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| Win number 2 for Ewan at Karak |
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| The stage 6 winners |
KARAK, Friday 13th March 2015 - Orica GreenEdge's Caleb Ewan took his second stage win in Le
Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) 2015 in a bunch sprint in Stage 6 from Kuantan to Karak
today.
Ewan, 21, beat Team Southeast's Jakub Mareczko to the win as favourite
Andrea Guardini faltered to finish fifth on the day, not adding to his record
17 stage wins as predicted by many before the start of the 96.6km stage, the
shortest of this year's race.
The stage saw a four-man breakaway escape from the peloton and were
caught with 20km to go as Guardini's Astana team launched a chase.
The sprint was set-up for Guardini, but he slipped down and only
managed to sprint to fifth, as Ewan registered his second win of the year in
his first race outside of Australia as a pro.
"It was a good sprint and my team led me out well. I was in a
good position to make the jump and I just went for it. I was looking out for
Guardini, but then I saw he had some trouble and wasn't coming up, so I just
gave it my all," said Ewan, who also won Stage Three from Gerik to Tanah
Merah on Tuesday.
Ewan's win meant he also retained the overall lead and the points
classification lead, which he will have to defend in the tough Stage 7 from
Shah Alam to Frasers Hill tomorrow.
"I can climb a bit on my day, biut I'm not a really good climber.
I'll see how it goes, but for sure I will fight to keep the yellow jersey all
the way," said Ewan.
Ewan also stated his intention of keeping both the yellow and blue
jerseys until the end in Dataran Merdeka on Sunday, while United Healthcare's Kiel
Reijnen looks in a comfortable position to confirm his king of the mountains
jersey win with a big points gap between second placed Natnael Berhane of
MTN-Qhubeka and himself in the mountains classification.
There will be a mouthwatering seven-way battle for the Asian riders'
classification in Stage 7 tomorrow with leader Zhang Wen Long of Giant-Champion
System holding on to a slim lead with the top seven riders only separated by
two seconds.
Second placed Liu Jianpeng of Hengxiang is level on time with Zhang,
with third placed Robin Manullang of Pegasus just a second behind, fourth
placed Tomohiro Hayakawa of Aisan Racing Team, fifth placed Andrey Zeits of
Astana, sixth placed Chelly Aristya and seventh placed Dadi Suryadi, both of
Pegasus, are all just 2 seconds off Zhang's lead.
Stage 7 will feature three tough climbs at Bukit
Cherakah, Genting Sempah and the finish at Frasers Hill in a 170km route that
will likely decide the 20th winner of LTdL
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