Matteo Malucelli captures another Le Tour de Langkawi sprint victory on stage 3

Matteo Malucelli (XDS-Astana) swept up a second Le Tour de Langkawi sprint on stage 3 in Kuala Kangsar, once again crossing the line just ahead of Riley Pickrell (Modern Adventure).

It was a close photo finish once again, but maybe not quite as close as on stage 1, with the Italian who last year won three stages of the race now having taken every available opportunity to work toward topping that total in 2026. After Pickrell came through the line it was then a a more discernible gap to third-placed Seppe Van Den Boer, with the 20-year-old Tudor Pro Cycling development rider another on the team that has eagerly grasped the opportunity presented to test his limits at the Malaysian ProTour race.

It was a late charge for Malucelli this time, who was a little further back than expected when the peloton rounded the last left-hand corner at just under 800m to go, but his teammates managed to move him up in time for him to launch toward another victory.

“We took the last corner maybe two back, but Aaron [Gate] and Gleb [Syritsa} did a really good job, and I passed Pickrell just in the finish meter,” said Malucelli in an interview immediately after the line put out on the race livestream.

He added in the post-race media conference that he doesn’t like to start his sprint too far away from the finish line anyway.

“So I needed to to come back from from behind. It’s not easy but OK, n the last 20 meters I was faster, so I won again,” he said.

Lennart Jasch (Tudor Pro Cycling), who passed his first GC test with flying colours on stage 2’s ascent of Gunung Jerai, retained his grasp on the overall lead, though he will have to work to keep it through the next two climbing days with the Caja Rural-Serguros RGA duo of Abel Balderstone and Jan Castellon still just 20 and 38 seconds behind.

How it unfolded

The 189.7km stage from Sungai Petani may have put the fast men back in the spotlight, but also threw in a category 2 climb at 60km into the day of racing to ensure they didn't get too comfortable,

There was, however, no waiting to the climb to establish the break with Nur Aiman Zariff (Terengganu), Mervin Corpuz (7Eleven Cliqq), Imam Arifin (Nusantara Cycling), Danish Afdzal (Malaysia Pro Cycling) along with two riders from the Malaysia National Team, Chan Jian Le and Yusri Shaari, who was riding through his home town in Gerik out front.

Jian Le took the first intermediate sprint at 14.5km and then, on the jungle-lined roads, Zariff claimed the KOM. However, before the second intermediate sprint at Lawin, 115.5km into the stage and with 74.2km to go, he sat up and went back to the peloton. Shaari made the most of the familiar territory, claiming top sprint points this time as the peloton was starting to close, at 1:30 back by this point.

The break dwindled slowly, as did their time gap, as XDS-Astana and Modern Adventure could once again be seen putting riders up the front to chip away at the gap, which at 30km to go was around forty seconds to Arifin and Corpuz. They held on for the final intermediate sprInt at 25.2km to go, with the 19-year-old British rider Matthew Peace (Picnic PostNL) ducking out of the bunch to snare the final 1 second bonus.

Arifin remained out front for a little longer after that, and was then joined by Bold Iderbold (Wheel Top Rotor Chengdu) who ultimately continued on alone, holding out till around 9km to go. That gave the sprinters teams just a little time to get set for the run toward the line, and charge down the final straight which was lined with children from the roadside schools.

It was a day of trying to conserve energy for the climbers, given the crucial GC days ahead. The HC category Cameron Highlands and Genting Highlands climbs will provide plenty of opportunity to test for any weaknesses at the top of the overall on stage 4 and 5, and are bound to be decisive in the overall battle. The sprinters will turn their focus to beating the time cut rather than each other for the coming days.

More to come ....