Erlend Blikra (Uno-X Pro Cycling) sprinted to his first professional victory on stage 6 of the Petronas Tour de Langkawi in Alor Setar, hitting the front of the rain soaked stage with 150m to go and managing to hold off the charge behind.
Stage one winner Gleb Syritsa (Astana-Qazaqstan) took second while it was third for Rüdiger Selig (Lotto Soudal) in the 120.4km stage which started off in George Town on the island of Penang
The early break had gone before the riders had even crossed back to Peninsular Malaysia via the Penang Bridge but it was swept up at 9km to go and then the teams of the sprinters started to get organised for the long straight run into the finish line, where Blikra turned his second place of stage 1 into the victory he had been desperately searching for.
“I've been trying every day now and to finally succeed it feels amazing,” Blikra said in the broadcast post race interview. "Today we forget all about yesterday, today we celebrate and we are just really happy.”
The race now heads off to Langkawi for the final two days with Ivan Sosa (Movistar) in the yellow jersey of the race leader. The Colombian stepped into the overall lead after winning on the steep climbs of the Genting Highlands. His nearest rival is Hugh Carthy (EF Education-EasyPost) at 23 seconds back.
How it unfolded
As the race made its way over to George Town start line via the Penang bridge, the rain was falling and the pools of water beginning to form on the road with the early monsoon weather making its presence felt.
It continued as they rolled away from the start line and away from the British colonial buildings which hark back to the locations past as a Strait of Malacca trading hub. The race moved into the high rises of the built up island and back toward the crossing. The break was quick to jump away on Sunday and this time – unlike on stage 5 to Kulim – the field was happy to let them ride away. They already had a gap of 2:30 as they went through the pillars in the middle of the 13.5km Penang bridge for the first intermediate sprint.
Thanakhan Chaiyasombat (Thailand Continental Team) led the break of six through the sprint point. He was joined in the lead group by Kee Zhe Yie (Malaysia), Tiano Da Silva (Pro Touch), Willem Smit (China Glory), Marco Lumanog and Junreck Carcueva (Philippines).
The gap had dropped under two minutes as they continued on the wide wet roads past the towns of the north-western state of Kedah, toward the next sprint point at 25.5km, where top points were taken by Carcueva. Astana Qazaqstan, home to stage 2 sprint winner Gleb Syritsa, seemed keen to keep the gap under control and were working at the front.
Chaiyasombat fell away from the break after a mechanical, dropping the group to five as the rain continued to gently fall, hiding many of the green shoots of the rice fields below pools of water.
At the third and final intermediate sprint at 63.9km it was the 19 year old Malaysian from the state of Terengganu that crossed first, and the time gap to the peloton was sitting at 1:20, with a number of teams chasing at the front and Alpecin-Deceuninck becoming ever more prominent as the race shifted closer to the finish line.
With Lotto Soudal also joining the ranks of the workers up the front the gap continued to drop. It was just 35 seconds with 18km to go and then at 13km to go Smit went solo, but by the time there was 9km remaining all the break riders had been swallowed up. The teams of the sprinters were determined to make it a bunch at the end, after the fast men missed an opportunity to the break on stage 5.
It was a long straight run into the line before riders crossed in front of the Zahir mosque, with just one proper corner to be seen in the last 3km, and at the very start of it. The sprint trains of Alpecin-Deceuninck and Lotto Soudal were prominent in the last two kilometres but Blikra found his way to the first row and pushed the pace to hit the front at around 150m to go. While Syritsa was closing quickly Blikra held him off, reversing the order of the stage 1 top two podium steps.
The victory also meant the Norwegian who is still looking for a contract for next year, moved into green sprinters jersey. There were no mountain classification points up for grabs so red remained with Nur Aiman Zariff (Terengganu Polygon) while his teammate Jambaljamts Sainbayar retained the best Asian rider jersey at the end of stage 6.
The next day of racing on Monday, stage 7, is the penultimate stage of the race and has potential to deliver a reshuffle on the overall as the intense 90.8km stage finishes atop Gunung Raya. Carthy, at 23 seconds back, is the only rider within two minutes of current overall leader Sosa, however the battle for third place is closer. Einer Rubio Reyes (Movistar) is in third at 2:02 but there are five riders within 30 seconds.
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