SEO FINALLY SOLOS TO GLORY IN KUANTAN

The peloton passes the beautiful east coast state of Terengganu 

Seo Joon Yong (KSPO) takes a solo win at Kuantan

Pegasus's Jamalidin Noverdianto in 2nd while TSG's Adiq Husainie in 3rd place

KUANTAN, Thursday 12th March 2015 - Seo Joon Yong slayed the ghost of two years ago as he finally rose to the top step of the podium with his first ever stage after a solo attempt to take victory in Stage 5 of Le Tour de Langkawi 2015, at 200km the longest stage of this year's race from Kuala Terengganu to Kuantan today.

The 27-year old was part of a group of eight riders that launched an attack at 60km into the stage and went all the way with an uninterested peloton just managing to cut a gap that expanded to over 18 minutes at one point to 5 minutes and 20s at the finish line, as Seo rode solo for the last 25km to finish 13s ahead of second placed Jamalidin Novardianto of Pegasus Cycling, who ousprinted TSG's Adiq Husainie Othman to take second place.

Seo was only the second South Korean to win a stage in LTdL and the 11th Asian, as he stated his pride in finally winning.

Seo, Jamalidin and Adiq had earlier been joined by Malaysia's Loh Sea Keong, Pegasus' Rastra Patria, Colombia's Juan Sebastian Molano Benevides and Skydive Dubai's Maher Hasnaoui in the breakaway, but the South Korean's solo attack had left the others surprised and unable to react until it was too late.

"Two years ago in Kuantan, it was also a breakaway, but I lost in a sprint (to Colnago-CSF Inox's Marco Canola). So this time I didn't want that to happen again and I didn't want to let it end the same way. Thus at 25km to go, I decided to launch an early attack to try and win on my own," said Seo.

"I am proud of this win because it was hard-earned. Every year I come to LTdL and I try to do something. This time I managed to win a stage."

Orica-GreenEdge's Caleb Ewan remained in the yellow jersey, as he admitted it was always going to be a breakaway win today.

"When the breakaway went, we thought it would be okay. We could take a break and see how it goes after four days of hard racing in the heat. For us, it was okay and we thought that if others want to give it a go and catch the breakaway then go for a bunch sprint, we would join in and help, but nobody looked interested," said Ewan, who also remains in the points classification lead.

United Healthcare's Kiel Reijnen also stayed in the lead of the mountains classification with a lead of 37 points, 19 more than second placed Natnael Berhane of MTN-Qhubeka. Giant-Champion System's Zhang Wen Long also remains the leading Asian rider in the race.

Stage Six tomorrow is the shortest stage of the race at 96.6km, which will be expected to finish in another bunch sprint.

SECOND STRAIGHT WIN AND RECORD STRETCHED TO 16 AS GUARDINI BOMBS SUNGAI PETAN

Andrea takes the second stage of LTdL 2015

16 wins so far, more to come?

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.