Bos victorious in Langkawi opening stage
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ByEurosport
Updated 22/02/2013 at 10:52 GMT
Theo Bos was triumphant on the opening stage of the Tour of Langkawi as he lived up to the pre-race expectation on his shoulders with a fine sprint.
Bos wins stage one (Imago)
Image credit: Eurosport
Bos positioned himself on the wheel of his Blanco team-mate Graeme Brown coming into the final corner, and powered through with 400m to go to take the win on the 162.7km stage.
A number of teams looked to try and control the bunch with Aisan, Orica GreenEdge, Blanco and Garmin all very involved, but the Blanco riders controlled their finish perfectly.
Brown stepped aside with 300m to go, with the Dutchman having a free run at the finish line to complete a fine stage win and pull on the first leader’s jersey in Kulim.
Bos admitted after the stage that, while his team were not overly concerned about their approach into the final sprint, it took a significant effort to close the race out.
"I knew it was going to be difficult in the final because there are a lot of good sprinters," said Bos at the finish.
"Brownie went early, I thought it was still a kilo to go but then I looked up and saw 500m and we took the last two corners in front. He went really fast, we couldn't go any faster.
"I looked back and saw we had a small gap and went early," he added.
Europcar sprinter Bryan Coquard came closest to challenging Bos, but had to settle for second place with Andrea Guardini of Astana taking third.
Friday’s stage two sees the riders take on the shorter 116km route from Serdang to Kuala Kangsar, with the race having 10 stages in all and finishing with the Kuala Terengganu Loop.
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