KULAI: It has been a while since Italian team Bardiani-CSF won a stage in Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL), but Manuele Tarozzi finally ended that wait when he took the win at Stage 6 of the race here yesterday.
The team, now called VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizane, celebrated their first stage win at this year’s LTdL when Tarozzi crossed the finish line after riding 123.4km from Batu Pahat to Kulai.
He finished ahead of EF Education-Easypost’s Stefan De Bod and Arvid De Kleijn of Tudor Pro Cycling Team.
Team Bardiani last won Stage 6 of the 2017 edition through Italian rider Enrico Barbin.
Making his second appearance in LTdL, Tarozzi of Italy said the stage race came down to the wire, with De Bod even having a quick chat as they made their final sprint to the line.
“After a good breakaway, De Bod, who has incredible speed, tried his best to catch up with me and told me that he just wanted to follow me, which was a tactic to overtake,” he said,
“But in the last 300m, I made a push all the way to the finish line and I won.
Tarozzi added that his team enjoy coming to Malaysia as part of their season-ender as the race route has good sprint sections, and he himself enjoys the hot weather here.
“My team like to come to Malaysia, they come here every year. But for me, it’s just my second time.
“It’s a nice country, but it is very hot here, thankfully I enjoy the hot weather,” he said.
Meanwhile, Stage 4 and 5 winner De Kleijn, who has 54 points in the oranger jersey (best sprinter) classification, was disappointed that he could not get another stage win in Kulai.
“I’m disappointed that the race didn’t end in victory for me, but my team helped me pull through till the end even though I could not close the gap with the two riders in front.
“But we have once again proved that we have the strength in pulling riders and high-quality sprinters. I only won within the large group today which is a positive takeaway,” said De Kleijn.
British rider Max Poole retained his green jersey (overall leader) after crossing the line in 33rd out of 103 riders.
The cavalcade departed for Miri yesterday as they prepare to tackle Stage 7 of the race from Miri to Bintulu, which is the longest leg of the race, covering a distance of 199.3km.
– The Star
