Tour de Langkawi SPOILERS

[Flying_Monkey]

Okay, so I'm usually the only person who cares about this race (or Asian cycling in general) but more people may be paying attention this year as the race is now 2.HC and there is a good mix of World Tour, Pro-Conti, Conti and National teams, with some strong riders:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/2014-le-tour-de-langkawi-startlist

I'll be following the Berhane of Europcar, Grmay of MTN Qubeka and the Columbia and the Japanese Aisan squads in particular, but there's also some tasty sprints in the offing with Bos, Guardini, Bewley, Chicchi and Van Hummel amongst others. Oh, and the always, ahem, bafflingly strong Iranian Tabriz Petrochemical Team to add a bit of 'interest'...

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Well, the relatively short opening day (c.100km) actually proved to be pretty exciting with a breakaway succeeding and ending up with Duber Quintero of Columbia in the leader's jersey by more than 20 seconds. Second and third were Matt Brammeier (who has been all over, but he's now with Synergy Baku) and Jonathan Clarke of United Healthcare.

 

[lyn1]

Okay, so I'm usually the only person who cares about this race (or Asian cycling in general) but more people may be paying attention this year as the race is now 2.HC and there is a good mix of World Tour, Pro-Conti, Conti and National teams, with some strong riders:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/2014-le-tour-de-langkawi-startlist

I'll be following the Berhane of Europcar, Grmay of MTN Qubeka and the Columbia and the Japanese Aisan squads in particular, but there's also some tasty sprints in the offing with Bos, Guardini, Bewley, Chicchi and Van Hummel amongst others. Oh, and the always, ahem, bafflingly strong Iranian Tabriz Petrochemical Team to add a bit of 'interest'...

Do you know the justification for it being awarded .HC?

Just looked at the field for Sunday's K-B-K and it's many times stronger than Langkawi, but only .1

I just get confused with some of these classifications.

 

[rich p]

I had noticed that the field was stronger but hadn't realised the reason.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Do you know the justification for it being awarded .HC?

It's an established, strongly locally-supported, well-organised international race and the only one of its kind in SE Asia. In my view, not only should it be HC, it should have been awarded World Tour status before anything in China or the Arabian peninsula. But, money talks...

 

[The Couch]

strongly locally-supported, ...

Yeah, I saw that in a program on Belgian tv when they were following Pieter Serry las tyear. The flashes we got to see from this race, I saw that there was not only at the start and finish line a quite nice amount of people, but also in the towns they were passing. (while I would wonder if that's the case in China)

 

[rich p]

When I first started watching cycling it was a bigger race. I remember a very young Tom Danielson winning it with a fine turn of speed up the Genting Highlands. Now we know how he did it of course!

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Second stage finished in a sprint with Theo Bos taking it from Graeme Brown. Another sprint stage next, and then it will be the Genting Highlands - let's hope there are no Danielson-like performances...

 

[Flying_Monkey]

But Bos is beaten in Stage Three by Andrea Guardini (Astana). First win in a year, apparently - last one was at the 2013 Tour de Langkawi.

 

[beastie]

Is there any tv coverage? Or web based highlights?

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Well, it had to happen... dodgy as fark Tabriz rider, just back off a 2-year ban for EPO, wins the Genting Highlands stage over MTN's Kudus and United Healthcare's Bolivar...

 

[rich p]

Shades of the Tour of Turkey...

...Inevitably, there will be questions about his performance, though, as he returned to racing last summer after a two-year ban for EPO. Since his comeback. he has also won the Tour of Qinghai Lake

as the queen stage is won by Pourseyedi Golakhour - helluve name though.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/le-tour-de-langkawi-2014/stage-4/results

 

[rich p]

Me and the Monkey Man as one!

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Not many details available on today's stage yet, but we know that Bradley White got UnitedHealthcare's first win of the season from a breakaway over Tomas Rabou riding for OCBC Singapore and MTN-Qubeka's Louis Meintjes. Not sure how this affects the overall yet.

 

[martint235]

Is there any tv coverage? Or web based highlights?

Eurosport are showing some highlights but to be honest the programming seems very poor compared to other races. 19 mins for one show

I seem to remember this race being the season opener, far more important than the Tour Down Under but then they put a lot of money into making what is, to be honest, quite a boring race appear flashy and appealing.