March 03, 2014 (Langkawi, Malaysia) – The Tour de Langkawi continued in Malaysia. As the tour began its second week, Iran’s Mirsamad Pourseyedigolakhour (IrI) Tabriz Petrochemical Team held onto the yellow leader’s jersey, while Canada’s Antoine Duchesne (Can) Team Europcar sits 71st overall in the GC. The Tour de Langkawi runs through March 8.

Stage 3 – Kampar-Kuala Lumpur – 166.5km
Andrea Guardini won Stage 3 of Le Tour de Langkawi 2014 (LTdL) covering 166.5km from Kampar to Kuala Lumpur today to extend his stage wins record to 13 along with his and his Astana team’s first victory of the season.

With his emotions slightly effected after carrying a slight injury sustained in a crash that took out multiple riders at the end of Stage Two in Taiping yesterday, Tregnago, Italy-born Guardini, 24, managed to overcome the pain to show just how strong he was in a dominant win in the bunch sprint that ended today’s stage.

“I was feeling a bit of pain in the beginning of the stage and I was even thinking about abandoning. Then after two hours it felt better and I was more comfortable. In the final 15 kilometres I told my team to prepare because I felt I could sprint,” said Guardini.

“I am quite familiar with the roads in into Dataran Merdeka, so I was confident of doing well. I am happy to have registered my first win of the season here.”

Team Colombia’s Duber Quintero finished in the peloton to maintain his grip on the yellow jersey ahead of the grueling climb up Genting Highlands tomorrow. He starts 19 seconds ahead of second placed Matt Brammeier, who was part of a five-man breakaway and added the blue jersey as the points classification leader to his red jersey as the mountains classification leader which he claimed after Stage 1 in Langkawi.

“I am normally better on the smaller climbs, but tomorrow will be a big climb to Genting. I will try to maintain this lead. In any case I have a strong team here and we should be aiming to do well in the general classification and tomorrow is the day,” said Quintero.

“Among the contenders will be Esteban Chavez of Orica-GreenEDGE and Isaac Bolivar of United Healthcare, but other teams have some very good climbers as well. I will try to compete with them,” added the 23-year old Quintero.

The white jersey as the leading Asian rider remained with OCBC Singapore’s Goh Choon Huat, who vowed to retain the jersey in the Genting Highlands stage tomorrow.

Full Stage 3 results here.

Stage 4 – Subung-Genting Highlands Summit – 110.9km
Iran’s Mirsamad Pourseyedigolakhour of the Tabriz Petrochemical Team created history today when he upstaged the whole field of favorites to emerge as the first Asian rider to win Le Tour de Langkawi’s (LTdL) queen stage – the grueling Stage Four from Subang to the summit of Genting Highlands.

The 29-year old Pourseyedigolakhour came from behind to take the memorable victory, after being left behind when a 35-man breakaway containing many of the contenders for the stage escaped at about 10 kilometres into the stage.

Pourseyedigolakhour, who is also remembered in Malaysia for finishing second overall in the Tour of Borneo in Sabah last year, began to claw his way back into contention in the final 10 kilometres of the stage, combining with another surprise package – MTN-Qhubeka’s Eritrean rider Merhawi Kudus – to work his way past all of the riders who’d left them behind in the breakaway.

The pair passed the last of the lead group – the Colombian pair of United Healthcare’s Isaac Bolivar and Orica-GreenEDGE’s Esteban Chaves – in the final kilometre and Pourseyedigolakhour had enough to pull away to regiser the historic victory and take charge of the yellow jersey as the new overall leader with an eight seconds advantage over Kudus.

“I am very happy to have achieved this win, especially since this is the most important stage of this race. Also no Asian rider has ever won this stage before, so this makes me very proud,” said Pourseyedigolakhour, who also leads the Asian riders’ classification.

“In my country we have a lot of mountains which are ideal for us to train and improve our climbing. So to prepare for this race we had worked really hard in Iran. Now our aim is to keep the jersey until the end. I think we have a strong team with experienced riders, so we are confident of being able to protect the lead in the coming six stages.”

While Pourseyedigolakhour took charge of the overall and Asian riders’ classifications, Ireland’s Matt Brammeier of the Synergy Baku Cycling Project made it a memorable day for UCI Continental Teams by remaining in the lead of both the points and mountains classifications, having built a sufficient lead in the minor climbs and intermediate sprints ahead of yesterday’s stage to protect his leads despite only finishing 116th in the stage.

LTdL continues with Stage 5 today, which takes the peloton through a winding and undulating route covering 134.5km from Karak to Rembau.

Full Stage 4 results here.

Stage 5 – Karak-Rembau – 139.5km
United Healthcare Pro Cycling got their first win of the season through their most unlikely source of Bradley White, who beat OCBC Singapore’s Thomas Rabou in a two-man sprint for the finish to take Stage Five of Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) covering 139.5km from Karak to Rembau today.

The pair had joined MTN-Qhubeka’s Louis Meintjes on a three-man breakaway midway through the stage as they left behind Synergy-Baku’s Elchin Asadov, Androni-Venezuela’s Alessio Taliani and Aisan Racing Team’s Yoshimatsu Hiratsuka, who’d started the breakaway with them after just three kilometres.

The breakaway opened up a six-minute gap on the peloton, manned by the Tabriz Petrochemical Team of overall leader Mirsamad Pourseyedigolakhour and with Meintjes just three minutes down on the Iranian in the general classification that would have meant the yellow jersey could have changed hands.

But the Tabriz Petrochemical Team did just enough to claw back and closed the gap to 1 minute and 19 seconds at the finish line for Pourseyedigolakhour to remain in the lead, but Meintjes took third place on the stage, just behind White and Rabou, to move up to 10th in the general classification at 1 minute and 41 seconds behind Pourseyedigolakhour.

White, 32, was happy with his win, especially since he was a last-minute replacement on United Healthcare’s squad for LTdL and doesn’t normally get a chance to register wins.

“I’m normally used by the team for criteriums and even then I’m just as a lead-out man for our sprinters, so I don’t normally get the opportunities to go for wins,” said White.

“I’d also gone on breakaways three days in a row so, as they say, you get third time lucky. I was on the break in Stage 3 and was caught in the final kilometre to the finish in Kuala Lumpur, then yesterday in the Genting stage I was on the break again. Today, as we opened up the gap and went further and further, we started to think this would really work and in the end I saw the line and just had to sprint for it.

“Any win, no matter how big or small the race is, for me is sweet. So, to be able to win a stage here is especially a good feeling.”

Rabou was quite disappointed with his second place finish despite moving into the points classification lead, although he is tied on 40 points with Synergy Baku’s Matt Brammeier.

“I rarely get an opportunity to be in a position to win a race, so today with the break happening and to come so close to winning and then losing it at the last moment like that is a disappointment,” said Rabou.

Pourseyedigolakhour said he wasn’t too worried about losing the overall lead despite Meintjes posing a big threat with the breakaway opening up a six minutes gap for a long period during the stage.

“We have a strong team and I am confident we will be able to control the race and keep the yellow jersey until the finish in Terengganu,” said Pourseyedigolakhour.

LTdL 2014 continues tomorrow with a long 199.1km Stage 6 from Melaka to Pontian, which will be followed by the race’s longest stage of 230.1km for Stage 7 on Wednesday.

Results

Stage 5
1.     Bradley White (USA) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team     3:03:28
2.     Thomas Rabou (Ned) OCBC Singapore Continental Cycling Team
3.     Louis Meintjes (RSA) MTN – Qhubeka     0:00:04
4.     Michal Kolár (Svk) Tinkoff-Saxo     0:01:15
5.     Dene Thomas Rogers (NZl) OCBC Singapore Continental Cycling Team
6.     Omar Bertazzo (Ita) Androni Giocattoli
7.     Kenny Robert Van Hummel (Ned) Androni Giocattoli
8.     Youcef Reguigui (Alg) MTN – Qhubeka
9.     Alexander Porsev (Rus) Team Katusha
10.     Daniel Klemme (Ger) Synergy Baku Cycling Project

54.     Antoine Duchesne (Can) Team Europcar

GC after Stage 5
1.     Mirsamad Pourseyedigolakhour (IRI) Tabriz Petrochemical Team     15:14:04
2.     Merhawi Kudus (Eri) MTN – Qhubeka     0:00:08
3.     Isaac Bolivar Hernandez (Col) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team     0:00:11
4.     Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica GreenEdge     0:00:20
5.     Petr Ignatenko (Rus) Team Katusha     0:00:36
6.     Jacques Janse van Rensburg (RSA) MTN – Qhubeka     0:00:40
7.     Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Belkin-Pro Cycling Team     0:00:52
8.     Gianfranco Zilioli (Ita) Androni Giocattoli     0:01:09
9.     Ghaffari Vahid (IRI) Tabriz Petrochemical Team     0:01:27
10.     Louis Meintjes (RSA) MTN – Qhubeka     0:01:41

71.    Antoine Duchesne (Can) Team Europcar     21:12

Full Stage 5 results here.