Le Tour de Langkawi 2014 - Stage 2 Result

Theo Bos (Belkin) won a crash marred stage two of the Tour de Langkawi, ahead of his teammate and lead-out man Greame Brown.

Bos managed to avoid the chaos going on around him to take his first win of the season. Brown stayed in front of the remaining pack to snatch second with Marco Haller (Katusha) finishing in third.

Astana’s Andrea Guardini has had some big successes at the race, but couldn’t contest the sprint after being caught up in the incident. The Italian rider was seen in the back of an ambulance after the finish with a puncture wound in his foot. He is now a doubt to start stage three on Saturday.

Despite the joy at his victory, Bos gave little celebration in respect to his fellow competitors. “I don’t want to salute and be so much happy (because of the crash), some see it the other way,” he said at the finish. “There was many crashes. I hear on the corner to the left with 500 meters to go, no before, there was a crash and also in the last corner, behind me.”

Like a number of other sprinters Bos has come here to try and build up his win tally before returning to Europe saying that it is good for morale despite the level being higher at other races. “There are a lot of sprints and it’s not a super high level. Also for my team it’s important to get the number of victories up,” he explained. “I’d rather ride here than do Paris-Nice where you might be satisfied with a third spot. I’d rather win here. Paris-Nice is a very hard race for me.”

Race leader Carlos Quintero finished safely within the bunch to keep hold of his leader's jersey with Jonathan Clarke and Matt Brammeier sitting just behind him.

It was a relatively straight stage forward for the peloton, with two fourth category climbs to contend with. With no breeze to cool the air, the riders were in for a sweltering say. Five riders shot up the road, with the peloton happy to leave them go. They were Ho Junrong (Ocbc Singapore), Behnam Khalikhosroshahi (Tabriz Petro Chemical), Elchin Asadov and Tural Isgandarov ( Both Synergy Baku), Jiang Zhi Hui (Giant-Champion) and Rashid Ibrahim (Malaysia). They were caught within the final 10km, leaving the sprinters teams to do their work.

The tight windy finish caught many out, with more than 20 riders being involved in the crash.

Source: http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/le-tour-de-langkawi-2014/stage-2/results

RESULT

1 BOS Theo       Belkin-Pro Cycling Team
2 BROWN Graeme       Belkin-Pro Cycling Team
3 HALLER Marco        Team Katusha
4 KRUOPIS Aidis         Orica GreenEDGE
5 KOLAR Michael    Tinkoff-Saxo
6 ROGERS Rico       OCBC Singapore Continental Cycling Team
7 REGUIGUI Youcef      MTN - Qhubeka 4 2 ,,
8 BRAMMEIER Matthew     Synergy Baku Cycling Project
9 NISHITANI Taiji       Aisan Racing Team
10 KOCHETKOV Pavel   Team Katusha

35 BERHANE Natnael     Team Europcar

58 KUDUS Merhawi       MTN - Qhubeka