Andrea Guardini won stage two in a mass sprint, and keeps the leader's yellow jersey ahead of Caleb Ewan from Australia.

Maxat Ayazbayev,Bakhtiyar Kozhatayev, Andrey Zeits and Daniil Fominykh worked to control a breakaway that never went beyond three minutes.

Valerio Agnoli guided Guardini to his second consecutive sprint victory at the 2015 Tour de Langkawi.

“The other teams were fresher than us to make a sprint but I stayed at the front and I took the best train in the last kilometre, today Southest, and I sprinted really well,” said Guardini.

“Today there was a slippery road and for this I wanted to stay at the front with [Valerio} Agnoli, so I didn’t leave the first 10, 15 positions. Since we only had two riders in the final, we needed to stay in the front because with slippery road, rain, bad visibility, it was difficult for teams today.

"Our team had to work hard to catch the breakaway today and we were only helped by the other teams in the final 20km, but then we had a good sprinter. This time I had to make the move on my own and went to the front first, but I had good form and managed to stay ahead.

"I think Ewan is strong but maybe in this first two stages it didn't suit him. Tomorrow is a tough stage with a climb in the earlier part and he has a strong team to bring him up and go for the finish, so maybe tomorrow will be a good day for him.

“For sure Orica want to make a good start to drop me and maybe Mareczo. I have the jersey and there is the possibility to maintain it to the 6th or 7th stage but we will see tomorrow what happens on that climb.”

"We worked at the front all day, and with 10k to go it rained. In the last 500m Bakha crashed, same as yesterday," " Maxat Ayazbayev said.

Guardini now has 16 career wins in Malaysia, with six more stages until the finish in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday.