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LE TOUR DE LANGKAWI: Anuar best among Malaysians

ANUAR Manan was again the star of the show as far as Malaysians were concerned when the Synergy-Baku Cycling Project rider did well to finish eighth in a bunch sprint that ended Stage Four of Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) from Tapah to Kapar yesterday.

Ruing his lack of a sufficiently strong lead-out for the bunch sprint, Anuar is still fighting to keep his hopes of landing the points classification which he last won in 2010 and his determination showed.

While three riders were away in an early breakaway, Anuar picked up the pieces by taking fourth spot in the first two intermediate sprints yesterday, before sitting back to recover for the bunch sprint, which was eventually won by Italy's Francesco Chicchi of the Vini Fantini team.

"I just had to do what I could to pick up whatever points that were available to keep myself in touch in the points classification. Today (yesterday) I was looking again to try and win the stage, but in the final kilometres, my lead-out man (Rico Rogers) wasn't able to bring me all the way up to the front," said Anuar, 26.
"In the last kilometre, I had to work at it myself and tried to find my way to the front, so I only managed eighth. I've told my teammates about this need for us to pool together if we want to get a result, but this is our first race together, so we can still work on it in the coming stages."

The Malaysian contingent are expected to find the going tough again today when the race heads up to the summit of Genting Highlands, where a top 20 result by the likes of Adiq Husainie Othman or Saufi Mat Senan would be a realistic target.



By Arnaz M. Khairul

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