Hynek and Lechner win marathon stage in Langkawi

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Fabian Giger and Lea Davison are in the driver's seat en route to the  Langkawi International Mountain Bike Challenge 2012 titles after both retained their respective leader's jerseys after the third stage on Thursday.

Men

Rabobank-Giant's Giger rode a calculated race to stay on course for the overall title by finishing one minute and 53 seconds behind Kristian Hynek of Ceska-Sporitelna Specialized, who won the 63.9km Langkawi Marathon stage by clocking a 3:53:36 with Todd Wells (Team Specialized) coming in third.

Giger described stage 3 as the hardest race of LIMBC. "This is the hardest race so far. I am a cross country rider, so a shorter race fits me better than today's race. It was a fast first lap between me, Emil Lindgren and Hynek. In the third lap, I had to go on my own speed, but I managed to close the gap on Hynek," said Giger.

The marathon stage was reduced to 21.3km per lap after the UCI decided the night before of the race that it was best to shorten the distance by 5.7km due to weather conditions.

"The race today was very tough. It was a perfect decision since it was around four hours to complete a marathon and bit more climbing would be too much. In the end, I managed to get on the podium, and I am happy about it," said the beaming Swiss rider, who leads the race by four minutes and 24 seconds ahead of Hynek.

When asked about the prospect of clinching the overall title, Giger said, "The title is not in the bag. But I want to hold to this. It is a nice jersey."

The stage 3 winner Hynek concurred that the competition was far from over. The Czech rider said, "It is important for me to win this stage, and I went on the attack today as I want to move into second place in the overall standing. We still have two stages and we will see."

Women

In the women's race, Lea Davison paced herself well to stay on course for the overall title with second place behind Eva Lechner (Colnago Sudtirol), who won the 42.6km off-road race by clocking 3:06:52. Elisabeth Sveum finished in third place.

"It was my strategy to stay in touch with the leading pack today. I want to save up my energy as I realised I have quite a comfortable time ahead of other riders. In this competition, it is important to know how to apply the right strategy," said the 29-year-old American from Team Specialized.

However, Lechner refused to concede defeat for the title. "We still have until Saturday. Anything can happen. Tomorrow is another stage, and I will keep attacking," she said.

Malaysians

Malaysia's best finishes today were Abdul Razak Kamis from Kedah with third placing in the senior master's category while Masziyaton Mohd Radzi improved her position from stage 2 with a ninth position in the women's category today with a time of 3:51:07.

Meanwhile, Fauzan Ahmad Lutfi remained the best local male rider by finishing 15th among the overall 51 participants who completed the stage 3 in the men's race

Stage 4

Tomorrow's stage 4 is an Olympic distance cross country race around Langkawi GeoPark.

Full Results