Up-and-coming dynamite Caleb Ewan has won the bunch sprint on stage six of theTour de Langkawi.

The victory is Ewan’s second for the race following his success on stage three and increases the 20-year-old’s overall lead to 27seconds going into the penultimate and queen stage tomorrow.

Unlike the select sprint victory on Tuesday, after a well-executed lead out by hisORICA-GreenEDGE team, Ewan was too strong for a fresh bunch after the short 96.6km stage.

“Obviously today was really good to get to sprint against all the sprinters and win,” Ewan said. “It gives me a bit of a confidence boost going into the last stage.”

“The boys absolutely nailed the lead out.  You couldn’t see the finish until the last 150metres so we knew we had to jump before the corner and they lead me out pretty much into it, I got a good line through and won from there.

“Actually it was one of the more comfortable sprints I’ve had, it was more comfortable than the last stage win, so that’s a good sign for the next few races.

“We made a few mistakes in the past few stages but we really nailed it today so it feels really good to get the win. We were really strong in the last 5km and tried something different, staying more out of the bunch so it was easier for me to sit in. The guys were just so strong in the last 5km and they did it perfectly.

"It was a good sprint and my team led me out well. I was in a good position to make the jump and I just went for it. I was looking out for Guardini, but then I saw he had some trouble and wasn't coming up, so I just gave it my all."

Behind the neo-pro, the podium was completed by Jakub Mareczko (Southeast) and Chris Sutton (Team Sky). Three-time 2015 Tour de Langkawi stage winner Andrea Guardini finished fifth.

Sport director Matt Wilson said the collective work of the entire team delivered Ewan to the impressive victory.

“I said after his first stage win the other day that it would be really great for Caleb, and for confidence heading over to Europe, to take a scalp like Guardini and that is exactly what he has done,” Wilson said.

“The lead out went perfectly. With such a short stage a lot of teams had a lot of fresh guys to do the sprint and that made it really messy but the guys stayed together, controlled it all and put Caleb in the right position.

“Caleb knew when he had to sprint, he had to sprint before anyone else and that’s what he did.”

Today’s stage was never threatened for the sprinters. 

At just 96.6km in length with no categorised climbs and little ascending, the journey from Maran to Karak was an easy one for the sprint teams to control.

And that they did, with Astana taking the responsibility at the head of the peloton when four escapees established the main break of the day, allowing them a minimal 90seconds advantage at best.

Later, ORICA-GreenEDGE joined the party and with 20km remaining the gap was one minute, eventually ending the break’s day with five kilometres to ride.

Tomorrow’s queen stage, which was originally scheduled to finish at the summit of the Genting Highlands, has been re-routed to finish atop Fraser’s Hill due to weather damage.

The new 180.8km penultimate stage is not as difficult as its precursor, but just as crucial for the general classification battle.

"I can climb a bit on my day, biut I'm not a really good climber. I'll see how it goes, but for sure I will fight to keep the yellow jersey all the way.

“It would be really nice to bring home a jersey from my first international tour as a professional, so that would be a really good outcome. We came here with the aim of winning one stage and now we’ve won two, and have the blue jersey, so we have really exceeded our expectations.”

“I’ll hope for it and if it happens it happens but if it doesn’t, then I never came into the tour expecting it, so I’m not going to put any pressure on myself tomorrow.

“For me to win the yellow jersey or keep it tomorrow the race is going to have to go my way and I’ll have to have really good legs. I know it’s probably not really a possibility but I’ll go in and I’ll go hard and we’ll see what happens.”