It’s two in a row for Andrea Guardini as the Italian grabbed his second stage win at the Le Tour de Langkawi 2012
Andrea Guardini secured his first win of the 2012 season with a second stage victory at the 151 kilometre stage of the Le Tour de Langkawi.
The cyclist continued his tremendous form during the third stage and overcame Raymond Kreder and Anuar Manan to grab the first overall spot at the race.
The 22-year-old was impressive during both the stages and, despite the numerous attacks launched by his opponents, he stood firm.
He managed to achieve his goal in an impressive time of 4 hours, 30 minutes and 11 seconds.
Taiji Nishitani, Shinichi Fukushima, Alex Coutts and Ahmad Lufti Fauzan made it pretty difficult for the young Italian but he was determined to grab his second consecutive stage win of the season.
Raymond Kreder, Anuar Manan and Andrea Piechele claimed the second, third and fourth overall positions in the race.
Andrea started his 2012 campaign at the Tour de San Luis and also rode the Tour of Qatar and Oman. He could not secure a win at any of the races and had high hopes form the Tour De Langkawi.
Guardini bagged as many as five stage wins in the previous edition of the race and his blasting start to this year is a clear indication that the cyclist is planning to repeat the same performance this year.
He was delighted after the stage win. “I needed to come back to Malaysia to be a winner again, I have managed to win here on the first opportunity, In the finale my team was super, I had an excellent train and I was helped in the best way possible by my teammates,” he said.
Shinichi Fukushima, Muhammad Fauzan Ahmad Lutfi and Taiji Nishitani won the first, second and third sprints of the race.
Meanwhile, Matteo Rabottini succeeded at the mountains category of the event.
American cyclist David Zabriskie continued his dominance at the overall classifications, despite his 80th place finish during the third stage.
He noted after crossing the finish-line, “I expected very hot conditions here and it was very hot indeed, I just wanted to say thank you to the team, who did an amazing job today controlling the race. It is great to be in the jersey again”.
Adam Phelan, Darren Lapthorne and Tom Danielson are holding the next three spots after the stage 3 classifications.
Team’s classifications remained unchanged as Team Garmin Barracuda achieved the first spot.
Drapac Cycling Team and Team Androni Giocattoli are at the second and third positions in the respective order.
Zabriskie is now eyeing the 169.4 kilometre stage 4 of the race. He still has an impressive lead of 1 minute over Adam Phelan and is looking good to grab his first overall win of the season.
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