Joon Yong Seo (KSPO) took the biggest win of his career when he emerged as the strongest from an 8-rider breakaway in stage 5 of the Tour de Langkawi. The South Korean champion attacked his rivals with 9km to go and held off Jamalidin Novardiento (Pegasus) and Adiq Othman (Terengganu) after a hard chase while Caleb Ewan (Orica-GreenEDGE) won the sprint of the peloton and defended the overall lead.

The Tour de Langkawi is known as a sprint festival but traditionally the sprinters have given the attackers a chance to play at least once during Asia’s biggest stage race. After a couple of sprint finishes and with the queen stage coming up, it seemed that most of the riders wanted an easy day in today’s longest stage of the race and this turned the day into the career highlight of South Korean champion Joon Yong Seo.

After a blisteringly fast start to the stage where the riders covered almost 52km in the first hour, one of the many attacks finally paid off when Seo joined forces with 7 other riders to form the day’s break. The move was made up of 7 riders from small continental teams and neo-pro Sebastian Molano from the Colombia team and as they had all missed the big split on stage 3, they were far behind in the overall standings.

Hence, none of them were any threat to the Caleb Ewan’s overall lead and as no one seemed to be intent on spending too much energy in a very long stage one day before the race enters the hillier terrain, it quickly became clear that the escape would stay away. At one point, they were a massive 18 minutes ahead and only a bit of chase work from MTN-Qhubeka brought the gap down to 13.30 at the end.

With such a big gap, the attackers had lots of time to play the game of cat and mouse and the attacking started from far out. With 9km to go, Seo made a brave move and while his companions looked at each other, he got a gap.

Sea Keong Loh (Malaysia) set off in pursuit while the South Korean champion fought hard to maintain a 10-second advantage for a long time. While his chaser was brought back, no one was going to catch the in-form leader and he managed to cross the line with an advantage of 13 seconds over his chasers to take the biggest win of his career. Jamalidin Novardiento was the fastest of the rest as he beat Adiq Othman in the sprint to take the second place.

Caleb Ewan won the peloton’s sprint 13.38 later but it was enough to comfortable defend his 17-second lead over Natnael Berhane (MTN-Qhubeka). He takes that lead into tomorrow’s stage 6 which is a short flat affair. At just 96.6km, it has no categorize climbs and is expected to be one for the sprinters.

A flat stage

After another win for Guardini yesterday, the sprinters were again expected to come to the fore in the 200km stage 5 which brought the riders from Kuala Terengganu to Kuantan. There was a small category 4 climb at the midpoint and an uncategorized ascent inside the final 10km but otherwise it was an entirely flat affair along the coast.

The riders again had very hot conditions for today’s racing and they got the race off to a blisteringly fast start. With a strong tailwind, the riders were riding at an amazing speed while attacks came thick and fast in the opening part of the race.

The break is formed

After a little more than 5km of racing, Yasuharu Nakajima (Aisan) and Wang Bo (Hnegziang) got a promising gap but they were quickly reeled in. At the 21km mark, no one had managed to escape and when the riders reached the 30km mark after just 34 minutes of racing, it was still all together.

The riders covered 51.1km in the first hour of racing which had been dominated by lots of attacks but soon after the decisive move was formed. After 55km of racing, Juan Sebastian Molano (Colombia), Adiq Othman (Terengganu), Yasuharu Nakajima (Aisan), Patria Rastra (Pegasus), Jamalidin Novardianto (Pegasus), Joon Yong Seo (Giant), Meher Hasnaoui (Skydive) and Loh Sea Keong (Malaysia) were 13 seconds ahead while Ma Guangtong (Hengxiang) tried to bridge the gap.

A chase group takes off

The latter decided to sit up while the peloton slowed down after the fast start. At the 60km mark, the escapees were already 2.52 ahead and as no one was any threat to the GC, the advantage continued to grow.

Lian Bertazzo (Southeast), Ma Guangtong  and Wang Bo (Hengxiang) were the next to try to bridge the gap at a time when the gap was more than 4 minutes. Meanwhile, Novardianto beat Othman, Loh Sea Keong and Seo in the first intermediate sprint where the gap had grown to 6.50.

A massive gap

The peloton almost came to a standstill and so the gap was 11.35 at the 73km mark. While Seo beat Novardianto, Loh and Othman in the second sprint, Sky, Astana and Skydive were riding slowly on the front but the gap was now 14.55.

Southeast briefly tried to up the pace but as they got no help, they left it to MTN-Qhubeka to lead the peloton. The gap was now 18 minutes but the African team managed to bring it down to 15.34 at the 130km mark. Novardianto beat Seo, Loh and Othman in the final intermediate sprint and at this point, MTN-Qhubeka had reduced the deficit to 14 minutes.

A dangerous attack

Surprisingly, Francisco Mancebo (Skydive), Wang Meiyin (Hengxiang) and Jacques van Rensburg (MTN-Qhubeka) suddenly attacked and they managed to build an advantage of 40 seconds. However, the peloton quickly reacted and at the 154km mark, they were brought back.

The gap was still 14.10 and as the three chasers didn’t seem to make it, it was clear that the winner would be one of the escapees. Hence, the game of cat and mouse could start from far out.

The attacking started and with 9km to go Seo made his move. He quickly got a 10-second gap while Loh set off in pursuit. At the 6km mark, he was still 10 seconds ahead and as he managed to extend his advantage to 16 seconds with 2km to go, things were looking promising for the South Korean champion who held on to take the win.