Tour de Langkawi: Fedorov beats the sprinters on stage 1

At the age of only 19, Kazakhstani Yevgeni Fedorov claimed his first international victory at the 25th Le Tour de Langkawi in Kuching. He outsprinted his breakaway companion Thurakit Boonrathanathanakorn from the Thailand Continental Team.

 “This is a big win for myself and for my team,” said the rider from the Vino Astana Motors squad. “I didn’t expect to win today. It’s a big surprise but I wanted to take my chance. The Thai rider rejoined me and we rode flat out until the finish and I’m very happy to be first on the line.”

Fedorov already showed himself as a very motivated attacker during the inaugural criterium in Kota Kinabalu the day before. He rode away from the bunch again as early as 27km of stage 1 despite the rhythm of the peloton being over 47km/h. Boonrathanathanakorn made the junction quickly to form a leading duo that the peloton didn’t take seriously.

Following the bunch sprint victory of Max Walscheid in the criterium, many teams expected NTT Pro Cycling to close the gap but the WorldTour outfit opted to not use all of their resources on stage 1 considering that they also have GC ambitions with Louis Meintjes and Samuele Battistella, and they can’t ask Japanese national champion Shotaro Iribe to do most of the work in a six-man team.

The time difference went up to 5:30 and it was still at four minutes with 40km to go, with the last part of the stage contested on a technical circuit in the streets of Kuching. Fedorov looked stronger than Boonrathanathanakorn. He logically outsprinted his companion on the Padang Merdeka (Independence Field) of Kuching to take a maiden international victory before turning 20 years old the day after the end of Le Tour de Langkawi.

“It’s still a great result for our team,” the 30-year-old Thai declared. “We have performed at category 1 and 2 levels in the past but this is a Pro Series race. It’s huge for us. And we have more ambitions with our climbers for the general classification.”

Franco-Laotian rider Alex Ariya Phounsavath came fresh off winning the Cambodia Bay Cycling Tour. He looks forward to the ascent to Genting Highlands where Tour de France star riders Louis Meintjes and Pierre Rolland are set to clash. But Kevin Rivera (Androni Giocatolli-Sidermec) who was tipped as one of their challengers for the overall win started Le Tour de Langkawi with a bit of sickness and lost a significant amount of time in stage 1.

Unaware of the existence of two breakaway riders, Ahmet Örken (Sapura) raised his hands up in the air as he crossed the line as the first place of the peloton.

“I’m still happy with third, it feels good to win a bunch sprint for my first race ever with a non-Turkish team,” he said before learning that his team would be fined heavily for not having prepared a national champion jersey for him.

Stage 2 of Le Tour de Langkawi will be held from Kuala Terengganu, the hotbed of Malaysian cycling, to Kerteh near the refinery of race title sponsor Petronas after a plane transfer from the Borneo Island to peninsular Malaysia.

Results

General classification