VICTORY NUMBER TWO FOR MATTHEWS AS ERLER, MANAN AND MCDONALD RETAIN THE VARIOUS RACE LEADERS’ JERSEYS
03/03/2010

MERSING - Michael Matthews has twice showed that he is the quickest bunch sprinter in this year’s Le Tour de Langkawi, winning stage one and taking the bunch gallop for fourth yesterday.

He underlined that speed again today when he won a big bunch sprint into Mersing, ending the 145.6 kilometre stage ahead of Alex Candelario (Kelly Benefit Strategies), former world under 23 champion Dmytro Gravovskyy (ISD-Neri) plus the rest of the peloton.

“Today’s sprint was different to the first one,” he said afterwards, clearly enjoying being back on the podium. “I actually wasn’t feeling that good today in the sprints against this guy [gestures to points leader Anuar Manan], he kept rolling me, so I wasn’t too confident. But coming into the last couple of kilometres I started doing a bit better, got a good lead-out and came away with the win.”

Overnight race leader Tobias Erler (Tabriz Petrochemical Cycling) rode strongly during the mainly flat stage, infiltrating several early breakaway attempts in order to protect the yellow jersey, and then placing ninth in the gallop to the line. He admitted afterwards that the racing was tough at times, but things worked out well.

Erler protected his overall lead, maintaining his five second advantage over David Pell (Drapac Porsche) and his seven second buffer over yesterday’s winner Jay Thomson (South Africa).

Yesterday’s winner Jay Thomson (South Africa) is now his closest challenger, sitting seven seconds behind in the general classification.

“The day went to plan, but I had hoped to have it a little bit easier,” Erler said. “It was quite a hard job to defend the yellow jersey because it took almost seventy kilometres before just one rider went into a break. Before that, it was quite hard.”

“I jumped across to many groups and wanted to control them, so that there was just four or five guys rolling away and so that there would be a bunch sprint in the end. Then someone tried to attack again, the break came back and everything was mixed up once more. For me, it was a really tough day in those first seventy kilometres… it was almost harder than yesterday.”

The German rider’s strong finish however showed that he recovered from that early part, and his manner of defending the lead underlined his strength.

Another who impressed – and who consolidated a different leader’s jersey that he started the stage with – was points leader Anuar Manan (Geumsan Ginseng Aisa). He was first, fourth and second in the day’s intermediate sprints, and placed fourth in the gallop for the line.

The efforts saw him end the day three points ahead of Matthews, who is likely to be his biggest challenge for the green jersey.

Manan also ended up the blue jersey for best Asian rider, and said that he would fight for both of those categories until Sunday’s conclusion of the race. Ongoing King of the Mountains leader Peter McDonald (Drapac Porsche) plans to do likewise, and added to his points total with a second place on today’s sole KOM prime.

Aggressive racing:

As Erler said after the stage, the first half of the race to Mersing was one peppered with countless attacks. The aggression showing from the drop of the flag, with a move by Malaysian riders Rusli Amir and Ali Fallanie (Malaysia National Team) and Sea Keong Loh (Marco Polo) going clear immediately.

These were brought back soon afterwards, but a more dangerous break went clear later on with David Pell (Drapac Porsche), second in the general classification, present.

Race leader Erler bridged across to each of the moves which threatened his lead, but didn’t contest the first intermediate sprint, which was won by Manan. After 58 kilometres of racing Hyo Suk Gong (Seoul Cycling) broke clear and built a maximum lead of four minutes. He took the second intermediate sprint in Rompin as well as the third in Tanjong Gemok, plus the day’s sole King of the Mountains prime at Kg Baharu.

However he was overhauled approximately thirty kilometres from the finish, after which Dmitriy Gruzdev (Kazakhstan National Team) set off on a twenty kilometre solo break.

That bid also failed, leading to the big bunch gallop and Matthews’ second win in three days. Erler finished close by and heads into tomorrow’s fourth leg with an advantage of seven seconds over Jay Thomson (South Africa).

With just one categorised climb en route to the finish in Parit Sulong, a bunch sprint is the most likely outcome. But, as Tuesday’s stage proved, big breakaways also have the potential to succeed and as a result, another fast, aggressive race is on the cards.

The 15th edition of the LTdL this year is organized by the Ministry of Youth and Sports with assistance from the Malaysian National Cycling Federation and has been granted hors category status by the International Cycling Union (UCI). The race comprises seven stages which are Kota Bharu - Kuala Berang which covers 174.5km, followed by Kuala Terengganu - Chukai (182.3km); Pekan - Mersing (145.6km); Mersing-Parit Sulong (163.5km); Muar - Port Dickson (111.5km) Putrajaya - Genting Highlands (102.8km) dan Kuala Kubu Baru - Dataran Merdeka (133.7km), with a total distance of 1013.9km.

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