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| Team's seem to like the rain as it's cooling |
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| Enrico Barbin takes the stage in Muar |
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| The team celebrates |
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| Anthony Giacoppo in 2nd and Filippo Pozzato in 3rd place |
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| The leaders after stage 6 |
MUAR, 27 Feb 2017 : Just like Mekseb Debesay
and Ryan Gibbons in the two previous stages, Italy’s Enrico Barbin opened his
professional account at the 2017 Le Tour de Langkawi as he claimed his first
victory at the age of 26 in Muar. He outsprinted Australia’s Anthony Giacoppo
of IsoWhey Sports Swisswellness and his compatriot Filippo Pozzato from Wilier
Triestina to deliver Bardiani CSF’s first win of the year and their first stage
victory at LTdL since Marco Canola won solo in Kuantan in 2012.
The Italian squad managed by the
Reverberis, father and son, is the oldest participant to LTdL, having made
their first appearance as Scrigno in 1998 with five stage wins that year
including the first ever as a pro for Alessandro Petacchi. Their organization
is also the most successful in terms of stage victories in the history of the
Malaysian premier stage race as Barbin bagged their 35th while
Gianni Savio’s team now called Androni is second on the tally with 24, followed
by the currently named Wilier Triestina outfit with 16.
“It’s an honour for me to become
part of this history”, Barbin declared. “I was feeling well and my whole team
too [his team-mate Lorenzo Rota was up the road for most of the stage along
with Colombia’s Wilmar Paredes and Hong Kong’s Ronald Yeung who was awarded the
daily prize of most combative rider]. I’m not fast enough to beat the fastest
sprinters here but I took advantage of them. Through the radio, we had perfect
explanation of the finale and where the wind was blowing from so it was a
question of getting the best position over the bridge and anticipate the sprint
with 300 metres to go.”
“We were working for [stage 3
winner Jakub] Mareczko”, Pozzato explained. “But Unitedhealthcare attacked in
the wind after the bridge. Kuba followed them but it was a bit far away from
the line. Barbin has been smart accelerating from behind. I went after him but
I got blocked for a little while and when I resumed my sprint with no speed it
was too difficult and too late.”
As much as Pozzato replaced
Mareczko due to sprinting circumstances, Giacoppo found himself as a substitute
for Scott Sunderland. “We were going for Scott”, the Western Australian said,
“but he got caught out of position in the last corner so I went myself. When we
caught Mareczko, I hesitated a bit. Maybe I should have kept going.”
“Safety first was at the back of
my mind but I definitely wanted to be in the sprint”, commented Gibbons who
retained the yellow jersey.
“Going over the bridge when we
turned right, we were behind Unitedhealthcare but we lost the wheels and four
of their riders and Mareczko got away. I spent all my energy trying to close
the gap because I didn’t want to lose any time on the UHC rider who is high on
GC [Daniel Jaramillo]. I brought the peloton with me but when the proper sprint
started I already made my effort so I just focused on not crashing.”
“Today was the first day in the
Tour that I wasn’t at 100%. Normally I feel good racing in the rain but I only
found my legs in the third hour. Maybe the rain was a little factor. There was
no real stress though. I see two more sprint opportunities. It would be really
good to bring the yellow jersey home.” He concluded.
Stage
7 from the historical city of Melaka to Rembau will be 148km long with three
climbs in the finale.
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