Andrea Guardini (Farnese Vini-Neri Sottoli) picked up his first win of the season with a fine sprint victory at Melaka on stage two of the Tour de Langkawi. The Italian saw off the challenge of Jacob Keough (UnitedHealthcare) and Christian Delle Stelle (Colnago-CSF) to take the win, while David Zarbiskie (Garmin-Barracuda) retained his overall lead.

After coming close to victory at the Tour de San Luis in January, and then battling against the best in the world at the Tours of Qatar and Oman, Guardini was delighted to be up and running for the year. He won five stages in last year’s Tour de Langkawi in what was a blistering start to life in the professional ranks.

“I needed to come back to Malaysia to be a winner again,” Guardini said at the finish. “This is my fourth stage race of the year and I didn’t manage to win any stage in the first three. That was partly because of bad luck and partly because my adversaries were stronger than me.”

Guardini’s Farnese Vini-Selle Italia team showed their faith in the young sprinter by controlling affairs in the finale of the race, and leading him out expertly inside the final kilometre of the race. Try as they might, Keough and Delle Stele had no answer to Guardini’s explosive finishing kick.

“I have managed to win here on the first opportunity,” he said. “In the finale my team was super, I had an excellent train and I was helped in the best way possible by my teammates.”

In the early part of the stage, it was the Garmin-Barracuda team of race leader Dave Zabriskie that patrolled affairs on the front end of the peloton, keeping a close watch on the day’s escapees.

10km in to the stage, Sea Keong Loh (OCBC Singapore) went on the offensive with Foris Goesinnen (Drapa) for company and stayed out in front until the finale, in spite of Zinal Mohammad Nor Rizuan’s (Malaysia) best efforts to come across alone.

The leading pair had a maximum advantage of 4:15 at the midway point in the stage, but that gap slowly tumbled as Garmin-Barracuda were joined at the front of the pack by Farnese Vini-Selle Italia. With 25km to go, the plucky Lee Rodgers (RTS Racing) shot across the now one-minute gap to add reinforcements, but the break was eventually swallowed up with just over 5km remaining.

While Guardini took the stage honours, Zabriskie retained his commanding overall lead ahead of Drapac pair Adam Phelan and Darren Lapthorne.

“I expected very hot conditions here and it was very hot indeed,” Zabriskie said. “I just wanted to say thank you to the team, who did an amazing job today controlling the race. It is great to be in the jersey again.”

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