Skip to main content

LTdL2012: Power of Guardini

ANOTHER bunch sprint ended the third stage of the Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) yesterday, and again the peloton found no answer to the power of Andrea Guardini who powered to his second consecutive triumph.

Andrea Guardini of Farnese Vini celebrates winning Stage Three

The Italian's seventh LTdL stage win came after his Farnese Vini team were again stretched as a four-man breakaway pushed clear of the peloton after 16km of the 187.6km stage and opened up a gap of over five minutes before the remnants of it were pulled back 20km from the finish.

   Escapees Shinichi Fukushima of the Terengganu Cycling Team, Taiji Nishitani of Aisan Racing Team, Alex Coutts of RTS Racing Team and Malaysia's Fauzan Ahmad Lutfi swept the intermediate sprints on offer between them.

In the third intermediate sprint after 136.2km in Chaah, Fauzan decided to resign from the breakaway group and dropped back into the peloton, stating he was instructed to do so by coach Syed Mohd Hussaini Syed Mazlan in order to preserve himself for the Genting Highlands stage on Wednesday.

  The three remaining riders were caught 10km later as Farnese Vini lined up Guardini for the final sprint, and was  given a hand by United Healthcare, Astana and Colnago-CSF.

  Asian riders' classification leader Dmitriy Gruzdev of Astana gave it a go and broke away solo in the final 10km , but was easily brought back as the bunch sprint was set up.

  As the peloton spread out for the final 100 metres, it was clear that Guardini would feature up front.

Garmin-Barracuda's Raymond Kreder gave it enough to take second spot while local hope Anuar Manan was again disappointed in having to settle for third.

   Garmin-Barracuda were, however, given a scare when general classification contender and 2003 LTdL winner Tom Danielson was involved in a pile-up that included Terengganu Cycling Team's Harrif Salleh inside the final three kilometres of the stage.

The distance of the crash from the finish line salvaged Danielson's fourth position overall, with still a minute and 26 seconds deficit from teammate David Zabriskie, who held on to the yellow jersey for a third day.

  Guardini's second straight win meant he held on to the points classfication lead with 30 points and his much anticipated battle with Anuar for stage wins and the blue jersey has taken shape with the Malaysian just four points adrift.

  "Today it was more difficult than yesterday (Saturday) because Colnago-CSF knew that I was not very good on the climbs and they tried to attack in the king of the mountains point, 10 kilometres from the finish with Marco Canola. But my team did a perfect job today," said Guardini, 23.

  "I was a bit surprised by another Colnago rider, Sonny Colbrelli, in the final sprint because he started his sprint with 400 metres to go, but with 100 metres to go I managed to get in front."

  Stage Four, covering 169.4km from Batu Pahat to Muar provides another opportunity for a bunch sprint in which Guardini will be confident of another victory, while Anuar is determined that his Champion System outfit will improve further today and help him break the Italian stranglehold on the bunch sprint victories so far.

Read more: NST

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ex-coach's jail sentence cut to a year

PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal yesterday sentenced former athletics coach C. Ramanathan to 12 months' jail for molesting two junior athletes 19 years ago. A three-man bench led by Datuk Mohd Hishamudin Mohd Yunus unanimously dismissed Ramanathan's appeal against conviction, but varied the jail sentence of four years to a year, which was to run concurrently. Following yesterday's ruling, Ramanathan, 75, a former teacher, walked out a free man as he had served 10 months in Kajang Prison. Convicts get one-third remission for good behaviour while in prison. However, he will lose his pension. Hishamudin, who sat with Datuk Abdul Wahab Patail and Datuk Linton Albert, said the court found no merit to overturn the conviction. "However, in reducing the sentence, we considered Ramanathan's age and the long years the appeal has taken." Deputy public prosecutor Awang Armadajaya Awang Mahmud submitted that then High Court judge Tan Sri Abdull Hamid E...
2 comments
Read more

Govt Always Gives Emphasis To Sporting Culture, Says PM

KUALA TERENGGANU, May 29 (Bernama) -- Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badaw i said the government always gives emphasis on cultivating a strong sporting culture in achieving excellence at the international level. As such, the Prime Minister said, it was important to scout for young talents in sports. "I observe that the Malaysia Games (Sukma) has become one of the important platforms to do so. "In this arena, the potentials and skills of the youngsters can be identified for development so that they can achieve greater success in sports," he said in his message in the souvenir book of the 12th Sukma from May 31 until June 9. Abdullah said he was aware that competition in sports was very keen and challenging but this did not mean that Malaysian athletes were incapable of competing at the international level. "The fact is that we have all the characteristics required to be excellent. We must inculcate a strong fighting spirit so that we don't easily surrender,...
1 comment
Read more

Rajagobal Let Off The Hook

PETALING JAYA, April 24 (Bernama) -- National head coach Datuk K. Rajagobal was let off the hook by the Football Association of Malaysia's (FAM) Disciplinary Committee after finding no evidence that he had violated FAM's Article 88, as claimed. FAM Disciplinary Committee chairman Datuk Taufik Abdul Razak said the committee had decided not to charge Rajagobal after carefully analysing the video of the post-match press conference by the 56-year-old coach. "After listening to the recording of the post-match press conference, we decided to drop the charge against Rajagopal as he did not make such a statement. "Maybe his (Rajagobal) assessment and comments of the match was misconstrued by the media. There was no mention of the FAM policy throughout his comments," said Taufik after emerging from a three-hour Disciplinary Committee meeting at Wisma FAM in Kelana Jaya, here, Wednesday. Rajagobal who does not mince his words when asked to com...
4 comments
Read more