Tour de Langkawi: Minali wins stage 2 in Khota Bharu

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In a reduced bunch sprint, Ricardo Minali (Astana) came up trumps on stage 2 of the Tour de Langkawi. Race leader Andrea Guardini (Bardiani-CSF) struggled on the two catergorised climbs and lost his yellow jersey.

Minali took the stage win, his first professional victory, ahead of compatriots Matteo Malucelli (Androni) and Paolo Simion (Bardiani-CSF). In the GC, Minali now leads Joonyong Seo (KSPO) by five seconds with Malucelli third on the same time.

The 130-rider strong peloton had split on the two categorised climbs in the first half of the stage with race leader Andrea Guardini a notable rider to miss the selection. Despite the race leader missing in the finale, Minali showcased his sprint potential with a commanding win and victory celebration.

"Finally, I succeeded to do a straight sprint. [My teammate] Gidich was very good in the last turn and Bakhtiyar Kozhatayev did turn all by himself from minus two kilometres to minus one," Minali told TuttoBici. "I need to thank a lot them. I hope this is the first of many victories. I feel so good, so happy and now I try to bring home more victories before coming back home to Europe and then try to win there also."

The win is Minali's first since joining Astana last year and the 22-year-old explained the victory felt as good as his first-ever racing win.

"Yes, fourth race, six years old. I literally won a stage with one leg because 50 metres from arrival I lost one pedal after hitting speed bump … the kid beside me thought it was in the rules of cycling and purposely did the same. We both sprinted on one leg and I won," he recalled. "Today I feel just as excited as I did that day."

Of the riders favoured for the overall victory, Mekseb Debesay (Dimension Data) is best placed in fourth at seven seconds.

Stage 3 of the Tour de Langkawi is another day for the sprinters but is an easier affair with no categorised climbs. The stage will take place over 166km from Kota Bharu to Kuala Terengganu.

How it unfolded

Assembling in Gerik, the peloton set off along the northern border with Thailand on the same roads that brought the peloton the other way on stage 2 in last year's race. While a number of riders were sporting bandages after the late crash on stage 1, all were able to sign on and race.

With the two categorised climbs to start the second longest stage of the race in 2018, there was an aggressive effort made to establish the breakaway. The riders to force the move were John Ebsen (Forca-Amskins), Bernardo Suaza (Manzana-Postobon), Marcelo Felipe (7 Eleven) and Muhammad Abdurrohman (KFC). The quartet was joined by Alvaro Duarte (Forca) and Wilmar Jahir Perez (Sapura) to form a leading sextet.

At the back of the peloton, race leader Andréa Guardini was dropped on the first climb. He was paced back into the peloton by his Bardiani-CSF teammates but was not so lucky on the second climb and lost contact with the peloton. Only seeing them again in Kota Bharu.

At the first KOM, a cat 3, Felipe took maximum points but it was Suaza taking the full points at the Banjaran Titiwangsa Cat 1 climb to move into the classification lead by stage end.

Having led the peloton by a maximum of eight minutes in the stage, the breakaway started to see its advantage trimmed once onto the flat roads. The peloton had been clipped in half over the Cat 1 climb but there remained enough firepower to make the catch of the breakaway 80km shy of the finish line.

With 30km to race, Liu Jianpeng (Hengxiang) and Niu Yikui (Mitchelton) sensed an opportunity and jumped out of the peloton, to quickly built a one-minute lead. The Chinese duo though sat up after the final sprint point 10km later and the first group was all back together.

The tranquillity wasn't to last long with a wave of attacks coming thick and fast. However, a second bunch sprint in as many days became the favoured outcome and in the dash to the line it was Astana who came up trumps with Minali.

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