Benjamin Dyball wins in Langkawi

An entire calendar year of preparation for the 24th edition of Le Tour de Langkawi (UCI 2.HC) seems to be paying big dividends for Australian Ben Dyball (Team Sapura Cycling) as he rode off inside the final two kilometres to cross the Stage 4 summit finish atop Malaysia’s Genting Highlands for the win.

On Monday, Dyball told Eurosport he and his team had driven the climb a few days before the race, and was fully aware of the intense gradient spikes in the rise toward the finish.

“There will be big time gaps,” predicted Dyball, who finished third on GC last year after taking second on the Cameron Highlands queen stage behind eventual race winner Artem Ovechkin. “The last five or six kilometres are quite hard.”

Dyball’s assumption proved accurate, and according to the 29-year-old New South Wales native, there was comparison between Cameron and Genting when it comes to the level of difficulty of each.

“This climb is a lot harder than Cameron Highlands,” explained Dyball. “There was only maybe one or two kilometres that were hard on Cameron Highlands, but this climb was a good solid hour of climbing in the last 5km — so a bit ridiculous.”

The recently crowned Oceania Continental road race and time trial champion praised the efforts of his Moldovan teammate Cristian Raileanu, who was in an initial 12-man break that became 11 near the foot of the 25km queen stage climb, which returned to this year’s race after a four-year hiatus.

By the time the leaders reached the final 5km, the break had been reduced to three, including Dyball, who had previously bridged the gap.

“We had Cristian in the break and we caught him just about the perfect time with just about 6km to go,” Dyball told Eurosport. “He emptied himself for me and got to about 5km to go. The other two, the guy from Vino and Interpro started attacking. I just rode my own tempo until the last kilometre and a half and I just went from there."

The 23-second victory over 2018 Tour of Qinghai Lake (2.HC) winner Hernán Aguirre (Interpro Cycling Academy) gives Dyball a 27-second lead over the Colombian with four stages remaining in the eight-day 2.HC Asia Tour road race.

Dyball holds a 50-second advantage over American Keegan Swirbul (Floyds Pro Cycling), who bested fourth-place finisher Kazakh Vadim Pronskiy (Vino-Astana Motors) by 15 seconds on the day, with four stages remaining in the eight-day 2.HC Asia Tour road race.

“It’s not over yet, but it’s a comfortable enough gap,” claimed Dyball, who reclaims the yellow jersey for Sapura a day after his teammate and Stage 1 winner Marcus Culey (AUS) surrendered it to American sprinter Travis McCabe (Floyd’s Pro Cycling) on Stage 3 in Putrajaya.

“We can’t relax until it’s finished.”

For full stage and race results, click here.