Guardini wins third stage of Langkawi

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Andrea Guardini (Farnese Vini-Selle Italia) won his third stage of the 2012 Le Tour de Langkawi on Monday, with a last-ditch charge to the finish line, swallowing a four-man breakaway which had stayed adrift the majority of the 169.4 kilometre stage. Jacobe Keough (UnitedHealthcare) was second, while Harrif Salleh (Terengganu Cycling Team) took third.

While the virtual yellow jersey did change hands throughout the race via the efforts of Rhys Pollock (Drapac), the final result saw David Zabriskie (Garmin-Barracuda) retain his overall lead.

Pollock escaped from the peloton with the first 10km and was soon joined by Kevin Reza (Europcar), Louis Crosby (New Zealand) and Shinichi Fukushima (Terengganu) with the four maintaining their advantage until a few hundred metres left to race.

"This is my nicest win because it took the most suffering," Guardini said after his win. "We've believed in the win when nobody else did with 30km to go."

"Today's win sums up the perfect job of my team for catching the breakaway at the last minute," he said of the Farnese Vini-Selle Italia outfit, which was aggressive in the chase, along with Astana. The fluorescent team down a man with Brazilian Rafael Andriato forced to abandon the race due to a crash late on Stage 3. "Other teams only rode for positions."

Meantime, the blue train of UnitedHealthcare kicked into gear and delivered Jacobe Keough to his second runner-up placing of the 2012 event.

"For the first time I got a proper lead out," Keough explained post-race. "I went from 300m to go. Maybe next time we use different tactic and we can beat Guardini."

Results