Pelucchi wins ‘rain town’ stage, Dyball retains yellow jersey
TAIPING: Italian Matteo Pelucchi won Stage Five of the 2019 Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) from Proton City, Tanjung Malim to Dataran Warisan Taiping here, yesterday.
In the 200.1km race, the Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec rider, nor any of his teammates were in the breakaway group of eight riders, but as the peloton managed to catch up with the last three leaders, Cristian Raileanu, Paolo Simion and Shotaro Iribe with 2km to go, Pelucchi pedalled his way to lead the bunch at the finishing line.
The 30-year-old clocked four hours, 27 minutes and 11 seconds just before the clouds started to shower on the “rain town”(Taiping has the highest annual rainfall in Malaysia). It was his third time on the podium in the LTdL after finishing second in Stage Three (Muar to Putrajaya) on Monday as well as Stage Nine of the 2012 LTdL from Kemasik to Kuala Terengganu during his LTdL debut.
“During the whole race, we thought that the breakaway will survive although our team’s target was to win this stage. Anyway we tried in last 30km and were able to catch them…I am very happy to repay my team’s trust,” Pelucchi told reporters afterwards. He is the first Italian rider to win a stage in this year’s edition.
Australian Blake Quick from St George Continental Cycling Team and American Travis Mccabe of Floyd’s Pro Cycling finished second and third respectively in today’s stage, which had three sprints, at Sungkai, Kampar and Sungai Siput, and a Category 3 climb at Bukit Berapit.
Terengganu Inc TSG Cycling’s (TSG) rider, Mohd Harrif Saleh finished as the best Malaysian, coming in at fourth place, but Muhammad Zawawi Azman from Team Sapura Cycling (TSC) still remained as the Best Malaysian rider overall with a total time of 21:58:41s, though he finished 77th yesterday after being involved in an accident.
Meanwhile, Tuesday’s Queen’s Stage (Shah Alam-Genting Highlands) winner, Benjamin Dyball (21:52:53s) of Team Sapura Cycling still holds the yellow jersey as overall leader with a 27 second advantage over Colombian Hernan Ricardo Aguirre Caipa of Interpro Cycling Academy (21:53:20s).
Third Stage winner Travis Mccabe Floyd’s Pro Cycling retained the green jersey (King of Sprint) with 58 points, 16 clear of Harrif (42 points), while Oliver’s Real Good Racing rider, Angus Lyons (47 points) has a big advantage over Dyball (25 points) for the red jersey (King of Mountain).
Kazakhstan’s Vadim Pronskiy VinoAstana Motors retained the white jersey (Best Asian Rider) with an overall time of 21:53:58s, while Floyd’s Pro Cycling continues to lead the Team General Classification with 65:45:20s, chased closely by TSC (65:46:28s).
Today’s Stage Six from Bagan to Alor Setar (130.8km) features three sprint zones, in Sungai Petani, Gurun and Pendang, and no climbing zones, which will work in favour of sprinters. - Bernama