Marco Haller usually plays the role of domestique but today he got a rare chance to sprint for himself in the opening stage of the Tour de Langkawi. However, it was an entirely bad day for the Austrian who saw the break stay away and suffered an unfortunate puncture near the end.

The first stage of the Tour de Langkawi was ad short one of 101 km only from Porto Malai to Pantai Chenang and finished unexpectedly with a victory of the rider from the breakaway group.

"The breakaway of 4 riders went away almost from the start and managed to hold its advantage till the finish line, taking the stage victory," Katusha manager Viacheslav Ekimov said. "Our plan was to take part in the bunch sprint with Marco Haller. But, he had a bad luck today, punctured with 5 km to go. So, finally Aleksandr Porsev took his chance and did a part of the bunch sprint."

Porsev finished 7th in the main group and finally got 11th place on the stage which won by Duber Quintero from Colombia who finished 11 seconds ahead of his escape partners and 1 minute and 18 seconds ahead of the main peloton.

The sprinters could get their first chance to sprint for the win tomorrow when another flat stage is scheduled.