Gavazzi show continues in Stage Six
15/02/2009, NST Online

IT was the flattest stage thus far in Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) and the status quo of this year's race was maintained, although only just, with Mattia Gavazzi taking his fourth stage win of the race following a bunch sprint finish in Stage Six from Batang Kali to Shah Alam yesterday.

The 147.6 kilometre stage began with many threats of attacks, as was promised with most of the classifications ascertained in the Genting Highlands stage the previous day, but the one that really went away was a nine-man escape that formed after the first intermediate sprint in Bestari Jaya after 40.9km, which contained last year's Asian riders' classification winner Shinichi Fukushima.

But Shinichi wasn't the threatening one. The fact that Cervelo Test Team's Gomez Marchante decided to try his luck in a solid breakaway doomed the escape from the start.

The yellow jersey on the back of Diquigiovanni's Jose Serpa was protected by his team, as well as the Australian national team, who had Jai Crawford second in the general classification.

Diquigiovanni had a helping hand in controlling the time gaps from the ISD team, whose hard work at the front of the peloton was explained by Diquigiovanni team manager Gianni Savio as an intention to line-up their sprinter Denys Kostyuk for the bunch sprint.

It all came together inside 20km to the finish line. The breakaway, reduced to four men in the process, was caught and the fifth bunch sprint in six days was set up by Diquigiovanni, Ag2r-La Mondiale for Aurelien Clerc, Garmin-Slipstream for Chris Sutton and South Africa for Nolan Hoffman.

It was a flat front three at the finish line, with any one of Gavazzi, Clerc and Sutton easily on the right line for the win, but the photo-finish showed Gavazzi merely half a wheel ahead of Clerc and Sutton for the Diquigiovanni team's 20th ever stage win in LTdL.

"We started the day with a plan to let a breakaway go, but then in the nine-man breakaway, there was Cervelo's Gomez Marchante, who was 10th in the general classification with three minutes and 37 seconds.

"This made the breakaway dangerous, so we had to work to bring it back," said Gavazzi.

"Tomorrow (today) it is a flat stage, a criterium, and we expect a big crowd and there's also live coverage, so we will want to put on a big show to cap it all."

There was a threat on the Asian riders' classification lead with the VW blue jersey on the back of Le Tua Cycling Team's Tonton Susanto, as Shinichi, who was seven minutes and 13 seconds down, but with the bigger teams controlling the race, Tonton was saved and is likely to retain his lead till the end.

The only king of the mountains point at the 36.8km point in Ijok saw a battle for third spot in that classification, and Diquigiovanni's Jackson Rodriguez moved up by winning the top points there from Le Tua's Jeremy Yates who came third behind Clerc and is now fourth in that classification behind Serpa, Crawford and Rodriguez.

Gavazzi's win consolidated him in the driving seat of the points classification, with a lead of 13 points over South Africa's Hoffman.

An 80km Kuala Lumpur Criterium closes LTdL today in what has thus far been a race almost totally dominated by Venezuela-registered Diquigiovanni. They have three jerseys under their control and have only let Stage Four on Thursday to be won by Le Tua's Samai Amari.

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