March 04, 2014 (Langkawi, Malaysia) – Androni-Venezuela’s Kenny van Hummel caused a sensation when he won a bunch sprint to take top honours in Stage 6 of Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) 2014, covering 199.1km from Melaka to Pontian today.

The 32-year old from Holland beat Orica-GreenEDGE’s Aidis Kroupis and United Healthcare’s Ken Hanson to the win, which was his and his team’s first of the season, which also increased his team manager Gianni Savio’s LTdL record to 24 stage wins.

The stage was long and with coastal headwinds putting an extra strain on the peloton, which saw several breakaway attempts all kept under control by both the Tabriz Petrochemical Team of overall leader Mirsamad Pourseyedigolakhour and the sprinters’ teams.

“In the last kilometre I was at first on the left with Andrea Guardini (Astana) but the crosswinds were making it a bit messy over there, so I decided to move to the right. Just as I moved, I saw United Healthcare were starting a lead-out, so I tagged along and found a perfect position to start my sprint,” said van Hummel.

“It was a clean straight sprint. I just put the hammer down and went full speed.”

Van Hummel dedicated the win to his team, who had saved his professional career after being left without a contract, having served the Skil-Shimano and Argos-Shimano teams, even making his LTdL debut two years ago as a lead-out man for Marcel Kittel.

“I had been with Kittel and won some big races with him. But at the end of last season I was out of a contract. I really wanted to remain in the pro peloton, so I am thankful to this team now. This win is sort of a small present for them,” said van Hummel.

The other leaders’ jerseys all remained intact, with Mirsamad also unaffected as the Asian riders’ classification leader and Ireland’s Matt Brammeier of the Synergy-Baku team remaining in the lead of the mountains classification.

OCBC Singapore’s Thomas Rabou did just enough to remain in the lead of the points classification by taking second and first spots in the last two intermediate sprints today. Otherwise, he would not have collected the 48 points total to lead Kroupis by a single point entering Stage 7 tomorrow.

LTdL 2014 continues tomorrow with the longest stage and the second longest in the history of the race – Stage 7 which covers 230.1km from Kota Tinggi to Pekan, which is expected to again be another tough day dealing with coastal winds for the peloton all along the route.

Results

1.     Kenny Van Hummel (Ned) Androni Giocattoli – Venezuela     4:29:46
2.     Aidis Kruopis (Ltu) Orica Greenedge
3.     Ken Hanson (USA) UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling
4.     Robert Forster (Ger) UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling
5.     Michael Kolar (Svk) Tinkoff-Saxo
6.     Francesco Chicchi (Ita) Yellow Fluo
7.     Andrea Guardini (Ita) Astana Pro Team
8.     Youcef Reguigui (Alg) MTN – Qhubeka
9.     Morgan Lamoisson (Fra) Team Europcar
10.     Anuar Manan (Mas) Terengganu Cycling Team

91.     Antoine Duchesne (Can) Team Europcar

GC after Stage 6
1.     Mirsamad Pourseyedigolakhour (IRI) Tabriz Petrochemical Team     19:43:50
2.     Merhawi Kudus (Eri) MTN – Qhubeka     0:00:08
3.     Isaac Bolivar (Col) UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling     0:00:11
4.     Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica Greenedge     0:00:20
5.     Petr Ignatenko (Rus) Team Katusha     0:00:36
6.     Jacques J.V. Rensburg (RSA) MTN – Qhubeka     0:00:40
7.     Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Belkin-Pro Cycling Team     0:00:52
8.     Gianfranco Zilioli (Ita) Androni Giocattoli – Venezuela     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 results here.