Italian rider continues domination in the Tour
12/02/2009, The Star

MALACCA: Italian rider Mattia Gavazzi continued to dominate the Tour of Langkawi (LTdL) when he chalked up his third consecutive stage win by clinching the 186km Malacca Stage Three here yesterday.

The 25-year-old rider from Venezuela’s pro continental outfit, Diquigivanni-Androni, outsprinted the others in an exciting bunch sprint to the finish in the stage that started at Dataran Pahlawan and ended at Jalan Hang Tuah, Malacca.

Gavazzi placed himself in a perfect position to sprint straight to the finishing line ahead of heaving pack of 119 riders, to clock 4’33:29.

With the win today, Gavazzi also retained the yellow jersey as individual classifications category and the green jersey, when he collected another 15 points, accumulating a total of 45 points.

“My condition today was very good, plus a good back-up from the rest of the team-mates as all are working hard,” said the son of legendary Italian cyclist Pierino Gavazzi.

Gavazzi said it was a great victory but they needed to stay focused for the next four stages and maintain their team strategy because the chances to win was good.

His team manager, Gianni Savio said that in the last 30km he had told all his riders to stop pushing the bunch because they had worked too much in the early stages.

“But Gavazzi refused my order and claimed he was in great condition, so I gave the rest of the team riders permission to carry on for another winning stage,” said Savio.

Gavazzi won the opening stage from Putrajaya to Senawang on Monday, and Stage Two from Senawang to Malacca on Wednesday.

Chris Sutton from Garmin Slipstream claimed second spot while last year’s green jersey winner Aurelien Clerc from AG2R finished third yesterday.

For the Asian category, Dmitriy Gruzdev from the Kazakhstan national team retained the blue jersey after returning a total time of 11’22:17.

Malaysian rider Ahmad Fallanie Ali showed good sprinting prowess yesterday to collect four points from the three sprint zones and one point from the climb.

“I tried to distant myself from the peloton and followed Ricardo Van Der Velde (Garmin Slistream) and Seok Kyu-suh (Seoul Cycling) from the first kilometre. However, the peloton managed to catch us 25km from the finish line,” said Fallanie who finished in 102nd spot.

The 25-year-old was however happy that he had done his part to keep the Malaysian team at the top of the Best Asian team category with an overall time of 34’07:12.

Today’s Stage Four covers a distance of 221km from Jalan Hang Tuah, Malacca to Bandar Baru Bangi, Selangor.

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