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Bos draws first blood

FAVOURITES: Blanco Pro Cycling Team make it look easy in opener

 IT was an expected end to the opening stage of Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) from Kangar to Kulim yesterday with Theo Bos and his Blanco Pro Cycling Team living up to their pre-race favourites' tag with an easy victory in a bunch sprint that left rivals with no answer.

With the 29-year old Dutchman's second victory of the season came the added expectations for more as main rival and LTdL record stage winner Andrea Guardini of the Astana team saw his effort to match Bos yesterday only providing a third place opener behind young Frenchman Bryan Coquard, who joined Bos as two LTdL debutants who took the top spots of the podium.

It was a straightforward script to the day that saw a three-man breakaway comprising Japanese veteran Shinichi Fukushima of Team Nippo, China's Wang Meiyin of the Hengxiang Cycling Team and Ho Junrong of the OCBC Singapore team escaping right from the official start of the race.

The trio were allowed to open up a 10-minute gap, sweeping all three intermediate sprints and the sole king of the mountains hotspot at Bukit Selambau, resulting in Wang taking the mountains and Asian riders' classification leads at the end of the day.

But the high speed chase led by Bos' Blanco team, Guardini's Astana and the Vini Fantini team saw to it that the breakaway was swiftly brought back between 25 and 20 kilometres to the finish, allowing sufficient time for the bunch sprint to be planned with the pace at the front of the pack also eliminating any potential threats of subsequent attacks.

As the front of the peloton approached the final sprint after negotiating two tricky sharp turns at 400 and 300 metres to go, Bos was in a commanding position thanks to his lead-out man Greame Brown, who'd put his experience of having won 10 stages previously in LTdL with the Italian Panaria team to good use.

"I wanted to win, but I was surprised that I won quite easily," said Bos, whose victory also put him in the overall lead as well as being the leader of the points classification entering Stage Two from Serdang to Kuala Kangsar today.

"I have to thank my teammates for doing a great job to put me in such a good position and in the end, I just had to finish the job.

"I have a strong team of experienced riders and a lead-out man like Brown, who knows all about the conditions here, so I think that gave me the advantage over the other sprinters."
Having followed up his first win of the season at the Tour of the Algarve in Portugal last week with his second win of the season here, Bos said he hopes to extend his winning run but at the same time, is wary of the presence of a host of strong sprinters in the race.

"I would like to win more, but we have to see how it goes. There are many good sprinters in this race and I think in the coming stages we will have a different winner," said Bos.

The second stage today, though predominantly flat, offers a twist with a tricky second category climb across Bukit Sumpitan virtually in the middle of the 117.8km stage, which Bos said will be where he tries to remain in touch with the climbers.

By Arnaz M. Khairul | arnaz@nstp.com.my

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