There was one rider who seemed to be turning up everywhere at Petronas Le Tour de Langkawi, XDS-Astana's Aaron Gate. It started out with his role as a key part of the lead-out for Matteo Malucelli, winner of three stages, and morphed into a potential GC card when the race headed up the summit finish on Fraser's Hill. Jumping into the sprint role after Malucelli's crash, Gate became the master of the attack as the race roared toward its final destination, Kuala Lumpur.
"I like coming to races like this, because I can fill a lot of roles. The first plan was to get stages with Malucelli, and I think we did some great lead-outs there and ticked that box," Gate told Cyclingnews in somewhat of an understatement. "And then I wanted to have a crack at GC myself, but I knew that if it didn't work out, we had Nico (Vinokurov – who finished fourth overall) waiting in the wings as more of an actual climber.
"I mean, I learned that climb was just a little bit too long for me," Gate said of the category 1 Fraser's Hill. "The climbs today were much better suited to me. I was able to be in the front group of 15 or so without too much stress. So yeah, today was a much more enjoyable stage for me than the pure uphill finish."
Enjoyable and successful as the category two efforts wreaked havoc through the final 30km of stage 8 of Le Tour de Langkawi, which finished in front of the Petronas Towers.
The rider from New Zealand, who was once committed to the track, claimed victory on Sunday's final day of racing by launching an attack from the dramatically reduced group of riders out front at about 4km to go. Aivaras Mikutis (Tudor Pro Cycling) went along for the ride, while the pair caught Nil Gimeno (Equipo Kern Pharma) at 2km to go, and then it wasn't long before Mikutis applied the pressure.
"He hit me pretty hard, and I just put my head down to chase him," said Gate. "Just before I looked back, I was like, please have dropped the Kern Pharma rider (Gimeno) at least. I looked back and he was gone and I was like, 'OK, now it's me versus him, like a drag race to the finish," said Gate.
"He gave it a couple more real strong squeezes, but at 500m to go I was like, 'OK, now I'm going to try and just time the run to perfection here and I managed to catch him at I think 200ish meters to go, and then just had to bury it to the line. I was ecstatic to take the last stage."
Gate doesn't necessarily get a lot of chances to chase his own results, so when they come, it matters for the rider who has spent plenty of years in cycling but after more recently moving to the road from the track is tackling just his first year in the WorldTour. He raced with Bolton Equities Black Spoke through to 2023, but after its demise, moved to Burgos BH.
"I think I showed last year with Burgos that I could race well and fill a lot of roles and score a lot of points too which is now, with this relegation cycle becoming all the more valuable," said Gate.
Despite missing out on a spot on XDS-Astana initially because the team was full when Black Spoke's disappearance saw him looking for a place, Gate had kept in touch with Alexander Vinokurov and got his chance a year later when he signed a one year deal.
"I'd have to really thank him for giving me the opportunity at the ripe age of 34 to finally be in the WorldTour. And, I've been really thankful for the support the team's given me, and I like to think that I've shown I belong here and I look forward to hopefully continuing with the team next year," said Gate.
