KUCHING: Stage 1 of Petronas Le Tour De Langkawi (LTDL) was dominated by Kazakhstan’s Yevgeniy Fedorov of the VinoAstana Motors team with a solo finish to be the victor of the race here, yesterday.
The 19-year-old’s impeccable performance during the race was apparent when he swept a package of three leaders’ jersey on offer, taking the yellow jersey for the general classification lead, the green jersey for the point’s classification and the white jersey as the leading Asian rider.
Throughout the 85.6 kilometre race, Fedorov and Thailand Continental Cycling Team’s Thurakit Boonratanathanakorn formed an early breakaway partnership with Fedorov emerge victorious in the battle of two champion time trialist.
Fedorov, the reigning Asian under-23 individual time trial champion, upstaged South East Asian Games individual time trial champion Thurakit with a jump inside the final 500m to the finish, as the peloton trailed across the finish line a full minute and 17 seconds later.
Team Sapura Cycling’s Ahmed Orken led the peloton across the finish line to take third spot, while the best Malaysian finisher was Terengganu Inc-TSG’s Harrif Saleh in ninth spot.
In addition to that, BardianiCSF’s Matteo Pelluchi also took the red jersey as the leader of the mountains classification. According to Fedorov, his victory was an unexpected but welcomed surprise for him and his team.
“In Kazakhstan I’m usually training in the mountains, so I usually do not expect to win in the flat stages. It was quite a surprise. But I am proud of this victory. It is for the whole VinoAstana Motors team. The whole team is excited about this.
“I was here last year in this race and my teammate Vadim Pronskiy finished second, so this time we expect to mount a bigger challenge,” said Fedorov.
The Petronas Le Tour de Langkawi 2020 moves to Kuala Terengganu for Stage 2 tomorrow, which will cover 175.5km from Kuala Terengganu to Kerteh, a flat stage with three intermediate sprints in Chendering (KM21.8), Rantau Abang (KM73) and Bandar Al Muktafi Billah Shah (KM135.8) with a bunch sprint expected at the finish line in Bandar Baru Kerteh.
