Tour de Langkawi: Guardini wins stage 1 sprint

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Andrea Guardini picked up where he left off at the Tour de Langkawi, winning stage 1 of the race in Kulim. Guardini missed the 2017 edition of the race but has now won three straight stages having closed out his last appearance with back-to-back wins.

Guardini's 2016 win in Melaka was his last until Sunday in Kulim, which was his 23rd stage win at the Malaysian race and his first in Bardiani-CSF colours. The imperious Italian took the stage win ahead of a surging Joonyong Seo (KSPO Bianchi) and Mekseb Debesay (Dimension Data).

"It was a confusing sprint in the finale. It was hard to be in the first positions but with my teammates, we played our cards really well and didn't take the front of the race," Guardini said of the sprint.

"We knew it was far away and then with Paolo [Simion] we caught the wheels of the other trains and took the front position with 500 metres to go. He led me out with 200 to go and I started my sprint and won well."

In the set-up for the sprint, Manzana Postobon were driving the pace but were knocked out of contention for the win following a late crash. Guardini and the majority of the favoured sprinters avoided the fall and, in the clean sprint, it was the 28-year-old raising his arms in victory, erasing the memories of his third-place finish in the same stage from 2016.

For the CG riders in the field, stage 1 was not of high importance but, with his third place, Debesay confirmed he is in form and will be an overall contender. The four-second time bonus was an early win for the Dimension Data rider.

"Today's stage was fast because it was quite short and completely flat with a lot of sprinters. For me, I can't beat the sprinters so with third place today I am happy," he said.

Stage 2 of the Tour de Langkawi is the longest on the menu in 2018 at 208.3km. Starting in Gerik and finishing in Kota Bahru, it is expected to finish in a reduced bunch sprint.

How it unfolded

All 131 riders named on the 2018 Tour de Langkawi start list assembled in Kangar Sunday morning to get the race underway.

As expected, there was a scramble to establish the first breakaway of the race in the opening 20km. Once Sebastian Molano won the first intermediate sprint over Andrea Guardini, the breakaway was formed, containing Bo Wang (Hengxiang), Muhammad Abdurrohman (KFC) and Nik Mohd Azwan Zulkiflie (Forca Amskins).

The trio eked out a three-minute lead ahead of the Bardiani-CSF-led peloton by the second sprint point in Alor Setar. With the peloton sensing no danger from the move, the lead was allowed to balloon out to over six minutes midway through the 146km stage. At the head of the race, Wang won the second and third intermediate sprints to hoover up points and bonus seconds.

At the sole KOM of the day in Bukit Selambau, Wang took maximum points ahead of Zulkiflie to guarantee the mountains classification jersey on the finish line was waiting for him. Shortly after the climb, Wang sat up and waited for the peloton. Like on the climb, Zulkiflie was close behind Wang in making the same decision, to leave Abdurrohman out on the road as the lone leader. With a touch over 30km to race, he too re-joined the peloton and it was gruppo compatto.

On the flat run-in to the line in Kulim, the sprint teams took up the pace and confirmed the bunch sprint was on. A crash inside the final two kilometres involved a number of Manzana Postobon riders with the majority of the favourites unscathed. With Paolo Simion leading him through, Guardini was dropped into position with 200 meters to go and never looked back, the Italian securing a winning comeback to the race.

Guardini will lead the race by six seconds on stage 2, hoping to equal Andrea Tafi's record 10 days in yellow should he retain the race lead in Kota Bahru.

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