Tour de Langkawi: Mareczko beats Sunderland to take stage 3

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Third time proved a charm for Jakub Mareczko at the Tour de Langkawi with the Italian dominating the out the bunch sprint finish in Pantai Remis.

The Wilier Triestina rider was perfectly moved into position by his teammates, holding off the fast-finishing stage 1 winner Scott Sunderland (IsoWhey Sports SwissWellness) and Malaysian Mohd Zamri Saleh (Terengganu).

"I have good form and today I found it and did a good sprint," Mareczko said. "Today the stage was short and the team helped me from the first kilometre to control the breakaway in front and in the final kilometres they took over and controlled the sprint."

The win is Mareczko's second at the Tour de Langkawi after his success last year in Rembau and 21st of his young career. It is also his first success of the 2017 season.

For stage 1 winner Sunderland, it was a "crazy" finale with plenty of fresh teams and riders willing and ready to "box on".

"For the last five kilometres, it was just chaotic. I nearly came off countless times on the run in," he told Cyclingnews. "It was pretty difficult and in the end, I had to come from a long way back. I think I opened my sprint up from about three hundred metres to try to give myself a good run in. I came with a lot of pace but ran out of legs a little towards the final. I am happy to come away with second after such a hard run in."

Thursday’s stage winner Travis McCabe (UnitedHealthcare) finished in sixth place, ensuring that race leader Ryan Gibbons (Dimension Data) will wear the yellow jersey for the race's fourth and queen stage up Cameron Highlands. He will start the day three seconds ahead of McCabe on the general classification with Filippo Pozzato third at 11 seconds.

How it unfolded

Friday's stage 3 of the Tour de Langkawi saw the peloton start in the hottest conditions yet of this year's race as it rolled out of Serdang. Once the flag was dropped, minus six riders from stage 2, an aggressive start saw the trio of Stepan Astafyev (Vino Astana Motors), Loh Sea Keong (Thailand) and Dominic Perez (7 Eleven Roadbike Philippine) get clear. By the 10km mark, the leaders pulled out over five minutes on the peloton, content to let them enjoy the stage out in front.

The three became two a touch over 70km into the 118km stage when Perez re-joined the peloton. Keong and Astafyev continued to press on at the head of the race, with Dimension Data the key pace maker back in the peloton. The advantage of the two leaders continued to fall as the sprint teams moved forward to ensure the bunch kick finish.

At the 100km mark, the gap was almost non-existent as the two leaders dangled out in the front of the peloton at 20 seconds. The finale features open flat roads to ensure a fast and furious sprint finish with the break caught inside 4km to race. At the conclusion of the sprint, it was Mareczko raising his arms in triumph but the crowd reserved its loudest cheers for local hero Saleh.

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