Guardini grabs another win in Langkawi

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Italian youngster Andrea Guardini (Farnese Vini-NeriSotttoli) continued his dominance of the Tour of Langkawi, sprinting to his third win on stage six today. Guardini, however relinquished the points jersey to Anuar Manan (Terengganu ProAsia Cycling Team), with the Malaysian coming second on the stage as well as picking up points at intermediate sprints. Japanese cyclist Takashi Miyazawa was third and Libardo Nino (LeTua Cycling Team) retained his overall lead.

“I’m very happy to win the stage even though I have lost the points jersey,” Guardini said. “It’s a great achievement to get three stage wins out of four so far.”

“There was a battle for the intermediate sprints and the points classification is very tight. Anuar Manan is pretty motivated to win this classification. There is only one point between us but I’m fine with it for now,” he added.

Like the first two stages of the race, Guardini was led to the line brilliantly from his team and he described how it went today.

“It was fast in the last seven or eight kilometers but the last kilometer was easy as we were riding at a high speed. My teammates delivered me to the part where I need to start my sprint, which is 300 meters from the line and I managed to win again.”

Anuar Manan is hunting for a stage victory and just missed out again today, but has taken the points jersey for the first time in the race and hopes to hold it till the end.

“Today I didn’t get my target [Winning a stage] but I got the blue jersey today. I would like to say thanks to my team-mates who helped me today. I hope to keep the blue jersey till the end but I hope to achieve my target in the next few stages. It’s going to be hard but we’ll see how it goes tomorrow,” Manan described.

The battle for the general classification is also close with two seconds still separating Libardo Nino and Jonathan Monsalve A group of six riders dominated the second half of the stage holding a two minute advantage on the peloton but the sprinters teams were always in control of the race, which helped Nino hold onto his yellow jersey.

“It was a very fast stage with many attempts to break away. There was a breakaway for the second part of the race. Team Androni were leading the peloton which was good for me. My team-mates told me about the course at the end and that’s why I kept the yellow jersey today,” Nino explained.

Jonathan Monsalve is trying to pick the perfect time to pounce to gain the time he needs to take the yellow jersey and today’s stage wasn’t the one for him.

“This was a very fast stage and when the breakaway went early, there was one rider in that who was high up on the general classification and that’s why our team went to the front of the bunch and rode flat out to catch the breakaway,” Monsalve said.

“There are four more stages remaining and with the sprinters focused on the points, it’s going to be hard but we’ll see how it goes tomorrow.”

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