Tour de Langkawi: Theo Bos wins in Pekan

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Theo Bos (Belkin) racked up his second victory at the Tour de Langkawi ahead of Aidis Kruopis (Orica-GreenEdge) and Leonardo Duque (UnitedHealthcare), on stage 7.

The Dutch rider and his team navigated the two sharp corners in the final 500 metres with relative ease to win in Pekan, the scene of Alessandro Petacchi’s first professional victory in 1998.

Kruopis has been knocking on the door of a victory, but had to settle for second for another day. The Lithuanian’s consistency has moved him into the lead of the points competition, four points ahead of Michal Kolar (Tinkoff-Saxo). Duque’s third place is the 6th podium finish of the race so far for the UnitedHealthcare team.

Bos was boxed in during the previous day’s sprint but said the team had learned from earlier mistakes in the race to put him in the right position. “Yesterday it was a long straight and with six riders in total, it is difficult to maintain the front until the end. So today we burned a few more riders longer before the finish,” Bos explained at the finish. “Then we stayed in the pack and used the peloton a bit more, since we don’t have so many riders.

“In the road book it said to go left with 900 metres to go and a right corner with 500 metres to go, but then we heard from the soigneurs that it was 500 and 250. I’m lucky that I have Brown, he’s the best man in the peloton to bring me in front. He’s the fastest guy in front of a sprinter. In the last corner, somebody came underneath and my front wheel slipped and but luckily I was on his wheel still.”

Stage 7 from Kota Tinggi to Pekan was the longest of the race’s ten stages at 230km. It meant an early start for the riders, who were feeling the efforts of riding in the heat, with Robinson Chalapud (Colombia) choosing not to take the start and four more, including John-Lee Augustyn (MTN-Qhubeka), abandoning before the finish.

Despite the headwind, the pace was high from the start and, as it had been on the previous stage, the peloton were nervous about letting too strong a break form. It wasn’t until they had ridden 50km that three riders made their escape. Eric Sheppard (OCBC Singapore), who was in the stage 6 break, Duber Quintero (Colombia) and Brett Lancaster (Orica-GreenEdge). Yonathan Monsalve (Neri Sottoli-Yellow Fluo) bridged over to make it a group of four.

Monsalve was the highest placed of the escapees, having started the day 2:20 down on race leader Mirsamad Pourseyedi Golakhour, forcing the Tabriz Petrochemical team to chase hard. The efforts of earlier in the week showed on Quintero, who was the first to fly out the back.

With Quintaro back in the peloton, Colombia assisted the sprinter’s teams with the chasing. The break built a maximum lead of 4:25, before the peloton began a concerted chase. Next to go out the back was Monsalve and the final two were absorbed into the peloton with less than 10km to go.

Pourseyedi Golakhour keeps hold of the race lead, eight seconds ahead of Isaac Bolivar of UnitedHealthcare.

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