The pattern at Petronas Le Tour de Langkawi in recent years has been clear: the rider who wins the queen stage wins the race, but after Thursday's race to the top of Fraser's Hill, there is no sign that the rivals of race leader and stage 5 winner Joris Delbove (Total Energies) are ready to concede defeat. The gaps are too tight for that.
Delbove may have roared toward the line to take a solo victory, but even though the attacks kept flying on the climb, it was a leading group of around 20 riders that were heading to the line in the final kilometres, with Delbove only getting away within three kilometres of the finish and holding a gap of just two seconds to the sprinting chasers behind.
The French rider now holds a gap of just six seconds to Anders Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility), who came second on the stage, and Adrien Maire (Unibet Tietema Rockets), who came fourth at the top of Fraser's Hill. Then in third it is Yannis Voisard (Tudor Pro Cycling), who took the final step of the stage podium on Thursday at just 10 seconds back.
"We took responsibility from the beginning of the climb to try to go all in for the win. It was not enough today, but we are pretty happy with what we did today," said Voisard in the post-race interview of the result that moved him up 40 places on the overall standings to fourth place. That, however, is not where he plans to stay.
"Tor sure there are three other stages to Kuala Lumpur, so we will try and do our best to win some seconds."
Time claimed by getting a gap or claiming the winning bonus of 10, six, and four seconds for the next two spots doesn't come easily in a sprint stage, and there are three likely sprints that are set to finish the race as it heads towards the finale in the Malaysian capital on Sunday. Still, there is much more than just the finishing bonuses at stake, something winner Delbove was all too aware of when he said, "I first have to secure the advantage that I have now, six seconds is not much."
The gap is not much in particular because there are so many intermediate sprint bonuses up for grabs. Through each of the next three stages, there are three intermediate sprints, each with three bonus seconds for the winner, two for the runner-up and one for third. That means the maximum any one rider could yield would be 27 seconds. All Maire and Johannessen need to tip the balance is seven.
The Uno-X Mobility rider was all too aware of this, feeling thwarted on Thursday by a tough run and having to settle for another near miss, with teammate Alexander Kristoff just centimetres off taking stage 3 in a photo finish sprint with Matteo Malucelli (XDS Astana).
"We had the legs and the team to win, but we had bad luck with my teammate Simon (Dalby), who crashed," said Johannessen in a race interview after the stage. "In the end. Total was strongest, and they took a deserved win."
That doesn't mean the outcome didn't disappoint the Norwegian.
"When you win the sprint a couple of seconds behind, you feel like you could have won the race, but the race is not over," said Johannessen.
"For sure, we want to go for the sprints. It is a big goal to win this race GC, and we have three stages to go, so we are ready to fight."
