Bos delivers on expectations in Langkawi opener

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Theo Bos has lived up to the pre-race hype by taking out the first stage into Kulim at Le Tour de Langkawi. Bos was poised to take the victory nearing the end of the 162.7km stage, positioning himself on the wheel of Blanco teammate Graeme Brown coming into the final corner with less than 400m to go and simply finished the stellar job performed by his lead-out man to take his first Langkawi stage win and pull on the first leader's jersey.

Bos' long and powerful acceleration was simply too much for anyone to follow as Brown stepped aside with 300m to go leaving the Dutchman with plenty of time to check the whereabouts of those behind and savior his second win of the season. Young sprinter Bryan Coquard (Europcar) was the closest to getting on terms with Bos and would settle for second place while Langkawi's 'king' of the sprints Andrea Guardini (Astana) finished in third.

The win marked Bos' second for the year having arrived fresh from the four-day Volta ao Algarve where he took out Stage 2. There was plenty of pre-race hype surrounding Bos and his Blanco team in the days leading up to the opening day and the 'white' team didn't disappoint with the team using the technical final kilometre to Bos' advantage.

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Entering the final straight with Bos in second position appeared to have been a mistake but the two Blanco riders had gone through the final bend fast enough to form a gap. A quick glance from Bos and it was time to go - albeit a little earlier than he planned. However, none of the other ProTeam sprinters were able to close it down.

"I knew it was going to be difficult in the final because there are a lot of good sprinters," said Bos at the finish.

"Brownie went early, I thought it was still a kilo to go but then I looked up and saw 500m and we took the last two corners in front. He went really fast, I couldn't go any faster," explained Bos.

"I looked back and saw we had a small gap and went early."

"We have a really good team for the sprint. They guys helped me out well. I think this was a big advantage for me compared to the other guys. With Brownie, he has a lot of experience and really did a good job in the last two kilometres. I think that's where we won the race."

A long day for an aggressive trio

The first stage at Tour de Langkawi was almost certain to come down to a bunch sprint with just one Cat4 climb to be negotiated on the stage. The remaining route was a relatively flat affair and with just a slight breeze to make life in the bunch uncomfortable at times.

Meiyin Wang (Hengxiang Cycling Team), Junrong Ho (OCBC) and one of the most enduring rider's on the Asia circuit Shinichi Fukushima (Team Nippo – De Rosa) were the lucky trio to have their day in the sun and they quickly went about opening a substantial lead that ballooned to over 10 minutes at the second sprint point at 51.3km.

While the ProTeams looked to control the breakaway and set up the sprint, they had to ride fairly constant to keep the leading three under wraps. Bos admitted after the stage that while his team were not overly concerned about the growing advantage, it took a significant effort to bring it under control.

"They went early and made a big gap straight away. We started riding to close the gap and had a good pace but still the gap was getting better," said Bos.

"In the end we were going slow and still catching them, they blew up I think because of the heat," he explained. That's very different racing to Europe."

The three were allowed to capture the maximum points at the three intermediate sprints and easily made it over the only categorised climb of the day before being swept back into the fold with 11km to go.

A number of teams then looked to try and control the bunch with Aisan, Orica GreenEdge, Blanco and Garmin all looking determined. With three corners in the final kilometre it was all down to positioning and Blanco had the upper hand with Brown and Bos speeding through the 180-degree right hand bend signalling less than 400m to go.

Brown and Bos came around with a gap over the field and Bos sensed the moment to go, taking the stage and the race leader's jersey heading into tomorrow's 117.8km stage from Serdang to Kuala Kangsar.

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