In addition to several one-day races and Paris-Nice in the weekend, this week offers two stage races, the Tour de Langkawi and the Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen. Every day we will offer you short previews of the stages at both the Malaysian and Belgian race.

Tour de Langkawi, stage 7:

The course:

The penultimate stage is the longest of the race as it will see the riders travel over 202.3km from Seremban to Parit Sulong. An early category 3 climb followed by one of the fourth category will test the riders’ legs in the first part of the stage but the final 130km are almost completely flat. In the finale, it is a slightly downhill run to the finish which is very straightforward as a turn with 2km to go leads onto a long, straight road that leads to the finish.

The weather:

Not much will change for Tuesday which will be a sunny day with a maximum temperature of 34 degrees at the finish. There will be a moderate wind from a northeasterly direction which means that it will be a crosswind almost all day. In the finale, it will be a tailwind until the riders will turn into a crosswind in the final turn.

The favourites:

Reinardt van Rensburg and Dimension Data had a big plan in today’s stage where they wanted to use the final climb to get rid of the sprinters and then set their South African fastman up for 10 bonus seconds and a stage win. At first, the plan failed as the final climb was much easier than they had expected and most of the sprinters survived the challenge. However, Miguel Angel Lopez’ bad luck now means that van Rensburg finds himself in the lead even if a collision with Andrea Palini prevented him from even contesting the sprint.

The change in leadership completely changes the dynamics of the race. Dimension Data were set to go all for bonus seconds in the intermediate and final sprints but now it will be all about defending the lead. Daniel Jaramillo and Miguel Angel Lopez are climbers and have no chance to change the outcome. Lopez cannot even target second place even though he is just 1 seconds behind Jaramillo as Unitedhealthcare have no less than three fast riders that can prevent him from scoring the necessary bonus second in one of the intermediate sprints.

That means that the battle for the overall win is now over and the final two stages will be all about stage wins. While the final stage is destined to end in a bunch sprint, tomorrow’s stage is slightly more complicated. It is a very long one and it is definitely not easy for 6-rider teams to chase all day at this late point of a hard race.

However, there are several sprinters that have won stages and they all believe that they can do so again. With no dominant sprinter in this year’s race, there are lots of teams that want it to be a sprint and with most of the stage being flat, this should be one for the sprinters. Dimension Data will have their eyes on the GC so they won’t do much but Astana, Androni, Southeast, Unitedhealthcare, Drapac and Skydive are all likely to lend a hand to the chase.

Today’s sprint was a very technical one but tomorrow’s finale is very straightforward. It’s a long, straight road which means that it is all about speed and less about lead-outs and acceleration. However, the distance might have taken its toll which should suit some of the stronger guys.

In this kind of finish, Andrea Guardini has to be the favourite. The Italian is the fastest rider here and he proved so in Kuala Lumpur where the finish was also all about speed. Today he decided not to contest the sprint as the finale was too hard and he saved energy for tomorrow’s stage. Of course he still has the disadvantage that he is completely isolated in the finale but he has done a great job at positioning himself. Unless he is completely out of position, this should be a stage for Guardini.

Andrea Palini has been sprinting really well in this race. He even managed to beat Guardini in stage 2 and in stage 5 he finished extremely fast, probably even faster than Guardini. Today he collided with van Rensbrug and so didn’t get the chance to sprint. He should find the long distance to his liking as he is stronger than most sprinters. He is isolated in the finale but great at positioning himself and he is probably the rider with the biggest chance to beat Guardini.

Today things finally came together for Jakub Mareczko. He has been out of position in the previous stages but today he managed to stay near the front in the final turns. No one has ever doubted his speed and it will be all about positioning. The win has boosted his confidence and he has the speed to challenge the two Andreas.

Today Drapac did a great lead-out but a mechanical prevented Brenton Jones from doing the sprint. They haven’t always done well with their trains but on paper they have the most powerful team here. At the same time, Jones is one of the fastest.

Unitedhealthcare also have a solid train and have already delivered John Murphy to a win once. The American is not as fast as some his rivals but with a great lead-out it won’t be impossible for him to win again. This kind of long sprint is also tailor-made for Francesco Chicchi who is supported by lots of fast riders. He is rarely in a good position but if he finally manages to overcome that problem, he has the speed to win.

Tinkoff have done some very good lead-outs but Michael Kolar and Erik Baska have missed the speed to win. They are probably not fast enough but due to the team support, they could very well end on the podium. Kolar missed the chance to sprint today due to a mechanical so we expect that he will again be the leader. Finally, we will point to Dylan Page who again confirmed his potential by sprinting to third in today’s stage. However, he probably needs a more technical finale to contend for the top spots.

CyclingQuotes’ stage winner pick: Andrea Guardini

Other winner candidates: Andrea Palini, Jakub Mareczko

Outsiders: Brenton Jones, Francesco Chicchi, John Murphy