Tour de Langkawi: Van Hummel claims victory on stage 6

Kenny van Hummel (Androni Giocattoli) edged out Aidis Kruopis (Orica-GreenEdge) in the sprint finish at Pontian in the Tour de Langkawi to take his first victory of the 2014 season.

The Dutch rider was one of many riders who crashed on stage two but pulled out a great sprint to take his first victory with the Androni Giocattoli team. Van Hummel pumped his fist and screamed in delight as he crossed the line. Kruopis followed him in with Ken Hanson (UnitedHealthcare) rounding out the top three. Mirsamad Pourseyedi Golakhour (Tabriz Petrochemical) finished in the peloton and so remains in the race lead, ahead of Merhawi Kudus (MTN-Qhubeka).

“It was a chaotic sprint, but my team helped me a lot,” Van Hummel said after embracing his teammates and team manager Gianni Savio. “I was in a good wheel first off, but it was really difficult to stay easy in the final because it was so chaotic. I had Omar Bertazzo and Carlos Ochoa who worked all day for me, big complementi."

“I crashed in the second stage, so I had a lot of trouble with my body but at the moment I am well and I am really happy with my victory. (It is) really important. I am happy that they gave me this chance and that they gave me this spot in the team. I always want to win, but this is really special for me.”

Kruopis had to settle for another runners’ up position, but he was happy to be getting nearer to victory.

“I was pretty close with Kenny and hopefully in a few days I will get there,” he told Cyclingnews at the finish. “In the final I had a few guys with me and then I was alone, I jumped across. We went a little bit too early and the guys ran out of legs, but I like to be alone. It suits me well.”

Day six of the Tour de Langkawi was one of the longest at 199.1km. It featured two fourth category climbs in the opening half, with a flat run in allowing the sprinters teams to maintain some control.

After the second victory of the week coming from a breakaway on the previous stage, the peloton were reluctant to let anybody go up the road. A number of riders, including Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) and Carlos Quintaro (Colombia) tried their luck. With Chaves sitting only 20 seconds down on the peloton, the Tabriz Petrochemical team quashed the attack before it even had a chance to establish itself.

It wasn’t until the 70km mark that Yannick Martinez (Team Europcar) and Elchin Asadov (Synergy Baku) managed to establish a gap over the group. However, with Martinez being Team Europcar’s nominated sprinter for the race he was called back to the peloton, leaving Asadov to go it alone.

The Azerbaijani was never given more than two minutes by the peloton. After ensuring he hovered up all the intermediate sprint points, Asadov sat up and was joined by Thomas Rabou and Eric Sheppard (Both OCBC Singapore) and Ni Yui Hui (Giant-Champion System).

Keen to ensure a bunch sprint, Belkin, Astana and Orica-GreenEdge took to the front. The four escapees were finally caught with 21 kilometres to go. There were a number of late attacks, but a bunch sprint was inevitable and van Hummel emerged from the chaos to win.

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