Tour de Langkawi: Enrico Barbin wins stage 6 sprint

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For the sixth straight stage, the 2017 Tour de Langkawi welcomed a different winner at the finish line. On a wet and blustery day in Muar, it was Enrico Barbin (Bardiani-CSF) celebrating his first professional victory ahead of Anthony Giacoppo (IsoWhey Sports SwissWellness) and Filippo Pozzato (Wilier Trestina).

Race leader Ryan Gibbons (Dimension Data) rode a defensive finale to finish in 13th place and ensure he starts the penultimate stage of the race with the yellow jersey firmly on his shoulders.

"I was feeling good, not just myself but also my team. We had one rider in the breakaway today. I am not as fast as the fastest sprinters here but at the end of the race I took a good advantage of the circumstances and started my sprint at the right moment," said Barbin who increased his team's all-time stage win count for the race to 35.

The finale of the stage was made aggressive by both riders and parcours alike, as positioning was crucial for the right hand turn off the bridge two kilometres before the riverside finish line straight. Despite the best efforts the sprint trains, it was Barbin who took advantage of the chaos, taking the win by several lengths.

"Through the radio we had perfect explanations of the last kilometre and also the direction of the wind. We went to the right position on the bridge, and we knew that after the bridge we had to be on the front with 300 metres to go because it would be difficult for anyone to pass us," he added.

For Gibbons, after a day that posed early problems, it was one he was happy to finish without loss of time or skin.

"Going over the bridge when you turn right, UHC was in the front and we were second. We lost a wheel and then four UHC riders and [Jakub] Mareczko got away and I had to commit. I was on the front of the peloton and spent all my energy just trying to close the gap. I didn't want to lose any time. The UHC rider [Jaramillo] who is up on GC was also there so I committed to not losing any time and brought the peloton with me. When the sprint started, I had already done my effort."

The seventh and penultimate stage of the tour de Langkawi sees the peloton roll out of Melaka and finish in Rembau 148.1km later. Gibbons leads Cam Bayly Giacoppo (IsoWhey Sports SwissWellness) by 23 seconds with Alberto Cecchin (Wilier Trestina) third at 27 seconds.

How it unfolded

Senawang welcomed the stage 6 start of the race with a light drizzle that became a heavy shower. Asian rider classification leader Yevgeniy Gidich was the only non-starter for the day as the fourth placed overall rider jetted off for the Asian Games.

At the 10km mark, Tanner Putt enjoyed a brief solo break before the peloton pulled him back. The three-man break of Lorenzo Rota (Bardiani-CSF), Wilmar Paredes (Manzana) and Ronald Yeung (Infinite AIS) then went clear on the second climb of the day.

The leaders gradually grew their advantage on the road as the rain continued to fall. At 100km into the stage, the lead hovered around the three-minute mark as Dimension Data sat on the front of the peloton. The gap steadily declined in favour of the peloton and dropped to just over one minute with 30km to race. Over the next ten kilometres, the gap was down to a scant 20 seconds to confirm the stage would be concluding with a sprint finish.

As the break was in sight the peloton, Yeung made an ill-fated bid for glory. With the race all together inside the final 10km for the fast and technical finale, several riders made their bid for victory to disrupt the sprint teams, only to open the door for Barbin to enjoy a maiden victory.

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