The overall victory was sealed by Jonathan Monsalve (Androni Giocattoli), who finished safely in the main bunch and thus preserved the five second overall lead he held at the start of the stage.
“I’m very happy to win my first stage race as a professional,” the Venezuelan said after receiving another yellow jersey plus the prizes for his overall and King of the Mountains victories. “This is the right way to begin a career. It’s very good to do it being young and neo-professional.
“I’m also very happy to have won the stage in Genting because I knew it was hard and I knew my compatriot Jose Rujano won it last year so I wanted to win it as well. This is also the victory for the team for the whole week…after stage three, my team has worked well for this overall win. I’m delighted to win in Kuala Lumpur.”
Guardini was equally happy, sealing his points jersey victory with yet another triumph. Today’s gallop was particularly impressive, with the Italian rider having time to stop sprinting, look back at his rivals, and then throw his arms in the air as he rolled across the line. It was a little evocative of former top Italian sprinter Mario Cipollini, who Guardini said was one of his inspirations when he was younger.
As he explained afterwards, he had an unusual thing on his mind during the stage. “I’m very happy for my Director Sportif Stefano Giuliani because he set a bet after stage two that if I win five stages, he would stop smoking. I’ve waited until the tenth stage to make that happen, so I’m very happy about that too. Of course I’m very happy to have won five stages in my first [pro] stage race, and also the points classification.”
In taking the latter, he beat last year’s winner, Anuar Manan. The Malaysian was psyched to equal his haul last year of a stage win plus the blue points jersey, but he came up against a quicker rival this time round. “Anuar was very determined to win the points classification in this race,” said Guardini. “Unfortunately for him he lost everything on stage 7 where he didn’t managed to sprint. He lost about 15 points…as for myself in the other hand, I was steady and because I scored points all the time I could take the jersey home.”
“I grew up watching the sprints of Mario Cipollini but I also quickly became a fan of McEwen and Mark Cavendish for the way they sprint. Very soon, five days from now, I will be at the Tour of Qatar sprinting against some of them. I’m looking forward to that after what I did here.”
Rahim Emami was another who spent a lot of time on the podium today. He took the best Asian rider award and was also part of the Azad University Cycling squad which won best Asian team. He said the latter gave the most satisfaction “The most important thing is to win team general classification,” he explained. “We had a bad ride in Cameron Highlands, our rider punctured in the last 10 kilometre and crashed in the downhill and he lost 2 – 3 minutes. I am so happy with this result.”
Second place in the overall general classification was taken by Libardo Nino Corredor, the oldest rider in the race. This fact led to praise from Monsalve, who said he was impressed by his strength and his long career. “I have a lot of respect for Libardo because he has raced a lot in the past until reaching 42 years old,” he said.
“I’m very happy to have beaten him. I really wanted to win because I prepared for this race since December. When I had a two second deficit to Libardo, I had to do the [intermediate] sprints; thanks to those sprints, I managed to beat him.”
How it happened:
After a festive atmosphere at the start in Shah Alam where the public had autographs signed and photos taken with the riders, 118 lined out for the final stage of the 2011 Tour de Langkawi. The 104.80 kilometre leg was mainly flat, with the exception of the fourth category climbs of Bukit Cahaya Alam (km 15.2) and Puncak Alam (km 20.6).
The stage would also feature three intermediate sprints: the first was at Paya Jaras (km 42.6), while the other two came on the second (km 78.8) and fourth (km 91.8) of six laps of the finishing circuit in Kuala Lumpur.
The stage was expected to end in a bunch sprint but that didn’t prevent early attacks by Rusli Amir Mustafa (Malaysia National Team), and then his team-mate Nur Misbah Rauf and Abbas Saeidi Tanha (Azad University).
The field came back together before ten kilometres of racing had been covered, and was still in one unit when the riders tackled the first of those mountain primes. Pengda Jiao (Max Success Sports Cycling) beat Mirsamad Pourseyedi (Azad Unversity) and Albert Timmer (Skil Shimano) to the top, while 5.4 kilometres later Pourseyedi was beaten by Loh Sea Keong (Malaysia National Team).
He had attacked between the two climbs in an attempt to take maximum points at the second, but it was not to be.
Rauf was himself feeling determined and broke away after that second climb. The move was negated and then Zainal Mohammad Zur Rizuan (Malaysia National Team) went clear for several kilometres. However everything came back together before the first sprint, where Mohammed Harrif Salleh (Terengganu ProAsia Cycling) took top points ahead of blue jersey Andrea Guardini and his own team-mate Anuar Manan.
Loh Sea Keong (Malaysia) clipped away 103 kilometres after the start and had the distinction of leading the race into Kuala Lumpur. He built a maximum lead of over 35 seconds, and was still ahead when the peloton crossed the finish line for the first time. The 24 year old was joined by Irish rider David McCann (Giant Kenda), only for both to be reeled in before the second sprint.
Manan had won the blue jersey last year and while he stated the day third overall in that classification, he was determined to fight until the end. He duly delivered in that second sprint, leading Boris Shpilevsky (Tabriz Petrochemical Team) and Salleh over the line and receiving huge cheers from the home crowd.
Benjamin Gourgue (Landbouwkrediet) tried his luck after that, riding clear, but everything was back together by the third and final intermediate sprint. Manan succeeded in taking top points there, again edging out Shpilevesky and Salleh.
Guardini was biding his time, knowing he had a big enough lead not to have to worry too much about Manan’s late charge. He said earlier in the race that he preferred to hold back in the intermediate sprints in order to save all his strength for the finish, and followed that tactic today.
He remained patient when Damien Gaudin (Europcar) attacked, relying on his team and others to reel the Frenchman in. He then uncorked his most dominant sprint win of the week, having time to stop pedalling, look back, and then thrown his arms in the air. Behind him Robert Forster (United Healthcare Pro Cycling) and Manan had to be content with second and third.
Race leader Jonathan Monsalve also crossed the line with his arms aloft. He finished close to main rival Libardo Nino Corredor and preserved his five second advantage, winning the race. He also took the mountains classification while Guardini and Rahim Emami (Azad University) were best in the points and Asian rider classifications, respectively.
Tabriz Petrochemical were best in the teams’ classification, beating Azad University and Chipotle Development Team, while Azad led home Max Success and Tabriz Petrochemical in the Asian team competition.
