Stage 3 of the Le Tour de Langkawi was won by Andrea Gaurdini (Astana) from another mass sprint. Yesterday’s victor, Theo Bos (Belkin) was 2nd with Yannick Martinez (Europcar) finishing in 3rd place. Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung sprinter, Youcef Reguigui finished in the top 10 once again by crossing the line in 10th place today.
While on paper it seemed like a standard day of racing which ended in a bunch sprint, Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung were on the edge of its seats as Jacques Janse Van Rensburg was attempting to hold off the chasing peloton in the final kilometres.
After covering the early moves at the start of the days racing, Janse Van Rensburg found himself in the days break with 4 other riders. With 20km to go, Janse Van Rensburg and Bradley White (United Healthcare) broke clear from the rest of the original break in pursuit of the finish line. Janse Van Rensburg and White came agonisingly close in deciding the stage win between them but were eventually caught with less than 1km to go.
“I am very happy with my ride today, it would have been nice to get a result but that’s how cycling goes,” said Janse Van Rensburg. “I have actually been focusing on the Genting stage and was just covering moves this morning but ended up getting into the days break. I was conserving as much energy as possible with tomorrow’s stage in mind but when we hit 20km to go and we still had a 2’40” lead, the UHC rider attacked and I followed him,” Janse Van Rensburg continued.
“We really gave it our best shot but the odds were up against us. Now I am lying 12th on GC which is a good position to be in before Genting so I just have to recover as much as possible to still have a good ride tomorrow,” concluded Janse Van Rensburg.
Tomorrow will see the peloton take on the queen stage of the Le Tour de Langkawi. The riders will start in Subang and race over 110km to the top of the Genting Highlands. With the relatively short race distance we can expect a fast pace to the foot of the Genting climb and then an explosion as the climbers try to take the race apart. Any rider with high General Classification aspirations will need to be on the podium tomorrow and so the stage should be quite a spectacle.
Le Tour de Langkawi (Malaysia) – (February 27 – March 8/UCI 2.HC)
Louis Meintjes (RSA)
Tsgabu Grmay (ETH)
Merhawi Kudus (ERI)
Jacques Janse van Rensburg (RSA)
John-Lee Augustyn (RSA)
Youcef Reguigui (ALG)
Staff: Kevin Campbell (Sports Director), Dr Jarrad van Zuydam (Doctor), Hagen Bernutz (Soigneur), Yvonne Houwelling (Soigneur) and Heiko Heinrici (Mechanic)
