Tour de Langkawi: Bos avoids crash to win in Marang

Theo Bos (Belkin) won another crash-marred sprint on stage 8 of the Tour de Langkawi in Merang, ahead of Andrea Guardini (Astana) and Kenny van Hummel (Androni Giocattoli-Venuzuela).

Bos was forced to chase back onto the bunch after he was nearly caught up in a crash in the final kilometre of the race. With the help of his lead-out man Graeme Brown, who saw his sprinter struggling, the Dutch rider got back to the front and proved too strong for Guardini.

“With the corner to the left, I think at 500 metres there was a big crash. I nearly went down, I was so lucky. Graeme Brown saw it and waited and I came back. It was a bit of a hard effort and later I waited for a while and then we went,” said Bos at the finish.

“It’s a left hand corner and everybody wants to go in on the left hand side. The front takes the shortest way and there is a big bottle neck and then one guy can create it. I saw it and I thought that it would be dangerous but I was so lucky.”

With two stages remaining at the Tour de Langkawi, Belkin have already achieved what they set out to do. “The sports director said three (stage wins) so we’re happy. There are two more to come, so hopefully we can get another good result.”

While not as bad as the two that affected the race’s second stage, a number of riders needed tending to by the medics at the finish including Malaysian sprinter Anwar Manan (Terengganu). Manan is the only Malaysian to win a stage. Race leader Mirsamad Pourseyedi Golakhour (Tabriz Petrochemical) was also caught up in the crash at the finish. He was unhurt in the incident and didn’t lose any time, as it was in the final three kilometres.

After two fast stages the peloton decided to take things a little easier on stage 8 from Kuantan to Marang. With only a handful of kilometres ridden, the breakaway began to take shape. Manan and Morgan Lamoisson (Europcar) made it up the road, quickly followed by Choon Huat Goh (OCBC Singapore), Elchin Asadov (Synergy Baku) and Zhi Hui Jiang (Giant Champion System).

Eventually Manan was brought back by the peloton, with his team hoping to save him for the sprint finish. The remaining group of four riders set to work and, who were more than happy to let Tabriz do the chasing. With the group taking it a little easier the break built up a lead of 4:10 over the peloton.

However, when Belkin took to the front the gap was quickly reduced and the race was all together with 11km still to run to the finish. Belkin tried to make life difficult for the other sprinters teams by sending a couple of their number up the road. They were quickly reeled in and the group was together again for the final kilometre. As the race hit 300 metres to go the road quickly narrowed and took a sharp left bend, causing a number of riders to crash.

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