Rivera in full flow
Costa rican makes history, Celano grabs yellow jersey
Kevin Rivera created history as the first Costa Rican stage winner but it was Team Sapura Cycling’s Danilo Celano who emerged the biggest winner by wresting the yellow jersey in the queen stage of the Le Tour de Langkawi 2020 in Genting Highlands.
The 21-year-old Rivera from the mountainous Cartago region in Costa Rica, crossed the finish line in yesterday’s queen stage (most demanding climbing section of the Tour) involving a distance of 156.1km with a time of 4’18:55.
Celano of Team Sapura finished second in 4’19:05 but it was enough for the 30-year-old Italian to take over the yellow Jersey from overnight leader Yevgeniy Fedorov of Vino-Astana Motors, with a fourstage total time of 14’08:28.
The 2018 winner, Russian Artem Ovechkin of Terengganu Inc TSG Cycling Team, finished third after posting 14’19:38.
“I started the Tour very badly as I was sick but I recovered and I saved energy for today’s stage. It’s a beautiful win because it’s a very hard climb. The remaining stages are for the sprinters, so I’ll help my teammates as much as they helped me today,” said Rivera.
Fedorov, who took the overall lead after his stunning opening day breakaway victory, retained the white jersey as the leader of the Asian riders’ classification while Sapura’s Malaysian youngster Mohd Nur Aiman Mohd Zariff retained the red jersey as the leader of the mountains classification with 30 points
and a 15-point lead over Rivera who moved into second.
Celano said taking the yellow jersey was down to a team effort.
“I’m very happy with this jersey. The whole team put in a great effort to make it happen.
“During the race, teammate Aiman was in the breakaway group and took the red jersey. Overall, it was a great team effort to get both jerseys,” said Celano.
For Aiman, his effort to consolidate
his lead proved fruitful in the four earlier categorised climbs and he could possibly be the first local rider to win the red jersey.
“The plan was to go in the early breakaways to take points to try and keep this jersey,” said Aiman.
Today’s Stage 5 of the LTdL is a 165.8km route from Kuala Kubu Baru to Ipoh. The early sector features a comfortable downhill stroll followed by three intermediate sprints.