Supreme Wang conquers HC finish to lead Langkawi

The Hengxiang Cycling rider won the 145.4km run from Sungai Siput which ended in Binchang in the Cameron Highlands by a mammoth two minutes 27 seconds from Julian Arredondo (Team Nippo-De Rosa).

Wang, who began the stage 20 seconds down on previous race leader Theo Bos (Blanco), holds a 2:43 lead from the Colombian after three days of the 10-stage race.

"This is the greatest day of my life," he said through a translator. "I just tried to do my best. I wanted to show myself today for Chinese cycling.

"I didn't think I could win today's stage but my feelings were very good. I had to time trial for more than 40km. In the last 5km I really wanted to win.

"We are a small team and everybody doesn't know us and that we could win a stage. They also don't know me and that's why I think I could win [today]. I was very lucky today."

Wang was among five riders in the day's early breakaway which also included Seo Keong Loh and Junrong Ho of the Singapore-based OCBC team, Harrif Saleh of Malaysian squad Terrengganu and Joon Yong Seo of Korean team KSPO.

The final 60km featured a steady climb to the end after a flat first part of the stage. Wang left his companions behind with 40km remaining - and no one could match him as he conquered an Hors Category climb to the finish 1,500m above sea level.

Loh took the first of three intermediate sprints with Saleh nicking the second and third ahead of the Cat.1 climb which preceded the HC finish.

Nathan Haas (Garmin Sharp) led the chase group, three minutes down on Wang.

"Our team will try for the final GC but we don't know about tomorrow," added Wang. "I think other pro teams will also want to take the final GC so we can maybe work together. We don't think we can win the final yellow [jersey] but we can try."

Haas said: "It's a very interesting race. The breakaway was under control, setting a really solid tempo up that climb with 40k to go and all of a sudden it went from five to six to seven to eight [minutes].

"It was a great ride to hold off. That was a hard day."