Another flat stage of Le Tour de Langkawi started today in Dungun and finished in Pekan after 183.8 km of racing.
Hot day in the exotic places of Malaysia ended with expected massive sprint, won by young Italian sprinter of Astana Pro Team Riccardo Minali.
– I’m very very happy with my victory. Today I had a super strong team, which was very impressive, especially at the final 2 km. This victory is very important to me, because I dedicated it to Michele Scarponi. It’s been almost a year since he’s gone, but he is always with us in our heats. I’m terribly glad that I managed to win in memory of him, – Riccardo Minali said after the finish.
This is a second victory for Riccardo Minali at this race. After four stages he is also awarded with green jersey of the Best Sprinter of Le Tour de Langkawi.
– Today was more or less quit day. Riders were preparing for the final sprint. It was some side wind, which has split the group twice, but the team was always in the head of peloton. At the last 2 km we were worked at the first positions, successfully passed all dangerous turns and avoided the crashes that were at the last kilometers of the distance. The guys worked for a maximum, Minali also perfectly did his job. Now we are preparing for tomorrow, – commented sports director Sergey Yakovlev.
Tomorrow is the one of the most important stages of Le Tour de Langkawi 2018 with the hard uphill finish, which should make some changes to the general classification of the race.
After four stages, the leader of the GC is the Canadian rider Adam De Vos, Riccardo Minali on the 4th place with 1’09 behind the yellow jersey and the Kazakh rider Evgeniy Gidich is now 6th in 1’26 from De Vos.
