Gavazzi is back!
14/02/2009

Shah Alam, February 14, 2009 - After a 'two-day break' Mattia Gavazzi got back to his winning ways, bagging his fourth stage victory in the 14th edition of Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL), a 146.8 kilometre Stage Six from Batang Kali to Shah Alam today.

The Italian sprinter registered his team Serramenti Diquigiovanni-Androni Giocatoli's 20th ever stage win in LTdL after yet another bunch sprint, but this time it required a photo-finish to separate between three frontrunners, Ag2r La Mondiale's Aurelian Clerc, Garmin-Slipstream's Chris Sutton and Gavazzi, as the trio crossed the line side-by-side to end the stage.

Gavazzi, 26 said his team of workhorses, who were drained after almost total dominance in the first five days of the Tour, had initially planned to take the day easy and alow a harmless breakaway to go.

'This race, for us, has been very successfull so far. We've won almost everything there is to win, so we decided to take it easy tosay and if there was a breakaway, we would let it go.'

'But then there was a good breakaway of nine riders after the king of the mountains point (at 36.8km) and there was (Cervelo Test Team's) Gomez Marchante. He was in 10th position in the general classification and had just about three minutes to catch Jose Serpa,' said Gavazzi.

'Luckily for us, the Australian nation team and ISD did a lot of work to keep the break under control and bring it back. When it came to the sprint, my teammates again did a good job of leading me out and all I had to do was go for the win, although this time it was much closer then previously.'

Gavazzi pipped Clerc to first, with Sutton having to settle for third this time around.

Serpa's yellow jersey remained intact with just the final stage, the Kuala Lumpur Criterium remaining tomorrow.

Gianni Savio's Diquigiovanni-Androni Team, one of the most popular in Le Tour de Langkawi, have hus far produced their most dominant performance, taking charge of three of the four leaders' jerseys.

Gavazzi still leads the points classification with 84 points, from South Africa's Nolan Hoffman, with last year's green jersey winner Clerc in third on 50 points.

Diquigiovanni have the yellow jersey and polka dot jersey virtually confirmed by Serpa, who won his third ever Genting Highlands stage, the LTdL's queen stage on Friday. They also lead the overall teams’ classification.

Malaysian team Le Tua are the only other jersey holders, with their Indonesian rider Tonton Susanto also virtually confirmed as the Asian riders' jersey winner with just the showcase Kuala Lumpur Criterium remaining.

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