A late crash in yesterday’s stage of the Tour de Langkawi halted Team Sky’s chances of contesting the victory with Andrea Guardini once again emerging triumphant.
Philip Deignan, Nathan Earle and Danny Pate were all involved in a large tumble in the last kilometre.
Guardini (Astana) held off late surges from Caleb Ewan (Orica-GreenEdge) and Jakub Mareczko (Southeast) to seal the win in Malaysia. Guardini has now extended his lead to eight seconds at the top of the overall standings, with all six Team Sky riders sitting within 20 seconds of the Italian with hillier stages to come.
Directeur Sportif Gabriel Rasch said afterwards, “It started raining in the last 10km and that meant the roads became super slippery. The pace was really high as we went under the flamme rouge and we’re guessing someone’s wheels just slipped out from under them. Nathan was one of around 10-15 riders immediately involved, and Philip and Danny also went down behind them.
“Thankfully, they are all OK though, and they should be good to go again in the morning.”
