Jakub Mareczko makes it two in Rembau

An emotional finish for Jakub, his second time winning in Rembau

TEAL jersey goes to Jakub Mareczko

REMBAU, 28 February 2017 : Tipped as the hot favourites for the bunch sprint finishes this year, Italy’s Jakub Mareczko of Wilier Triestina became the first rider to win two stages at this year’s Le Tour de Langkawi as claimed stage 6 to Rembau after he opened his season’s account in Pantai Remis on day 3.

He’s unbeaten in Rembau where he took his first ever Malaysian success one year ago and therefore announced himself for filling the shoes of Andrea Guardini who holds the record of stage victories with 22. Also a diminutive sprinter, Mareczko moved into the lead of the points competition while Ryan Gibbons, fifth on the line, retained the yellow jersey.

“I put my team at the front in the final kilometers with [Filippo] Pozzato, [Alberto] Cecchin and [Rafael] Andriato to lead me out”, Mareczko explained. “There was a curve with 400 metres to go.

Cecchin took it in first position. After Andriato’s last pull, I opened my sprint. It feels very good to get a second stage win. I’m very happy today. After winning a stage, my goal this year was to get the points jersey. Now I have it and I hope to defend it tomorrow by trying to get another first place. I’m hoping for a sunny day to conclude Le Tour de Langkawi after the pouring rain we’ve had today.”

“My priority was to retain the yellow jersey”, echoed Gibbons. “It was nice to have the teal as well but Mareczko is a top quality rider. He’s fast! I’m not too disappointed. I’m happy for him but I hope I’ll get it back tomorrow. I was feeling very good today, also under the rain. I was cautious on the wet. It was easy to go down. Just stay upright and out of trouble, that was my concern. Tomorrow’s stage is short.

It’s going to be very aggressive. But we’re ready for it. I’m so thankful for the help I got from my team-mates. There’s one more day. I’m strongly hoping that I’ll be in yellow in Putrajaya as well.”

Veteran WorldTour rider Greg Henderson of Unitedhealthcare was awarded the combativity prize of the day after being the driving force behind the main breakaway of the day with Jacopo Mosca (Wilier Triestina), Huang En (Keyi Look), Dominic Perez (7/11) and escape artist Loh Sea Keong (Thailand Continental Team).

The conclusive stage of the 22^nd Le Tour de Langkawi will be 121km long from Setiawangsa (Kuala Lumpur) to Putrajaya.

Ryan Gibbons, the breakthrough

Ryan's first professional win, happened in Kuala Kubu Bharu

Loads of hugs are in order

The podium for Stage 5

Ryan also took the Teal Jersey from Travis McCabe

KUALA KUBU BHARU : Race leader Ryan Gibbons of Dimension Data claimed his first pro victory at the end of stage 5 of the 22^nd Le Tour de Langkawi in Kuala Kubu Baru where he outsprinted stage 3 winner Jakub Mareczko and stage 2 winner Travis McCabe. The 22 year old South African also increased his lead in the overall ranking from 11 to 23 seconds over Australia’s Cameron Bayly as he also collected two seconds bonus on the way.

“Getting second on stage 1, that was a sense of achievement but today my first pro win is more a relief than anything else and I’m just so happy to finally get a win for the team and also for myself”, Gibbons commented.

“This result will stay for the rest of my career. On a good day on a flat road, I can win a bunch sprint but today with a bit of a drag and the road surface being bricks, it suited me a bit more but moreover my team put me in a perfect position. I would have been hard not to win. I’m really grateful for their help.”

“I wasn’t targeting the intermediate sprints”, the race leader continued. “It was more riding defensively. Every time with 1km to the sprint we so IsoWhey moving up. They had the teal jersey with Sunderland but Bayly was also up there so I had just had to make sure I’d finish in front of him. I’ve managed to pick up four points and two seconds. It was mainly watching the guys on GC, not worrying too much and not attacking them. The teal jersey is a great award but my focus for now is the yellow jersey. If it happens that I can win it as well, I’ll be grateful though.”

The whole stage was marked by one breakaway only. After fifty kilometers covered at a very high speed, Italy’s Fausto Masnada rode away, got a maximum advantage of 3.50 and sat up after the last intermediate sprint with just over 20km to go as the bunch was certainly going to reel him in.

“We wanted to ride offensively today since yesterday it didn’t go that well for us”, the Androni Giocattoli rider said the day his team manager Gianni Savio attended Le Tour de Langkawi. “We expected something more [the yellow jersey with Egan Bernal]. We started today with the idea to break away. After 50km, seeing that big groups weren’t going anywhere, I tried by himself, hoping that I’d get some help but nobody followed so I continued on my own. I never got bored. I’m happy I did it. I also came here looking for a good shape ahead of the races in Italy, so it’s been a good day.”

Stage 6 from Senawang to Muar will be 176.3km long with three climbs to start with in the first 45km

Jakub Mareczko avenges Filippo Pozzato in stage 3

The riders starts form Serdang

Jakub Mareczko takes the win at Pantai Remis

Scott Sunderland of UnitedHealthcare came 2nd while TSG's Zamri Saleh came 3rd

Leaders after stage 3

PANTAI REMIS : Jakub “Kuba” Mareczko gave Wilier Triestina their first victory of the 2017 season in stage 3 of Le Tour de Langkawi at Pantai Remis the day after his team-mate Filippo Pozzato came close. The diminutive Italian outsprinted stage 1 winner Scott Sunderland who moved into the lead of the points classification whereas Ryan Gibbons of South Africa retained the yellow jersey ahead of the queen stage to the Cameron Highlands.

“Finally I broke the ice”, Mareczko commented. “The whole team was dedicated to bring me to victory. I’m grateful to my team-mates for that. Pozzato, [Alberto] Cecchin and [Rafael] Andriato dragged me to the first positions of the peloton and I could launch my sprint with 400 metres to go.”

Tipped for being the “new Andrea Guardini” [in reference to the 22-time stage winner at LTdL], Mareczko won by a length of a bike over Sunderland. “It was difficult with a lot of people moving up all the time ahead of the sprint as everyone was fresh”, the Australian explained. “I’ve started my sprint from a long way back as I was out of position. I came from 25^th wheel at 300m to go while he [Mareczko] was third wheel with 200m to go. His team here is built around him while mine has four guys out of six who are strong in the climbs. They have to protect themselves for GC so I have to ride solo and use other teams.”

Dimension Data did most of the pace at the helm of the peloton behind escape artist Loh Sea Keong (Thailand Continental Team) who was accompanied by Stepan Astafyev (Vino Astana Motors) and Dominic Perez (7/11) with a maximum lead of five minutes.

“In the last two kilometers, I nearly fell about three times”, race leader Gibbons informed. “So my head wasn’t in it. About 200 metres to go, I tried to come out and I just went backwards. Hopefully I can find my head again for the upcoming stages. My team rode all day because they had a lot of faith in me and I was confident in myself. Jacques Janse van Rensburg sat at the front of the peloton by himself for 90 kilometres. I’m sorry to have let the team down. It just wasn’t my day.”

Gibbons added that, being realistic, he expects stage 4 to be his final day in the yellow jersey as his team-mates Mekseb Debesay from Eritrea and Ben O’Connor from Australia will take the team’s leadership over from him. Colombians are set to fill the shoes of their compatriot Miguel Angel “Superman” Lopez who was a brilliant stage winner in the Cameron Highlands one year ago.

TOP RIDERS READY TO STRIKE

Filippo Pozzato of Wilier Triestina

Jakub Mareczko of Wilier Triestina

Jacques Janse Van Rensburg from Dimension Data

Egan Bernal from Androni

Anuar Manan TSG looking good for stage wins

KUALA TERENGGANU, Tuesday, 21 February 2017 : Cycling superstar Filippo Pozzato and up and coming sprinter Jakub Mareczko (Willier Triestina), GC contender Jacques Janse van Rensburg (Dimension Data), Colombian prodigy Egan Bernal (Androni Giocattoli) and local hero Anuar Manan (Terengganu TSG) attended the top riders pre-race press conference in Kuala Terengganu ahead of the 22^nd edition of Le Tour de Langkawi due to start in Kuala Berang on Wednesday 22 February.

Anuar Manan: “We’ve been training and taking part in local criteriums for six weeks in Australia under our new coach Jeremy Hunt who’s been a Team Sky rider. The condition is good but other teams have also prepared LTdL very seriously. For the next LTdL, some young Malaysian riders have a good potential for performing but for now, it’s still up to me and my team-mates.”

Jakub Mareczko: “There are many good sprinters on the start line, mostly from Italy with Nicolas Marini from Nippo-Vini Fantini, Marco Benfatto and Andrea Palini of Androni Giocattoli. I also know Scott Sunderland from Australia for racing him in China before. I’ll try to repeat the stage victory I got here last year. We have a strong team for that with Rafael Andriato and Filippo Pozzato to lead me out in the finales.”

Filippo Pozzato: “I’ve wanted to do Le Tour de Langkawi many times but I was always doing Tirreno-Adriatico. Since our team hasn’t been invited to Tirreno-Adriatico, I took the opportunity to come here after the Tour of Oman to get a good condition for Milan-Sanremo. I’d like to go for a stage win myself but we also have a great team to lead Mareczko out in the bunch sprints.”

Jacques Janse van Rensburg: “This is my seventh time taking part in Le Tour de Langkawi. There’s always a nice atmosphere for racing here. We came with an all rounded team for sprinting and riding for GC, which seems to work for our team as we won this race in the past two years. We have an all African team, except from Ben O’Connor who is an Australian. I hope to be able to fight for GC. Cameron Highlands is always a tough climb at the end and that’s where the GC should be decided.”

Egan Bernal: “I’ve trained a lot ahead of this season and I started racing in Argentina with the Vuelta a San Juan. I felt good there, so I want to do well at Le Tour de Langkawi. It’s a good race for me and an important event in my career. Many Colombians have made their fame over here. I’m still very young. I don’t have enough experience yet to be able to tell where and when I’ll be a winner. I want to learn first. I’ve been told that Cameron Highlands isn’t a too hard climb. I hope it’ll be a good one for me.”

Organised by the Ministry of Youth and Sports Malaysia and managed by Ciclista Sports Sdn Bhd, the 22nd edition of Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) from 22 February to 1 March, 2017 is set to cover more than 1,200km over 8 stages, the UCI 2.HC (hors category) race featuring again as one of the biggest events on the UCI Asia Tour calendar.