Tour de Langkawi: Minali wins stage 4 in Pekan

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Riccardo Minali (Astana) became the first multiple stage winner of this year's Tour de Langkawi after taking victory from a sprint on stage 4. The Italian beat Andrea Guardini (Bardiani-CSF) and Mohd Harrif Saleh (TSG) to win the bunch sprint in Pekan.

On paper, the stage was one for the sprinters, but the coastal route on the east coast of Malaysia provided high drama. A late flier from Callum Scotson (Mitchelton-BikeExchange) was only caught in the final kilometre while seventh-placed Mekseb Debesay (Dimension Data) crashed out of the race. Adam De Vos (Rally) was kept safe and retains the yellow jersey ahead of the queen stage to Cameron Highlands.

"I had my awesome teammates looking after me, getting me drinks and ice and just riding the front all day. I didn’t have much to do today so I took it easy and tried to recover for tomorrow," De Vos said post-stage.

Having let the breakaway survive to the line Kuala Terengganu the day before, the sprint teams of Astana and Bardiani-CSF, in particular, were keen to resume normal service. In the run to the line, it was neo-pro Minali who proved to have the quicker legs ahead of 'Mr Langkawi' Guardini.

"Today was a sprint with all the riders. There was no climb, no excuse. When I started my sprint I thought I must go the finish line full gas and I do so I am super happy," said Minali, who dedicated his win to Michele Scarponi.

At the half-way mark of the race, De Vos leads Nik Mohd Azwan Zulkiflie (Forca-Amskins) by 14 seconds with Harry Sweeny (Mitchelton-BikeExchange) third at 22 seconds. The remainder of the peloton is over one minute in arrears to De Vos ahead of the queen stage.

With Astana banking two wins already, the pressure is now on Dimension Data to match their WorldTour counterparts but have to do so without last year's winner at Cameron Highlands. Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier Werkilul in 20th position is Dimension Data's best-placed rider overall.

Stage 5 of the Tour de Langkawi is a 169.4km ride from Bentong to Cameron Highlands.

How it unfolded

Following the unsavoury end to stage 3 that resulted in the expulsion of Zhiwen Chen from the race, for fighting, Giant and TSG made peace on the start line in Dungun. The start of the stage would not be as peaceful though with a flurry of attacks from kilometre zero. A number of unsuccessful moves were made before a six-rider group went clear after 10km of racing.

The sextet compromised of Rustom Lim and Arjay Peralta (7/11), Zheng Zhang (Hengxiang), Seungwoo Choi (KSPO), Aiman Cahyadi (Sapura) and Sarawut Sirironnachai (Thailand). By the first sprint point in Paka, they had a lead of two minutes. The lead ballooned out to over five minutes at the sole KOM of the day further south down the coastline where Sarawut took maximum points.

Controlling the peloton was Rally and Bardiani-CSF with the peloton content to let the break sit at five minutes. The gap would begin to fall and by the third and final sprint point, the breakaway had 2:45 minutes. The pace continued to lift in the bunch, while at the head of the race, Sarawut was the first rider to lose contact from the breakaway.

The gap continued to fall with the peloton clearly wanting to avoid the miscalculation of stage 2 that let the breakaway take the win. With the break caught, Callum Scotson decided to take a late flier and held off the bunch to just inside the final kilometre. The crash that ended Mekseb Debesay's race not enough to swing things in Scoston's favour as Minali charged to his second victory of the race.

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