Tour of Langkawi: Bradley White wins Stage 5 from breakaway

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It was third time lucky for Bradley White (UnitedHealthcare) as he finally turned an escape into victory ahead of Thomas Rabou (OCBC Singapore), with Louis Meintjes (MTN-Qhubeka) rolling in four seconds down for third, on stage 5 of the Tour de Langkawi.

White and his UnitedHealthcare team have been very active in the race and it seemed only a matter of time before the secured a win. The American led the sprint, with Rabou following him closely behind and Meintjes choosing not to contest it. The two played cat and mouse towards the finish, but White had the better legs and crossed the line more than a bike’s length ahead of the Dutch rider.

“Third day in a row in the break, so the legs were a little bit tired so I was just happy to come away with the victory,” White said at the finish line. “With 500 to go, I tried to make a move around the corner, trying to get a gap, but I had no gap. And then he tried to get around me, but I was able to get around him at the finish in the sprint.

Mirsamad Pourseyedi Golakhour (Tabriz Petrochemical) remains in the race lead, eight seconds ahead of Merhawi Kudus (MTN-Qhubeka).

Stage five was supposed to be the return of the sprinters, after yesterday’s summit finish. They day was predominantly flat, with a third category sting in the tail. The three-man breakaway was formerly a six-man break with Jeffrey Johan Romero (Colombia), Alessio Taliani (Androni-Giocattoli) and Elchin Asadov (Azerbaijan) also making it up the road. The six breakaway riders managed to build up a gap of over six minutes before Meintjes’ efforts split the group.

It was Meintjes who did much of the work in the breakaway, with his general classification position playing against him, as the others chose not to work with him. The South African national champion thinks that it could have ended differently, if he had help from his companions. “I think if it was well organised I could have moved up into first position. I’m very disappointed, but it was a good day,” he told Cyclingnews, as he waited to go onto the podium.

“Unfortunately the Italians didn’t want to work with me, because I was too high on the GC and we attacked. A few things happened and we formed a new group of three. We worked well for another 20km and they also started playing around, saying I was too high up on GC. I ended up doing 20km on my own, just sitting on the front. I didn’t get much help from the other guys, which is a shame because we ended up staying away.”

With 13 kilometres remaining the gap still hovered around the two minute mark, leaving the sprinters’ teams with a lot to do. As the peloton reached the final climb, Astana and Belkin took to the front of the group, but it was too late. They ran out of road before they could reel in the escapees.

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