Seo Joon Yong slayed the ghost of two years ago as he finally rose to the top step of the podium with his first ever stage after a solo attempt to take victory in Stage 5 of Le Tour de Langkawi 2015, at 200km the longest stage of this year's race from Kuala Terengganu to Kuantan today.

The 27-year old was part of a group of eight riders that launched an attack at 60km into the stage and went all the way with an uninterested peloton just managing to cut a gap that expanded to over 18 minutes at one point to 5 minutes and 20s at the finish line, as Seo rode solo for the last 25km to finish 13s ahead of second placed Jamalidin Novardianto of Pegasus Cycling, who ousprinted TSG's Adiq Husainie Othman to take second place.

Seo was only the second South Korean to win a stage in LTdL and the 11th Asian, as he stated his pride in finally winning.

Seo, Jamalidin and Adiq had earlier been joined by Malaysia's Loh Sea Keong, Pegasus' Rastra Patria, Colombia's Juan Sebastian Molano Benevides and Skydive Dubai's Maher Hasnaoui in the breakaway, but the South Korean's solo attack had left the others surprised and unable to react until it was too late.

"Two years ago in Kuantan, it was also a breakaway, but I lost in a sprint (to Colnago-CSF Inox's Marco Canola). So this time I didn't want that to happen again and I didn't want to let it end the same way. Thus at 25km to go, I decided to launch an early attack to try and win on my own," said Seo.

"I am proud of this win because it was hard-earned. Every year I come to LTdL and I try to do something. This time I managed to win a stage.

“I’m so proud of myself. Three years ago I got second place in Kuantan, only 11 Asian riders have won a stage here. I try to win every time I race the Tour de Langkawi and today I got the win.

“Today began very fast. I tried to follow the [breakaway] group and we worked well together and made a good gap. I was surprised at the time board, a very big gap of 14 minutes, [and thought] why is no one chasing? In the last 50km the gap was big and I thought today is a good chance for a stage win. Then with 25km to go I decided to break away.”