who's in the mix here:
Reza
Vanderaerden
Seibeb
Korzh
Brajkovic
Ahmad Zamri
Stancu
Mezgec
Aregger
Krasnov
Guillén
Salleh
Manninen
Dzervus
Vanoverschelde
Coutinho
Von Hoff
Keough
Cimolai
Liepins
Matthews
Dahlberg
King
Haddi
Chavanne
The sprint is kicked off a few moments later and while the too early (and kinda lost) leadouts Reza and Seibeb are still in the lead, their speed is now significally slower than from those, who are soon to fly by:
Vanderaerden/Korzh now ahead of Sauber's Aregger/Zamri, while Salleh surprisingly lost his leadout's wheel!
Mezgec is leading out Guillén.. Cimolai went past Coutinho to move forward..
A few riders losing some promising positions from earlier in the sprint: Von Hoff/Matthews with a gap now, Keough is struggling to keep the wheel he had and so does Manninen!
It's coming closer to together with now 1.1km to go though, but the first few riders definitely went for an advantage now:
Mezgec with a great leadout for Guillén so far, as he moves towards the leading position just under the kite! Cimolai going strong as well, with still Coutinho right behind him..
Aregger surprisingly Sauber's best, as Salleh loses ground! Vanderaerden, a strong Dzervus (who's actually fighting for the GC lead) and Korzh on the further positions, while Von Hoff/Matthews still have to close the gap!
The gap is closed a few moments later, but there's no more chance to fight for line honours:
Mezgec releases Guillén and it appears as a perfect leadout so far! The duo even has a tiny gap on Cimolai, who's now losing speed.. Coutinho though goes past him to somehow try and catch up to Guillén..
Dzervus still in the mix for possible bonifications!
And he remains in the mix with just a couple of hundred metres to go! Also Aregger with a very strong showing to both support his teammate Chavanne (by denying bonifications for Dzervus or others) and of course to finish on the podium maybe!
Coutinho though is still ahead, yet struggling to make up ground on Guillén..
Korzh going strong, too.. Matthews has finally left Von Hoff's wheel to at least fight for the Top-5 today..
Guillén though beats them all and there must go credit to Mezgec, who displayed a perfect leadout for Guillén here (finishing the stage as 12th eventually). What a great day for Guillén, who was almost left without a contract in the off-season, now just riding for his team through the newly invented MGUCI draft for CT teams. Quite a way to show them all, that he should have deserved a contract earlier.
Coutinho hangs on for a strong 2nd place then. That's quite good news for both sprinters and also for GC leader Chavanne, as Guillén and Coutinho finished the prologue on the two last positions - the bonifications won't help them to slip into yellow today!
Korzh had a strong finish to cross the line as 3rd, just ahead of Aregger and Matthews, who indeed managed to complete the Top-5 eventually. The latter might have hoped for something better, but he struggled to maintain his position in the early moments of the sprint..
Dzervus 6th ahead of Von Hoff and Cimolai, who struggled on the final metres..
Vanderaerden and Keough round up the Top-10, Salleh finishes a disappointing 13th ahead of Manninen, who can't be happy neither..
Chavanne defends the race lead thanks to Guillén taking the stage! And with both Thill and Downey losing more than three minutes eventually, it's only Chérel, who benefits from the breakaway appearance today: moving up to 3rd in the GC and slipping into the polka dot for one day at least.
Guillén moves up to 4th in the GC.. and Dzervus great performance made him earn the lead in the points classification (30pts)!