Tour of Langkawi: Guardini wins final stage

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Andrea Guardini (Astana) doubled his win tally from a year ago with victory on the final stage of the Tour de Langkawi, over Aidis Kruopis (Astana) and Francesco Chicchi (Yellow Fluo).

Guardini chose to go early and try to get the jump on his fellow sprinters. Despite a late surge from Kruopis, Guardini never look troubled as he powered over the line. “At 300 metres I was third behind Theo [Bos] and I started my sprint because I wanted to stay close. I went maybe so far from the finish, but it was enough to win today,” said Guardini at the finish.

“Theo has shown his shape every day and his team was really strong in the stage finishes, but I am in a good condition now. I was a little bit angry because there are maybe two finishes a little bit difficult to make my sprint. For my sprint I need to have 200 or 250 metre straight and in the last eight or nine stages there is one curve near to the finish line. Today they (Belkin) worked really well, but then my teammates did a really good job to put me in a perfect situation behind his wheel.”

Guardini now has two stage victories at the Tour de Langkawi, double what he achieved in the entirety of 2013. The Italian hopes that his performance in Malaysia will prove enough to secure himself a spot in the team for Milan-San Remo later this month.

Kruopis’ second place was enough to keep hold of his points’ jersey, 13 points ahead of Michal Kolar (Tinkoff-Saxo). With no mountains points available today, Matt Brammeier had a relatively simple ride to secure that classification. Multiple stage winner Bos found himself out of contention and rolled across in 13th.

Mirsamad Pourseyedi Golakhour (Tabriz Petrochemical) could finally breathe a sigh of relief too, as he finished without incident to claim the overall victory. He is the first Asian winner of the race in its 19 editions.

The final day of the Tour de Langkawi was another short one for the peloton, with an almost entirely flat 103km to the finish. Stage 10 would conclude with six laps around Kuala Terengganu, where the race has been based for the past three days. With only one more chance for victory, there was plenty of attacking right from the word go.

Eventually a three-man group made it up the road, Antoine Duchesne (Europcar), Brett Lancaster (Orica-GreenEDGE) and Jonathan Monsalve (Yellow Fluo). Lancaster soon dropped back, saving his energy for the impending sprint, leaving the other two to go it alone.

Monsalve has been one of the most active riders over the ten stages, but it was yet to turn into success. It would remain that way with the duo holding a lead of just 1’10” as the entered the finishing circuit. The peloton strung out into a long line as the chased down the two escapees, who were eventually caught on the final lap.