KAMPAR: Matteo Malucelli shrugged off a training crash less than 24 hours earlier to win the opening stage of Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) on Sunday.
The XDS Astana Team rider completed the 193km ride from Shah Alam to Kampar in 4 hours, six minutes and 26 seconds, beating Modern Adventure Pro Cycling’s Riley Pickrell and Caja Rural-Seguros RGA’s Fernando Gaviria in a bunch sprint.
The second and third-place finishers were credited with the same time.
The victory put the Italian in the orange jersey as overall leader.
He also took the blue sprint jersey with 15 points, ahead of Pickrell on 12 and Gaviria on nine.
Malucelli’s participation had been in doubt after he slipped on a corner during training on Saturday and landed heavily on his hand.
An X-ray found no serious fracture, allowing the 32-year-old to start the race.
“I wasn’t sure whether I had won. I thought I had, but I wanted to see the finish photo because we had a surprise last year too,” Malucelli said.
“I crashed yesterday, so winning the first stage is a good response from my body.”
It was his 23rd career victory and came 11 days after his previous win at the Tour of Taihu Lake in China.
Malucelli credited his teammates for controlling the race and setting him up for the final sprint, with Gleb Syritsa providing the lead-out.
“The team did a very good job from the start. We controlled the race and Gleb gave me a great lead-out, as did Aaron (Gate) and Gonov,” he said.
“With so many corners, it is always difficult, but I did my best.”
China Development Team’s Pet Rikunov leads the mountains classification with four points, followed by Terengganu Cycling Team’s Kee Zhe Yie on two and Malaysia Pro Cycling’s Syawal Mazlin on one.
Terengganu Cycling Team’s Nur Aiman Rosli was the best Asian rider in 4:06:53.
ART’s Oda Hijiri was next, followed by Malaysia Pro Cycling’s Izzat Hilmi Halil.
Stage 2 covers 145.6km from Taiping to Gunung Jerai.
– NST
