Guardini sprints to victory

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Thirteen years ago Alessandro Petacchi opened his professional account in the Tour of Langkawi. In 2011, young Italian sprinter, Andrea Guardini (Farnese Vini) has followed suit, claiming a memorable victory on stage one.

The 21-year-old benefited from a terrific lead-out and was too fast for Korean Sungbaek Park (Korea National Team) and local sprinter Harrif Saleh (Terengganu ProAsia Cycling Team).

“I’m very happy to win here in my first professional race,”Guardini said following his victory. “I’m also very happy to learn that Petacchi opened his professional career here and I would like to follow his path and if I can win half the amount of races he has, I will be very happy,” he added.

In temperatures exceeding thirty-five degrees Celsius, the 94.5km stage got off to a flying start with the peloton averaging 47km/h in the first hour of racing. It was then that a group of ten riders, featuring one of the pre-race favourites Yonnatta Monsalve attempted to break clear of the peloton. Drapac Professional Cycling team were not represented in the move and the entire squad put more pain into the peloton, increasing the pace to bring the dangerous break back.

Other breaks featuring Damien Gaudin (Europcar), Adiq Othman (Drapac), Kenichi Suzuki (Aisan Racing Team) and Koen de Kort (Skil-Shimano) tried to get off the front and one break featuring De Kort was successful, but only held a slender lead on the peloton. De Kortclimbed his way into the king of the mountains jersey winning the third and final climb on the stage, after picking up points in the first climb.

The break he was in was absorbed ten kilometers from the finish as the sprinters teams got set to deliver their fast men to the line and five kilometers from home, Europcar were in charge of the peloton. In the closing stages it was the Farnese Vini team at the head of the race delivering their youngster to the line.

“My directeur has put a lot of faith in me and has had very good words to say about me. I hope to show that in a few stages,” Guardini said. “I hope to hold the yellow jersey for the next few stages, as they will suit me before the mountains come.”

Guardini has eyes on the Giro and a few more wins may earn him selection in Italy’s biggest race of the cycling calendar.
“I would like to ride the Giro, but it is going to be hard in my first year. We only have a small team of twenty riders and only nine can ride the Giro,” he concluded.

Sunbaek Park is also participating in his first big race and was thrilled to finish on the podium.

“I’m very happy, it’s a good result,” Park explained.

HarrifSaleh is one of Malaysia’s best young sprinters and his third place today showed he has the legs to make himself present at the business end of the race.

“I’m very happy with third place,” a happy Saleh said. “It was a hard race today with the climbs and the heat which affected me at the end, but the next few stages suit me and I’m confident of winning a stage,” Saleh added.

Koen de Kort was pleased with his king of the mountains jersey and is hopeful he can hold onto it over the coming stages.

“I have trained a bit on the longer climbs, so hopefully my training will pay off. We have Kenny Van Hummel as our sprinter and our first priority is a stage win,” De Kort said.

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