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| Andrea takes the second stage of LTdL 2015 |
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| 16 wins so far, more to come? |
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| Adiq Husainie of TSG leads in the Best Asian Rider competition |
SUNGAI PETANI, Monday 9th March 2015 - Astana's Andrea Guardini registered an emphatic second
straight win in a bunch sprint to take Stage 2 of Le Tour de Langkawi 2015 from
Alor Star to Sungai Petani today after the Italian edged Orica GrenEdge's Caleb
Ewan to the win again.
The victory meant Guardini, 27, increased his record number of
victories in LTdL to 16 as he mounts yet another multiple assault on stage wins
in the race that has become synonymous with his name.
After a breakaway of six riders highlighted the day, with Malaysia's
Loh Sea Keong, brothers Adiq Husainie Othman of TSG and Afiq Huznie Othman of
NSC, Hengxiang's Liu Jianpeng, Synergy Baku's Elchin Asadov and Pegasus' Rastra
Patria having a go at victory, it was Guardini who rose above the rest to
confirm his early season winning form was no fluke with what was also his third
stage win of the year.
After the breakaway swept all intermediate points on offer after the
first intermediate sprint of the day at kilometre 14 in Pokok Sena, the peloton
moved to reel them back with 20km to go and though Sea Keong and Asadov made a
last ditch attempt at a duet to the finish, but were swept up by a surging
peloton with 6km to go.
In the final sprint Guardini made the first move as Ewan tagged along
but the Australian was no match for the Italian again, with Southeast's Jakub
Mareczko taking third spot, sloghtly ahead of TSG's Harrif Saleh.
"I think Ewan is strong but maybe in this first two stages it
didn't suit him. Tomorrow is a tough stage with a climb in the earlier part and
he has a strong team to bring him up and go for the finish, so maybe tomorrow
will be a good day for him," said Guardini.
"Our team had to work hard to catch the breakaway today and we
were only helped by the other teams in the final 20km, but then we had a good
sprinter. This time I had to make the move on my own and went to the front
first, but I had good form and managed to stay ahead."
Guardini remains in the yellow jersey and blue jersey as leader of the
overall and points classification respectively, while United Healthcare's Kiel
Reijnen remained in the lead of the mountains classification.
Adiq Husainie, with time bonuses from the second and third
intermediate sprints today, overcame his one second deficit to Hengxiang's Ma
Guangtong and now leads the Asian riders' classification by two seconds.
"That was our strategy today and after I had got enough time
bonuses to take the jersey, I went to my team car and my director instructed me
to drop back to the peloton because tomorrow we have a hard stage with the
climb up Titiwangsa, so I needed to save my legs for that," said Adiq
Husainie.
"I plan to keep this jersey for as long as I can. At least until
the race passes our home state of Terengganu."
Stage 3 tomorrow will cover 170kkm from Gerik to Tanah Merah.
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