SERPA TAKES CHARGE AT THE TOP AND LOOKS UNBEATABLE
13/02/2009

Colombian Jose Serpa has won Le Tour de Langkawi's queen stage, the climb up Genting Highlands for the second time to take charge of the overall lead in the general classification on a hectic day in the hills which served up Stage Five today.

It was an expected win for Serpa, the pre-race favourite, but what wasn't expected was the stiff challenge posed by Australia's Jai Crawford all the way up the climb, despite a three-pronged attack by the Colombian's Diquigiovanni-Androni Gioccatoli team, with Venezuelans Jackson Rodriguez and Carlos Jose Ochoa forming his workforce as the stage went vertical with 17 kilometres to go at the end of the 102 kilometre route that started in Petaling Jaya.

Fuji-Servetto's Frederik Kessiakoff also posed a threat in the latter stages after being with the Diquigiovanni trio and Crawford since they were part of the decisive attack that initially comprised 11 riders, but at the finish line it was Serpa at 24 seconds ahead of Crawford, Rodriguez third a further 19 seconds behind and Kessiakoff fourth, another three seconds adrift.

The win also meant Serpa took charge of the mountains classification lead from overnight leader Jeremy Yates of the LeTua Cycling Team, as the finish line offered a hors category points award of 25 for the winner, which firmly put Serpa in the lead ahead of Crawford, who got 22 points for second. Yates is third with 16 points.

"We have three jerseys and four stage wins, so this has turned out to be a great race for us so far," said Serpa, whose teammate Mattia Gavazzi won the opening three stages and is still in the lead of the points classification.

"Our team is strong and I have the confidence that we will be able to defend these leads until the finish on Sunday. For me, I am grateful the way it turned out this time, as even after I won the Genting stage in 2007, I had made a mistake, being asleep in the opening stages and allowed a long breakaway to go in the early stages and never managed to make up the time," said Serpa.

The only jersey not with the Diquigiovanni team is the Asian riders' jersey, which went to Malaysia's LeTua Cycling Team's Indonesian climber Tonton Susanto. The lead put the 35-year old Tonton firmly in the running for his third ever Asian riders' classification win after doing it in 1999 and 2002.

"I am really grateful for what the team has done for me. Just two years ago, I was thinking that my career was over. I thought I would never be able to achieve anything more than what I already had. Then I joined LeTua and they've inspired me to carry on. After I won the Jelajah Malaysia last year, I started to believe in the training and the methods that this team has put in place," said Tonton.

LTDL moves into its penultimate stage tomorrow with 147.6 kilometres to take the peloton from Batang Kali to Petaling Jaya in the central state of Selangor.

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