Serpa wins on Genting for fourth time

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José Serpa (Androni Giocattoli) has taken Le Tour de Langkawi's queen stage on Genting for a fourth time in his career on Wednesday, following previous wins in 2006, 2007 and 2009. The Colombian overcame a two-way battle for the lead over the final five kilometres of the steep 1679 metre climb, against countryman Victor Nino Corredor (Azad University) with Serpa only moving to the front with around 400 metres left to race. José Rujano Guillen (Androni Giocattoli) was third by some distance.

Overnight general classification leader Drapac's Darren Lapthorne lost enough time to be stripped of his yellow jersey with Serpa now seemingly destined to become the first two-time winner of the Malaysian race.

How it unfolded:

There were attacks from the gun on this 6th stage, with six riders getting clear after 1.6 kilometres, only to be brought back just as quickly by an aggressive chase led by Farnese Vini-Selle Italia.

At kilometre seven, Assan Bazayev (Astana Pro Team), Valerey Valynin (RusVelo), Alireza Haghi (Azad University), James Williamson (New Zealand), Rizuan Zainal (Malaysia), Sea Keong Loh (OCBC Singapore and Sonny Colbrelli (Colnago – CSF Inox) escaped and were quickly able to get away to a lead of 4:55 over the peloton with a quarter of the stage completed on the 108km stage.

Shortly after Rizuan took his second sprint of the day at Gombak (63.6km) the gap began to fall with Valynin the first man dropped from the group while Androni-Venezuela took charge at the front of the peloton. With 25 kms left to race, Rizuan fell back to the main bunch and the breakaway’s advantage tumbling.

Loh was the next man to go at the base of the Genting climb while reports were that overnight general classification leader Darren Lapthorne (Drapac) was in difficulty and that Dave Zabriskie (Garmin-Barracuda) was again suffering and dropped.

Colbrelli, Bazayev and Williamson maintained a narrow advantage over the chase bunch, with the Italian Colbrelli the next to go. Rujano was the first to initiate an attack from the peloton, cutting the pair of escapees lead to just 58 seconds and with 15kms remaining, Rujano, Serpa, Nino and Carlos José Ochoa (Androni Giocattoli) found themselves at the head of the race.

Next ensued a battle between Androni and Azad with Rujano leading the charge in attempting to isolate Nino. With Rujano doing the early work on the climb, it was up to Serpa to come to the fore just prior to the 6km to go mark before being joined by Nino.

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