Jeremy stays in the hunt
NST, 11/2/2008

ANOTHER bizarre finish unfolded in Stage Two of Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) yesterday as Credit Agricole’s Jeremy Hunt took victory after outsprinting a last ditch breakaway group of 10 riders.

It was a day that looked set to serve up the explosive bunch sprint that everyone had been waiting for, but instead two late attacks and a decisive third one spoiled it again as Hunt was the only big sprinter in the winning group who went away inside two kilometres to go in the 159.7-kilometre stage from Butterworth to Sitiawan.

The bunch hadn’t worked effectively to catch a two-man break featuring Meitan Hompo-GDR’s Yukiya Arashiro and Skil-Shimano’s Yoshimasa Hirose that had lasted from 72km into the stage until they were caught less than two kilometres from the finish.

In between there was a double chase attempt by Credit Agricole’s Nicolas Roche and NGC Medical-OTC Industria Porte’s Stefan Trafelet.

As soon as Arashiro and Hirose were caught, the 10-man break that contained Hunt surprised the sprinter’s teams and kept a good gap between themselves and the main peloton to the finish. It was 34-year-old Hunt’s first win since taking the GP La Marseillaise in France exactly a year ago.

“It was not an unexpected way to win as I’ve done it this way before. The split in the main group happened when there were crosswinds inside five kilometres to go and I only just made it into that group,” Hunt said.

“I’d come here with some good form as I’m coming from the Tour Down Under in Australia and I’ve had an advantage of putting in more training miles than most of the European sprinters stuck in the cold weather.”

Hunt outsprinted CSF-Navigare’s Matteo Priamo and Karpin-Galicia’s Gustavo Cesar to take the win, but the latter was the main beneficiary of the circumstances.

The yellow jersey for the overall lead remained on the back of Bouygues Telecom’s Matthieu Sprick, but due to Spaniard Cesar being part of the first group, the lead was cut to just three seconds with the Karpin-Galicia rider stating he’s already thinking of wresting it away from the Frenchman who is determined to not let that happen.

“Today (yesterday) our team had led the chase of the breakaway but we didn’t pull for the sprint. We just controlled it and that was why there were many attacks in the final kilometres,” said Sprick.

“As a spectator, I would say I’d like to see the yellow jersey change hands often, but as a rider, I want to keep it.”

Stage Three, the Tour’s longest stage at 209.4km from Sitiawan to Banting today, offers yet another enticing affair as for two days of flat stages in a row have already surprised with a lack of bunch sprints, with attacks succeeding both days.

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