Pourseyedi Golakhour wins queen stage of Tour de Langkawi

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Mirsamad Pourseyedi Golakhour (Tabriz Petrochemical) timed his attack to perfection to beat Merhawi Kudus (MTN-Qhubeka) and Isaac Bolivar (UnitedHealthcare) to win the queen stage of the Tour de Langkawi and all but secure the overall race victory.

The delighted Iranian could hardly speak after his efforts on the climb, distancing Kudus by four seconds on the steep finish. Inevitably, there will be questions about his performance, though, as he returned to racing last summer after a two-year ban for EPO. Since his comeback. he has also won the Tour of Qinghai Lake.

Pourseyedi Golakhour sat in the wheel of Bolivar and Kudus, who both made several attacks on the final climb that reduced the bunch to a mere 12 riders only coming out for his final push to the line. When Pourseyedigolakhour went, his rivals didn’t have the legs to keep up. “At 10km to go we hit a flat bit and I asked him to go past and he said no. Then I was behind him in the last 200 metres, but I couldn’t pass him,” said Kudus at the finish.

Kudus sits only eight seconds behind Pourseyedi Golakhour in the general classification and with bonus seconds available in the sprints there is still a chance for the Eritrean to overhaul the gap. While Kudus isn’t disregarding the possibility, he says it will be difficult. “First I will discuss it with my team and we will see how they feel. I think it might be over though, because there are no more climbs. I haven’t made any plans, we will see.”

Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEDGE) took a hugely impressive fourth place, in his first race since a serious injury last February.

Stage 4 was the only opportunity for the climbers to test their legs against their rivals, with the summit finish at Genting Highlands. The final ascent consisted of two climbs and a small descent allowing for a little respite. The killer, though, was the final 500 metres where the road kicked up to a leg sapping gradient.

The day began with a large break of 31 riders, as the peloton split into two. With only two teams missing from the break, the peloton were more than happy to let them go. Point’s and mountain’s classification leader Matt Brammeier (Synergy Baku) got away with a number of riders from the Belkin team, Theo Bos, Jack Bobridge and Steven Kruijswijk.

“The group split and we had Stevie (Kruijswijk) and he was our main rider for today. It worked well and then we just rode tempo through the valley to keep the other group away,” Bobridge explained to Cyclingnews at the finish. “It split naturally. It happens sometimes, everybody is nervous of the stage and a big group went away. We were lucky that we were there.”

As the race neared the bottom of the final climb riders were gradually dispatched out the back of the bunch. On his way, Brammeier secured several more points in the mountains competition, he also holds onto the lead in the point’s competition. The remaining group made it to the foot of the final climb with a little over a minute’s advantage over the peloton.

Race leader Duber Quintero missed out on the split and finished six minutes down on the race leader and was forced to hand over his yellow jersey.

Tomorrow should be a chance for the sprinters once again, although the two third category climbs in the last 20 kilometres could change things.

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