PASIR PUTEH XDS-Astana rider, Matteo Malucelli stamped his mark when he claimed his second stage victory at the PETRONAS Le Tour de Langkawi 2025 (PLTdL25) this afternoon, edging out Uno-X Mobility’s Alexander Kristoff in a sprint finish at the end of Stage 3 from Gerik, Perak to Pasir Puteh,Kelantan.
Malucelli, who led the main peloton, clocked a time of 4 hours 28 minutes 04 seconds. He previously won Stage 1 in Langkawi but lost to Tudor Cycling Team’s Arvid de Kleijn at Stage 2 in Kepala Batas yesterday.
More impressively, today’s success – his fifth stage win in PLTdL after three victories last year, sees the Italian rider solidify his lead in the overall individual classification. He continues to wear the PETRONAS Green Jersey, 16 seconds ahead of his two closest rivals, Erland Blikra (Uno-X) and Astana teammate Aaron Gate.
The victory also confirms Malucelli’s grip on the Ministry of Youth and Sports (KBS) Orange Jersey for the Sprint King classification, increasing his lead to 42 points as his closest rival De Kleijn dropped far behind after the three climbing zones in the 198.2km route.
Meanwhile, Picnic PostNL rider, Patrick Eddy, who was part of the breakaway group, dominated the Category 3 climb (Gerik) and the Category 1 climb (Puncak Titiwangsa) and took third place in the Category 2 climb at Sri Banding.
The Australian-born rider, who joined Picnic last year, collected 15 points – an equal score with Burgos Burpellet-BH’s Jambaljamts Sainbayar. However, Eddy was awarded the BubblesO2 Polka Dot Jersey as the King of the Mountains for being the first to cross the summit of the higher-ranked Category 1 climb at Puncak Titiwangsa.
The Rakan Muda White Jersey for the Best Asian Rider has also changed hands, going to Vadim Pronskiy after his teammate, Muhammad Nur Aiman Rosli, who wore the jersey for the first two stages, finished in the second group.
Eddy, Sainbayar (who was also named the Most Combative Rider), Vadim, Daniel Whitehouse (St George Continental) and Cedric Bakke Christophersen (Unibet Tietema Rockets) were in the first breakaway group, maintaining the lead with about 3 minutes over the main group. However, they were caught on the descent by a peloton who realized De Kleijn was not among them. The main peloton, led by Uno-X, Kern Pharma and Astana, continued to increase the gap and arrived almost 16 minutes ahead of the second group.
Malucelli admitted he felt a little sad about having to disappoint Kristoff, who is considered a legendary rider aiming to add to his personal win collection before retiring at the end of the year.
“It’s a mixed feeling. I wouldn’t be sad if I had lost to Kristoff. But this is cycling. We just want to do our best in every race and all my teammates worked hard on the climbs and the flat route to create a significant gap ahead. I was quite far back as we approached the finish line because my teammates were exhausted and I just sprinted to the best as I could,” said the 31-year-old rider, who only smiled after the commissaires confirmed his win via photo-finish.
Meanwhile, Eddy was delighted to wear the Polka Dot King of the Mountains jersey and felt his performance was in good shape after racing in the Vuelta a Espana a few weeks ago.
“It’s hard to explain because this wasn’t my target. I just tried to chase the front riders and we managed to dominate the first three climbing zones. This (Polka Dot Jersey) will be a new motivation for me and the team after only being listed at the last minute with two young riders on the team this time,” he said, referencing the overall green jersey won by Picnic PostNL rider Max Poole last year.
Vadim admitted the white jersey is not unfamiliar, as he won it in 2019 and 2023 when he was with the elite WorldTeam, Astana-Qazakhstan. “I’m becoming more comfortable and happy with TSG and consider Malaysia as my second home. Today was quite difficult because when I tried to break away on the first climb, a few riders were quite fast in the chase. I’m happy and hope to keep this jersey for the more difficult climbs ahead in Stage 5 from Temerloh to Bukit Fraser,” he said.
Local fans also cheered local rider Tsen Ren Bao, son of former national rider Tsen Seong Hoong and now representing St George, who finished 28th in the stage to become the Best ASEAN Rider.
Only 118 riders completed the Stage 3 after 3 riders did not start (DNS) and 5 others failed to finish (DNF).
The PLTdL25 with 2.ProSeries status in the UCI Asia calendar, continues with Stage 4 tomorrow from Kuala Terengganu to Kemaman, covering a distance of 140.8km, featuring 3 sprint zones at Marang (km12.3), Dungun (km66.7) and Paka (km87.4), and one Category 4 climbing zone at Kijal (km126.2).
The 29th edition of the PLTdL25 is organized by the Ministry of Youth and Sports (KBS) through the National Sports Council (MSN) in collaboration with the Malaysian National Cycling Federation (MNCF).
