Guardini wins again in Parit Sulong

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Andrea Guardini (Farnese Vini-Selle Italia) scorched to his second consecutive stage victory at the Tour de Langkawi in Parit Sulong on Sunday, holding off the challenge of Raymond Kreder (Garmin-Barracuda) and Anuar Manan (Champion System) in the bunch sprint. David Zabriskie (Garmin-Barracuda) retains the overall lead.

Although it would ultimately prove to be another day for the fast men, there were no shortage of willing attackers to try and upset the odds. After a fast opening, it took all of 60km for the first break of any substance to go clear, as Taiji Nishitani (Aisan Racing Team), Shinichi Fukushima (Terengganu Cycling Team), Alex Coutts (RTS Racing Time) and Ahmad Lufti Fauzan (Malaysia National Team) went up the road.

While that quartet collaborated well together, the sprinters’ teams and Farnese Vini-Selle Italia in particular ensured that they were never allowed to disappear from sight and they were brought back ahead of the finale.

Dmitriy Gruzdev (Astana) was the next to try his luck, forcefully pressing clear of the peloton and he was joined in his rally by Andrea Di Corrado (Colnago-CSF), but they too were pegged back by the speeding bunch with 10km remaining. Almost instantly, Corrado’s teammate Marco Canola countered and although he put up fierce resistance, he was reeled in with a shade over two kilometres left to race.

In the closing stages, the fluorescent yellow of Farnese Vini-Selle Italia was to the fore as Guardini’s squad set about control the peloton. The Italian youngster is the class of the sprinting field in Malaysia, and he showed considerable poise in the finishing straight. He didn’t blink when Sonny Colbrelli (Colnago-CSF) decided to wind up the sprint from 400 metres out, and calmly bided his time until the final 150 metres.

Guardini swooped past Colbrelli in the closing metres and then held off the challenges of Kreder and Anuar to take his second stage of the race. With several more sprint opportunities to come, the 22-year-old has a chance to match or perhaps even exceed last year’s tally of five stage victories.

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