Matteo Malucelli (XDS-Astana) once again flew over the line to take victory at the Petronas Le Tour de Langkawi on stage 4, making it a third win at the 2025 edition, already matching his tally of 2024 by the halfway point of this year's race.
The Italian sprinter came over the line ahead of Manuel Peñalver (Polti VisitMalta). It was Erlend Blikra (Uno-X Mobility) who took third on Wednesday's stage, to Kemaman, which took riders along the north east coast of Peninsular Malaysia, bringing with it regular views of palm-lined beaches.
"I started to sprint from the head of the bunch. Normally, I would prefer to follow another team's sprinter and come from the back," explained Malucelli in the post-podium media conference.
"But my teammate was really strong and [Lev] Gonov went from 1k to the last corner, and when we entered 350, metres to go, [Aaron] Gate did the perfect lead-out for me, and I did the sprint from the head and I won really well. So I am happy about it."
The sprint unfolded after the late catch of Malaysian champion Aiman Rosli (Terengganu Cycling), who was the last man standing from an early break of three and, unsurprisingly, was awarded most combative rider.
How it unfolded
The 141.5km stage started in the beachside city of Kuala Terengganu, home to the state-supported Terengganu cycling team who were lining up in front of the home crowd with the white jersey of the Best Asian Rider, a classification they have held since the beginning of the race – first with Malaysian Champion Aiman Rosli and then on stage 3 it moved to teammate Vadim Pronskiy.
The cool blue water was stretching out as far as the eye could see alongside the start line, but already the heat and humidity were starting to bite, shade at a premium and ice to cool the drinks a non-negotiable essential as riders got ready to tackle a flat day ahead, only interrupted by one category 4 climb at 15.3km to go.
A break of three escaped early, with Vojtech Kminek (Burgos BH), Yauheni Sobal (Chengdu) and Terengganu's Rosli giving the fans of their local team roadside something to cheer about. They shared the points and time bonuses from the first intermediate sprint between them, Rosli taking the top points. The trio stretched the gap to over two minutes and again swept up the second round of points in Dungun with 74.8 km to go, this time Kminek getting his turn to take the top points. While on intermediate sprint 3 at Paka, which came with 54.1km to go, Rosli again came to the fore.
After the third intermediate sprint, Kminek opted to go back to the peloton, which was being led by the team of race leader and stage 1 and 3 winner Matteo Malucelli, XDS-Astana, keeping the gap to the break under control.
The smooth riding was interrupted by a crash at 38.6km to go near the back of the peloton, around 10 riders coming down on a wide, smoothly surfaced road, but the race social media post said all were back on their bikes and riding.
Still, whether or not it was a direct result of the crash, there were three riders registered as DNFs at the end of the day: Josh Burnett (Burgos-Burpellet-BH), Nattapol Jumchat (Thailand) and Aleksandr Bereznyak (Chengdu).
By the time it was down to 30km to go, the gap was down to 1:05 but it seemed there was no urgency in the pursuit of reeling them back in and they actually stretched the gap out a bit further again to around 1:40 on the tree-lined roads heading toward the category 4 climb, which has just 2 points up for grabs for the first rider over the line and one for the second. The positioning of the break of two out the front meant Patrick Eddy's (Picnic PostNL) position in the lead of the King of the Mountains classification was safe.
Down to 10km and it was still around one minute between the peloton and now lone leader Rosli, who had pushed the pace hard in the dash for the line and dropped Sobal. He wasn't going to surrender easily, but the catch was made with just under 5km to go, and then the set-up for the sprint began.
Stage winner Malucelli was once again also in the leader's and points jersey, while Vadim Pronskiy (Terrengganu) retained the white jersey of the Best Asian Rider classification.
On Thursday, there is plenty of potential for a shake-up of the classifications, with a summit finish on Fraser's Hill, with the 123.1km stage expected to be decisive for the overall rankings.
