February 28/14 11:02 am - Tour de Langkawi: Stages 1 and 2

Posted by Editoress on 02/28/14
 

Stage 1

Duber Quintero not only had a perfect debut for his team and himself, but also bagged a significant piece of personal history with his first ever win as a professional when he launched a solo attack to win Stage One of Le Tour de Langkawi 2014 in Langkawi Thursday.

The 23-year old Team Colombia rider was part of an early breakaway that saw four riders make it to the finish over a minute ahead of the peloton in what was the least expected outcome for the short 101.1km stage around Langkawi Island today.

Quintero was with United Healthcare's Jonathan Clarke, Synergy Baku's Irish champion Matt Brammeier and OCBC Singapore's Goh Choon Huat in the break that went away after just two kilometres Terengganu Cycling Team's Saiful Anuar Abdul Aziz was initially part of the breakaway, but dropped back with about 30km to go.

This eventually saw Quintero take both the yellow jersey for the general classification lead and the blue jersey as the points classification leader, while Brammeier took the red jersey as the mountains classification leader.

Goh, 24, became the first ever Singaporean to lead a classification in LTdL when he finished fourth to assume the lead in the Asian riders' classification.

Quintero said he had decided to make the solo attempt in the final kilometre of the stage, and that saw Brammeier trailing to finish second, 22 seconds adrift of the young Colombian, while Clarke finished third. The main peloton finished one minute and 37 second behind the leading quartet with Andrea Guardini of Astana beating Anuar Manan of Terengganu Cycling Team in the bunch sprint for fifth spot.

"This is my second year as a professional. I only turned pro last year and this is my first victory as a professional, so this makes this race even more memorable for me already," said Quintero.

"I have heard about this race before but this is my first time here and from the moment I arrived I have liked this place. I like the people, they are very friendly and the temperature is exactly like where I come from, so I wouldn't mind coming back here for a holiday.

"My style of riding is usually to go on a lot of attacks, but I have not tasted victory until today. We were quite strong in the breakaway and we could keep up the pace and built a decent gap. With one kilometre to go, I felt that I had enough energy to have a go and I decided to try and I managed to drop the others and go for the win.

"I am usually a rider for the flat stages, but we have come here with a strong team and our target is definitely the overall title. We will see how it goes, maybe I can climb to try and defend the jersey when we get to the mountain."

Brammeier was going strong in the early part of the race, when he swept both categorised climbs to take the mountains jersey but suffered a bit of cramps towards the end of the stage.

"I have always struggled with cramps and today towards the end I was feeling it a little, but I tried my best not to show the others. I'm still glad that I got this jersey and we'll try our best to keep it," said Brammeier.

Goh said he now aims to finish on the podium after claiming his bit of personal history.

"I'm happy with my performance today, especially racing with the big boys and to get the jersey. Personally I feel my form is quite good, so I will try to finish on the podium," said Goh.

Stage 2

Theo Bos got his first victory of the season after an incident packed final kilometre in Stage Two of Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) 2014 from Sungai Petani to Taiping today.

In fact it was a one-two finish for the Belkin Pro Cycling Team with Dutch rider Bos leading Australian teammate Greame Brown across the finish line, leaving a lot of carnage behind them as the peloton suffered a few casualties in the twisty and winding roads leading to the finish.

"As I had seen the profile of the finish before we started today, I knew it would not be a straight road but I didn't expect there to be so many corners. Anyway, that suited us. So, I told my team that we need to stay in front early to stay out of trouble," said Bos, 30, who won two stages in last year's edition of the race.

There were a few crashes in the final kilometre as the peloton weaved through the corners, with no less than six riders seen receiving treatment on the ambulance after the finish.

"When we were in front my focus was on the road ahead, but of course I could hear the crashes happening behind me. I contemplated letting Greame take the win, but I was still on zero wins, so I made a decision to take it."

The yellow jersey remained with Stage 1 winner Duber Quintero of Colombia, who has a 22 seconds lead over Jonathan Clarke of United Healthcare.

"It was a quiet day for me today," said Quintero. "There was a breakaway that went with some good riders, so we kept the gap at 4 to 5 minutes and then nearer the finish the teams with sprinters took over. I just had to stay safe and avoid the crashes that happened near the finish, so it was a very quiet day for me."

Results for the first 2 days of Le Tour de Langkawi in Malaysia