LTdL: Thomson rules
03/03/2010, NST

PLANS for another bunch sprint were destroyed 120km from the finish of Stage Two of Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) from Kuala Terengganu to Chukai yesterday as the first breakaway of the tour saw South Africa's Jay Thomson leaving behind two "fellow escapees" to bag the win.

Thomson's partners in the breakaway, which began an attack 60km into the 182.3km stage, were Tabriz Petrochemical's German rider Tobias Erler and Drapac-Porsche's David Pell, who ended the day second in the general classfication (GC) behind Erler.

Erler won the yellow jersey, taking over from Stage One winner Michael Matthews of the Jayco-Skins team, courtesy of the three minute-advantage the breakaway had over the peloton at the finish and time bonuses gained from winning the final two of three intermediate sprints yesterday.

The trio launched their bid to take it to the finish several kilometres after mountains classification leader Peter McDonald of Drapac-Porsche took full points at the first king of the mountains sprint after 50.6km in Kampung Landas.

Erler described this breakaway as perfect, with all three pulling up their socks and not shrugging off turns to take pulls at the front.

They built up a lead of more than eight minutes at one point, which was when the ISD-Neri team of hot favourite Jose Rujano began leading the peloton through a chase to limit the time losses.

All six ISD-Neri riders worked at the front for almost 40km and managed to bring the deficit on the breakaway down to three minutes.

"It was a great day. All three of us worked, nobody was hiding away from being at the front and we managed to pull away after holding the gap at just over a minute for quite some time," said Erler, 31, who is a mathematics and sports teacher, having taken a break from pro cycling last year to complete his university studies.

Thomson's stage win was something he had wanted to deliver in LTdL after taking a stage in the Tour of Wellington in New Zealand two weeks ago.

"I knew I wanted to get a stage win here, and our team discussed this in the morning before the stage.

"We wanted to have someone in a breakaway and I knew that the chance could come because ISD-Neri had been working all day yesterday (Monday) and maybe they wouldn't be able to control too much today (yesterday)," said Thomson, 24, a former rugby player.

Malaysia's Anuar Manan, of South Korean team Geumsan Ginseng Asia, held on to the leads in both the points classification and Asian riders' classification despite losing out on intermediate sprint points. He finished fifth in the main bunch.

Stage Three from Pekan to Mersing today covers a distance of 145.6km and offers a tricky proposition with an opportunity for another breakaway to succeed due to undulations in the final quarter of the stage.

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