Arvid de Kleijn (Tudor Pro Cycling) doubled up on wins at the Tour de Langkawi after a perfect leadout by teammate Maikel Zijlaard, holding off Sasha Weemaes (Human Powered Health) in second on stage 6 into Melaka.
The Dutchman hit the wind first, allowing Weemaes to pull alongside his back wheel, but De Kleijn held his speed to the line, with Gleb Syritsa (Astana Qazaqstan) closing quickly behind for third.
De Kleijn extended his lead in the orange points jersey classification despite not wearing it on stage 6, and there were no changes in the overall classification as Simon Carr (EF Education-EasyPost) arrived safely at the finish with his 49-second lead in GC intact.
“I think everybody saw it was a super nice team effort," said De Kleijn. “We were struggling a bit to hit the front, but at the right time we got there and with a leadout like this it’s amazing and I could finish it off.
“I had maybe one acceleration left and it was a bit headwind so knew I couldn't go full from the beginning and at the end, he [Weemaes] came a little next to me and then kind of went back so I think I had it under control.”
This is De Kleijn’s sixth win of the season, all at the ProSeries level, and the 29-year-old could finish with a haul of four stages with the two remaining stages having flat routes. He’s set to finish his season in China at the WorldTour level Tour of Guangxi which starts on October 12.
James Moultrie is a gold-standard NCTJ journalist who joined Cyclingnews as a News Writer in 2023 after originally contributing as a freelancer for eight months, during which time he also wrote for Eurosport, Rouleur and Cycling Weekly. Prior to joining the team he reported on races such as Paris-Roubaix and the Giro d’Italia Donne for Eurosport and has interviewed some of the sport’s top riders in Chloé Dygert, Lizzie Deignan and Wout van Aert. Outside of cycling, he spends the majority of his time watching other sports – rugby, football, cricket, and American Football to name a few.
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