Tour de Langkawi: Belletti wins stage 7 in Muar

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At the end of a dramatic five hours of racing, Manuel Belletti (Androni) held off his breakaway companion for stage 7 victory at the Tour de Langkawi. The Italian beat Eugert Zhupa (Wilier) and Ruslan Tleubayev (Astana) in the eight-rider sprint at Muar.

Artem Ovechkin (Terengganu) was facing the possibility of losing his race lead after a dramatic opening 100km of racing but recovered his early deficit to arrive in the peloton 1:28 minutes after the breakaway. With one stage to come, he now leads Lukasz Owsian (CCC) with the Pole jumping into second place from 18th via the breakaway.

Ben Dyball (St George) lost his second place overall but holds his podium position as the top-ten was reshuffled. Giuseppe Fonzi (Wilier) and Brendon Davids (Bennelong SwissWellness) also making a major leap up the standings as the breakaway got the better of the peloton for the second time this week.

"For me, it is a big relief to win today after two years, especially after last year when my season was ruined by a salmonella virus," said Belletti off his first win since re-joining Androni. "This year I started in Argentina at the Vuelta San Juan with a great condition but on stage 3 there was a crash and I broke my collarbone and three ribs. To come back from that crash and winning today is a big relief. I hope to continue this way starting from tomorrow when I try to win again."

Belletti, a Giro d'Italia stage winner, rejoined Androni in 2018 ten years after he started as a professional with Gianni Savio's Pro-Continental team.

With just under one minute separating second place to 15th on GC, the final stage of the Tour de Langkawi from Rembau to Kuala Lumpur is expected to be another explosive final. However, overall victory for Ovechkin looks but all assured after he his Terengganu team weathered the storm of stage 7 and are set to make history for Malaysian cycling with the victory. A first for a Malaysian team in the 23 editions of the race.

How it unfolded

Stage 7 of the Tour de Langkawi started in front of the national velodrome in Nilai with 118 riders signing on. At 222.4km, the penultimate stage of the race was the longest of the 23rd edition and one final chance to test Artem Ovechkin's hold on the yellow jersey.

With six categorised climbs inside the opening 100km, the attacks that would eventually blow the peloton to pieces came thick and fast. The first incident with GC ramifications was a fall for Metkel Eyob (TSG) on approach to the intermediate sprint point where Yevgeniy Gidich took important bonus seconds and moved to within three seconds of the podium.

At the first climb in Mantin, Paolo Simion (Bardiani) and Brendon Davids (Bennelong-SwissWellness) made a move and went clear. They were soon brought back as several groups also went clear before being dragged back into the peloton. After the third KOM 50km into the stage, a front group of 36 riders emerged at the head of the race. Yellow jersey Ovechkin, Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier and Gidich the notable absentees.

The front group contained Johann Van Zyl and Jaco Venter (Dimension Data), Ruslan Tleubayev (Astana), Manuel Belletti and Luca Chirico (Androni), Paolo Simion (Bardiani), Lukasz Owsian (CCC), Arley Parra (Manzana-Postobon), Giuseppe Fonzi, Simone Velasco and Eugert Zhupa (Wilier), Davids and Sam Crome (Bennelong), Thomas Lebas and Salvador Guardiola (Kinan), Muhammad Zawawi, Dylan Page and Victor Niño (Sapura), Eyob, Ariya Phounsavath and Peerapol Chawchiangkwang (Thailand CT).

Having made the break, Lebas became the virtual leader on the road and by the halfway mark of the stage, Ovechkin was 2:15 minutes in arrears to the leading group. The Russian with only the injured Eyob for company with the Erirean dropping back to help out.

"It was probably the hardest stage of the tour those climbs were just one after the other just attack after attack … just always big groups going off the front just full gas all day," Dyball, who dropped once place to third overall, told Europort of the stage.

From the chase group, Astana was the team taking up the pace to save Gidich's GC position and had the deficit at 40 seconds with 40km left to race. Sensing a catch, there were attacks from both the lead and chase group that split both. The main peloton though had given up and would roll in almost 15 minutes down on Belletti.

At the head of the race, a ten-rider group of Van Zyl and Venter, Tleubayev, Belletti, Simion, Owsian, Fonzi and Zhupa, Davids and Page had gone clear and had 50 seconds over the chasers with 20km to race. It soon became clear that the breakaway would stay away. The only question being the margin of victory. In the closing kilometres, the attacks continued in the break but it would come back for the spring with Belletti taking the win. The fifth 'Italian job' of the race in seven stages.

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